A Butler County native who is a reporter for a TV news station in New York met Pope Francis Sept. 25 in a brief private audience that family members say left them overjoyed.

Robert Moses, a reporter for Fox 5 New York, received the surprise audience after the pope celebrated Mass at Madison Square Garden.

Moses, who is grandson of Merril Moses and the nephew of Tim and Larry Moses of Moses Jewelers, was born in Butler County and moved to New Jersey at a young age with his father, Tom Moses, a vice president and chief laboratory research officer at the Gemological Institute of America.

Moses was invited to the Mass by silversmith Adrian Pallarols, an Argentinian and longtime friend of Pope Francis, after Moses covered the story of how Pallarols created the chalice used by the pontiff during that Sunday’s Mass at the Garden. The chalice was created using silver jewelry donated by people from across the country.

After the Mass, Francis whisked Moses and Pallarols into a brief private audience. According to a report that Moses wrote for the station’s website, Moses shook the pope’s hand, hugged him, and asked him to pray for his loved ones while promising to pray for him and wishing him safe travels.

“He gave me a gift for which I will never be able to adequately thank him,” Moses wrote in his story on the experience.

Larry Moses called the private audience “the thrill of a lifetime” for the Moses family, who are devout Catholics.

“I can’t tell you the sensation you get when a family member gets to hug the pope,” Moses said. “It would be like a sports fan being with a hall-of-fame member.”

He called his nephew a “personal, charismatic” reporter who had been focused on a career in journalism from a young age.

Robert Moses was not available for comment.