The faithful come across the world to get a blessing from the Pope in St. Peter’s Square. The faithful should visit a shop just after receiving the Pope’s blessing right across the Square (in fact, just in front of the Pope’s window itself). The classic store that has been, for more than half a century, an almost mandatory stop for every pilgrim visiting Rome —the famous Mondo Cattolico store, founded in 1952. Most pilgrims, right after receiving the pope’s blessing, would walk only a few steps to get there and purchase all kinds of Catholic religious articles like a rosary, cross, an icon, or a statue of their patron saint. Others purchase other kinds of souvenirs (small reproductions of some of the great Italian Renaissance masterpieces, for example).
The custom of bringing objects to St. Peter’s Square so they are blessed on Sundays has a very specific origin: it goes back to December 1969, when Paul VI stood at the window and blessed the figurines of the Infant Jesus Roman children had brought with them. This soon became a typical Roman tradition that is still alive today. As we read on the website of the very same Mondo Cattolico store, “Every year, on the third Sunday of Advent, a multitude of children from the different dioceses of the world gather in St Peter’s Square, turning their Infant Jesus crib figurine upwards during the Papal Blessing.”
Some pilgrims visit the store before the blessing, and bring the religious objects they buy with them to the square, so the objects themselves are blessed during the event.