By Michael Motes

Special To the Georgia Bulletin

Only two weeks before his death, Pope Paul VI received Mrs. Lillian Carter, mother of the President, in a private, half-hour audience at his summer residence at Castelgandolfo, Italy.

Prior to the visit, Mrs. Carter had said that the audience would fulfill "the dream of my life." She added at a press conference in Rome on July 20, three days before her Papal audience, "His Holiness means as much to me as he does to you Italians."

Shortly after the death of the Holy Father, we wrote to Mrs. Carter and asked if she would share with our readers her reflection on this event.

We requested a telephone interview, which Mrs. Carter graciously declined, as explained in the following handwritten letter from the President's mother.

"As I entered the room, the Pope entered from the opposite door with his hands holding out toward me.

"He sat me down and sat on the other side of the desk.

"I gave him Jimmy's (the President's) letter and through the Monsignor, he told me he'd wait and read it during his rest period.

"In our conversation, I told him I was on my way to Africa to the Sahel drought area and asked for his prayer for rain there.

"Once he raised both hands and said, 'I am old and I am ready to go to the arms of God.' I told him: 'Holy Father, if you go before I do, will you tell him about me?' He smiled and answered, 'If you will do likewise if you go first.'

"I asked his blessing on a young priest who is my friend and also on some things I had brought for a Philippino friend and the young priest and other things.

"He blessed them and ME and a strange thing happened to me!

"I felt that I was in the presence of God -- and as soon as I reached "The Gambia" (Sahel district) it rained and everywhere I went, it rained.

"I am not Catholic, but I am sure that this was no coincidence.

"I'm sorry I could not talk about this by phone, as I get emotional when I talk of this -- my greatest experience."

During the audience, Pope Paul presented Mrs. Carter with a medal of his papacy and a book on the Vatican and Christian Rome.