Happy 25th Anniversary Pope John Paul II

[Coleus]

distinction of entering and exiting the 20th century soaked in the blood of war. John Paul could have beatified Merz in the grandeur of St. Peter’s Basilica or the embracing splendor of St. Peter’s Square, as his predecessors would have during the last war. Thus, he added more

t was a blistering June day in Banja Luka, the capital of the Serb Republic part of divided Bosnia-Herzegovina. The worst heat wave in many decades had enveloped the whole continent, from Moscow to the east to the Portuguese island of Madera to the west.

Inside Banja Luka’s modern cathedral, the faithful waited for Pope John Paul II. It was the last stop of an intense 10-hour visit to the city that was one of the scarred symbols of the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.

Soon the rumble of car engines and military helicopters above was heard. The pope had arrived. As he sat on a wheeled mobile throne, aides drenched with sweat pushed him from the main entrance to a side altar. They had expected him to pray before the tabernacle while remaining seated on the “papal trolley.” But he gave them a sign. He

wanted to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament just like in the old days, before his right leg gave way to crippling arthritis and hip problems. As they helped him rise and then lowered him ever so gently onto a prie-dieu, the man once known as “God’s athlete,” who climbed mountains and kicked soccer balls, was reduced to pitiful helplessness by a gesture as simple as kneeling.

The day trip to Banja Luka was the pope’s 101st foreign pastoral visit. Even years ago, when he was still healthy and vigorous, people often asked: “Why does the pope travel so much? Why doesn’t he just stay at home?” The simple answer, then as now, is that there are Catholics outside of the Vatican.

Perhaps more than anything else, foreign trips have been the hallmark of John Paul’s papacy. In the case of Banja Luka, the purpose of the trip was to beatify Ivan Merz, a 20th century layman who dedicated his

urgency to his message and more poignancy to his preaching than any Renaissance master’s backdrop could have provided. John Paul likes to create saints and blesseds within sight of the houses where they lived, the churches where they prayed, the battlefields where they were killed and the cemeteries where they were buried.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PETER
By leaving the Vatican for far-flung places, John Paul II honors local churches and gives people there models who can inspire them and help shape their lives. But most of all, he makes all these trips to remind people that they, too, are a part of the Church. He does it to show them that he is humble enough to come to them, even if it is half way around the world.

Last June 12, the pope held a special audience in the Vatican’s frescoed Sala Clementina for the 50 or so reporters who were aboard the papal plane for his 100th foreign trip, a five-day visit

CNS Photo from Reuters

life to religion. It was also to launch another appeal for reconciliation in Bosnia, a country that had the grim	to Croatia that had ended three days earlier. His address offered a rare glimpse into the mind of Karol Wojtyla, a personal answer from him to us to

The pope told those assembled: “From the day of my election as bishop of Rome on Oct. 16, 1978, the command of Jesus echoed deep inside of me with particular intensity and urgency: ‘Go to the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ I felt the duty to imitate Peter the Apostle…to confirm and consolidate the vitality of the Church in fidelity to the Word and the service of truth, to tell everyone that God loves them, that the Church loves them, that the pope loves them and to receive from them the encouragement and example of their goodness, of their faith.”

So, the pope told reporters, his trips have been a give-and-take. He is rejuvenated by them, and feels as refreshed and grateful as his listeners.

The pope’s most recent trips, such as those to the Balkans in 2003, are equivalent to a follow-up medical exam. He is checking up on what has transpired in the Church there since an earlier visit. Those in the first half of his papacy were more like shock treatment or emergency room triage.

CHANGING HISTORY’S TIDE
Historians have ample material to show that in a number of cases, early papal trips had a direct effect on events that changed the course of history. The most obvious example is Poland and the consequences events there had for the rest of Eastern Europe. It is impossible to overstate the significance Poland had on the life of the pope and equally impossible to overstate the significance he has had in modern Poland. He was the main supporter of the Solidarity union when the Gdansk shipyard strikers, led by an electrician with a walrus moustache, sent shock waves throughout the Soviet bloc. The Polish pope backed Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and the strikers from his powerful world pulpit in Rome. His support was unflagging. It did not bend

even in the dark days of martial law, when Washington was getting weak-kneed about events in Poland, fearing they would unsettle relations with Moscow. The pope saw things differently. The man who had lived under Nazism and communism saw that the time was ripe and never took his eye off the prize — a Europe free of totalitarianism and the artificial divisions of Yalta.	Polish president and won the Nobel Peace Prize. The unthinkable had happened. Just as in Czechoslovakia, a man who had been jailed by the Communists was now occupying the nation’s highest office. Many people believe it would not have happened if the pope had not been elected when he was and if he had not made his first triumphant trip to Poland in 1979. Walesa would later write:
ways he believed were wrong. He lamented galloping materialism, deep social divisions and cracks in basic traditional values that had come hand-in-glove with capitalism. IMPACT IN ASIA While Poland is perhaps the most emblematic case of the pope’s effect on history, other areas have changed as a result of papal trips. He first visited the Philippines, Asia’s only predominantly Catholic country, in 1981. The visit helped galvanize the local Church’s courage to continue its peaceful opposition to dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda. In 1985 and 1986, Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila and his bishops, using the Church’s Radio Veritas network, virtually stage-managed the “people power” revolution that led to the ouster of Marcos. Almost exactly nine years after the start of the Gdansk shipyard strikes, the Iron Curtain — whose northern end Winston Churchill had envisioned starting precisely at Gdansk — was no more. What transpired in Poland started a domino effect that no one could stop. Walesa became the	“The pope showed us how numerous we were and showed us the strength and power we had if we joined together as one.” In later trips home, the pope expressed disappointment that his countrymen were using their newfound freedoms in ways he believed were wrong. He lamented galloping materialism, deep social divisions and cracks in basic traditional values that had come hand-in-glove with capitalism. IMPACT IN ASIA While Poland is perhaps the most emblematic case of the pope’s effect on history, other areas have changed as a result of papal trips. He first visited the Philippines, Asia’s only predominantly Catholic country, in 1981. The visit helped galvanize the local Church’s courage to continue its peaceful opposition to dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda. In 1985 and 1986, Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila and his bishops, using the Church’s Radio Veritas network, virtually stage-managed the “people power” revolution that led to the ouster of Marcos.

Elsewhere in Asia, the pope visited East Timor and spoke of human rights, freedom of religion, and self-determination of peoples. Bishop Carlos Belo was the leader of the repressed Catholic community when the pope visited in 1981 and the territory was still under the grip of Indonesian rule. Bishop Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 and helped lead East Timor to independence in 2002. The pope taught Bishop Belo to keep his eye on the prize too. CASTRO’S CUBA Fidel Castro is one dictator who has yet to fall as the result of a papal visit and a resulting wave of people power. The pope’s historic visit to Cuba in 1998 went well for Castro. The ruler shed his military fatigues in favor of a double-breasted gray suit, starched white shirt and gold cufflinks. He attended papal events looking like a meek grandfather at a family wedding. The bearded elder statesman of Marxism gave the Church concessions before and during the trip — including reinstating Christmas as a national holiday for the first time since the 1959 revolution. Dissidents were allowed to have their say during the trip. Astonishingly, cries of “Freedom, Freedom” were heard during the pope’s Mass in Revolution Square, where a mural of Christ was put up on one building to stare down an image of Che	Guevara on another. The pope, who lent Castro a hand during the trip by condemning the U.S. embargo, said later he hoped that his visit would inspire opponents of communism as his first trip to Poland had in 1979. It has not yet happened. Five years after the historic visit, the Vatican expressed concern that reforms had not moved ahead quickly enough in Cuba, and, in some cases, things seemed to be moving backward. The pope’s seven trips to the United States, and his many trips to other highly developed nations such as Canada, Australia and the “post-Christian” countries of Western Europe, have always been a particular challenge for him. He reminds Americans that they have been blessed with many things, including the privilege of being the standard-bearers of freedom. Hoping his pronouncements could have long-term positive effects, he has pulled no punches in warning Americans to beware of the deep decay in moral values that often accompanied prosperity. He aired particular distress about how a society as wealthy as that of the United States could have so much social inequality and poverty within its borders. INTO AFRICA One place that changed little in the past 25 years of papal visits is Africa. The continent is still mired in the same grinding poverty,	backwardness, civil strife, war and corruption that the pope began denouncing in 1980, when he made the first of his 12 visits there. Still, he has never stopped speaking about Africa’s problems before an international community that often considered the continent beyond repair. The Vatican likes to issue numbers every time the pope travels. At the end of his trip to Croatia in early June — his 100th overseas — we were told he had visited 129 countries at least once; had traveled 720,800 miles or the equivalent of 29 times the circumference of the earth and more than three times the distance between the Earth and the moon. He had spent 575 days and 12 hours — a whopping 6.4 percent of his pontificate — outside Italy. But the numbers meant little to the 4 million people who turned out to see him in the Philippines in 1995, or to the fewer than 200 Catholics in all of Kazakhstan, where he visited in 2001. For them, the important thing was that he came. Philip Pullella, a correspondent for Reuters in Rome, is associate editor and lead writer of the recent book Pope John Paul – Reaching Out Across Borders, published in the United States by Prentice Hall. He has traveled on 79 of the Holy Father’s 101 trips.

n May 22, 2002, Pope John Paul II declared, “I have come to Azerbaijan as an ambassador of peace. As long as I have breath within me I shall cry out: ‘Peace, in the name of God!’ And when word joins word, a chorus is born, a symphony, which will spread to every soul, quench hatred, disarm hearts.”	dream of peace shared by the weak. We know what political peace means, whether it be Pax Romana, Pax Germanica, Pax Britannica or Pax Americana. We know little about the peace proclaimed to all people by the angel who appeared to the poor shepherds and announced the truth shining from the baby lying in a manger.

JOHN PAUL’S FIGHT FOR PEACE
For John Paul II, peace is a gift of truth, to which all people are entitled and from which the identity of all people comes. For this reason, John Paul II’s fight for peace starts by reminding us that the return to truth is like the return to one’s family home. Yet there are men who bend the truth to advance their own interests and who will resort to violence. Consequently, those who fight for truth to bring about peace must learn how to suffer for

For John Paul II this is fundamental: Peace comes from truth and from the love of truth. This truth and the love for it is now and must always be a source of unity among people and never a sign of division. Truth is one and the same for everyone, or it does not exist at all. If there is no universal truth, but only opinions imposed by the strong on the weak as if they were truths, then there is only a “so-called” peace maintained by the powerful, and the

justice. Justice meets peace within love: the Lord “will speak peace unto his people…mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps 85). Love, therefore, must also know how to suffer. The road to truth, freedom and peace leads through the Beatitudes, the blessings of the Sermon on the Mount. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon two years ago this Sept. 11 remind us that we live not in peace but in a state which St. Augustine called the “shadow of peace” (umbra pacis). It is the peace of evil men (pax iniquiorum). This “shadow of peace” affects the lives of individuals and societies. It functions as if it were the peace that people dream of and desire. But this “shadow” becomes longer as men move farther from the “sun” of truth, freedom, love and justice. In the process they alter the very meaning of these concepts, severing their connection with reality. Men become dependent on personal interests and, without much resistance, mere opinions come to rule their lives. Within such a society, any opinion can function as if it were truth, any judgment can be deemed just, and any manipulation of another can be defined as love.

Some may insist that when men repeatedly call a lie the truth, the lie becomes the truth. That this way of thinking is a source of war is apparent in the ascendancy of the Nazi regime in Germany. But peace can occur only where all men look toward the same truth — a truth that unites them as one pilgrim nation. The truth of each person exists within that person and shapes the drama of his or her identity and personal history. This unique personal truth meets the truth of all other persons in the consciousness of God. As such, each human life and human destiny is present to God who is ordering it into a meaningful and beautiful whole. In this divine landscape, everything aims to the One. As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “The ultimate end of the universe is Truth.” From this truth derives all duties and rights of man — and especially the duty to seek peace.

John Paul II understands that wars are conceived inside of us. The man who would create peace must fight for it especially within himself. That is why peace is so difficult. When a man is defeated in this fight within himself, he becomes an ally of the strong who continue to wage war, using arms as well

as the “shadow of peace.” If the defeated seeks revenge, he too becomes unjust because he does not treat the winner as a human being, that is, he does not forgive him through love. From this injustice, from this lack of love, are planted the seeds from which a new war will arise. It is difficult to be free while living under the oppression of the winner, but it is even more difficult to do so and not to seek to crush the winner out of a desire for revenge. Abraham and the prophets were looking for witnesses of truth, who were just men who sought this difficult freedom. Only the witnesses and martyrs of truth can help truth save the world from destruction. They are the “salt” that preserves the world; they are the “yeast” that allows men to develop in a meaningful and harmonious way (see also Matt 5:13; Luke 13:21). These martyrs of truth do not lose all hope because they sense like St. Augustine the anxious heart in every man. “Our heart, O Lord, cannot be quieted till it finds repose in You” (Inquietum est cor nostrum, Domine, donec requiescat in Te). This anxious heart leads man to God. The anxious heart points man in the direction toward true peace. Therefore, the problem of peace is not a problem that we can solve by ourselves. The problem of peace is the problem of the mystery of man’s belonging to God who is present in the truth of every man. Peace is the mystery of our personal identity. And mysteries are not solved the way problems are solved; mysteries can only be lived. God alone can solve the mystery of man’s anxious heart. He does so by giving himself to man. Peace is such a gift. The problem of peace is that man has not yet learned to accept it as a gift of God. “If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me something to drink,’ you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). The gift of peace cannot be identified with a specific object, one that can be reproduced and owned. Peace happens within man when he cares for the truth that appears within him

and within other men. Peace permeates the man who seeks truth. But asking for the gift of peace, without also demanding truth, only brings us further away from true peace. In other words, peace has a moral character. Man has not only the right to peace, but also, and perhaps above all, the duty to take care of peace. BE VIGILANT John Paul II has spent the past 25 years asking us to be vigilant about peace. The urgency of his message has increased in recent years. For him, everyone has the duty to care for peace. Peace demands a great responsibility. “Blessed are the peacemakers!” John Paul II emphasized this in his 1982 World Day of Peace message when he said, “While peace is a gift, man is never dispensed from responsibility for seeking it and endeavoring to establish it by individual and community effort, throughout history. God’s gift of peace is therefore also at all times a human conquest and achievement, since it is offered to us in order that we may accept it freely and put it progressively into operation by our creative will.” It may seem that John Paul II has the task of being a fireman of sorts, whose mission is to travel from continent to continent to extinguish fires. It is a difficult task because these fires start in man’s heart and conscience, and it is there that they have to be extinguished. John Paul II, pilgrim for peace, speaks to the hearts and consciences of all. Peace is truly the essence of John Paul II’s mission as pope. For him, the truth of peace is Christ while the sign of this peace is the Church. As he explained in his 1986 encyclical on the Holy Spirit: “Since the way of peace passes in the last analysis through love and seeks to create the civilization of love, the Church fixes her eyes on him who is the love of the Father and the Son, and in spite of increasing dangers she does not cease to trust, she does not cease to invoke and to serve the peace of man on earth” (Dominum et Vivificantem, 67).

John Paul II knows very well, as he noted in his Jan. 1 message in 1984, that peace and human justice are fragile. “Peace is fragile, and injustice abounds.” In 1986 he said: “Peace…is threatened in so many ways and with such unforeseeable consequences that we must endeavor to provide it with secure foundations.” Ten years later, he noted that even if “at times peace appears a truly unattainable goal…we must not lose heart.”	We are all responsible for peace. The motto of St. Benedict written in the prologue to his Rule — “Seek peace: pursue it!” — is directed to us all. John Paul II observes: “Peace can be decided by a few men,” but it “presupposes a joint work of all.” The solidarity required for peace requires each person to create interior peace. The person who is not at peace within himself cannot further peace among others. Peace is each person	asks them to cultivate politics, and hence he asks them to pursue a politics of a culture that leads to peace. He also tells us that peace happens only where man’s conscience is respected. “If you want peace, respect the conscience of every person.” If you want peace, live according to your conscience, that is, live in freedom! “To be free is to be able to choose and to want to choose; it is to live according
		to one’s conscience.” Politics that do not respect freedom of conscience and of religion result in a denial of the foundations of peace and,therefore, ultimately lead to war.
The pope in particular does not lose heart. Wherever he senses and sees fear, he repeats the words of Jesus, “Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). Peace takes place among men who are at the “service of truth.” Everyone has the duty to serve truth. We can serve truth by living in a dialogue with others. To learn how to	living for the other. For John Paul II, the person of Christ is a peace of all living for all. Where this communion of persons is not present, no one can be sure of another, and no nation can rely on another. When John Paul II says, “Open up new doors to peace. Do everything in your power to make the way of dialogue prevail over that of force,” he asks politicians to guarantee the right as well as the duty of citizens to seek the truth. He	PEACE: OUR PROMISED FUTURE The politics of peace are difficult. In his Angelus message on Jan. 20, 2002, John Paul II said, “Following the tragic attack last Sept. 11, always present in your memory, and given the risk of new conflicts, believers are aware of the urgency to intensify their prayer for peace, because this is, above all, a gift of God.” But to truly pray for peace is not easy. St. Stephen created
do this, it is not necessary to study textbooks. St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who are cited by John Paul II as examples, lived in dialogue with others because they opened themselves to the truth of the Gospel. In this way they were able to reach human hearts.

do this, it is not necessary to study textbooks. St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who are cited by John Paul II as examples, lived in dialogue with others because they opened themselves to the truth of the Gospel. In this way they were able to reach human hearts.

peace when he asked God to forgive those who were stoning him. Only by forgiving can we hope that we also will be forgiven. But to forgive does not mean to forget. If we forget the tragic day of Sept. 11, we may not even notice when we will start hurting others. Those who forget Auschwitz or the Siberian camps risk building them again. But memory alone is also dangerous. During Mass at the site of the Nazi concentration camp at Birkenau on June 7, 1979, John Paul II said: “I go down on my knees in this Golgotha of today’s world.” We have to remember the Golgothas of every murder while on our knees. Any other type of memory can be a source of war. A prayerful memory is born in

hearts that are rooted, as the Holy Father says, “in a spirit that believes in the possibility of reconciliation and in peace.” Peace is our promised future. We work toward it in times of war, following in our hope the words of the prophet: “They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, no longer will they learn how to make war. But each man will sit under his vine and fig tree with no one to trouble him” (Mic 4:3-4). “For God is a God not of disorder but of peace” (1 Cor 14:33). Stanislaw Grygiel is a professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome.

n 1962 Karol Wojtyla wrote a poem entitled “Marble Floor.” One of its verses says, “Peter, you are the floor, that others may walk over you…not knowing where they go. You guide their steps.” For 25 years, Pope John Paul II, as Peter, has been the solid foundation that has guided the steps of the Church. In no area has this been truer than in his ministry to families. Institutional advancements have been many and profound — the Pontifical Council for the Family; the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family (now with campuses around the world, one of which in Washington, D.C., we support); four World Meetings of Families with the pope; and historic documents on the dignity and rights of the family including Familiaris Consortio, the Letter to Families and the Charter of the Rights of the Family. This enhanced concern for the welfare of families comes at a moment in history in which families are under unparalleled attack not only from legal changes regarding abortion, divorce and marriage, but also from economic and tax treatment of families and the diminished role of parents in the education and moral upbringing of their children. Pope John Paul II’s key insight is that concern for the family must be at the center of the new evangelization. While this has been a consistent theme to pastors of the Church, in too many places more still needs to be done to give “priority” to the care of the family. Recently, the pope again emphasized “the need to rediscover the truth about the family as an intimate communion of life and love.” This truth, of course, is that the community of the family finds its source in the divine communion of life and love that is the Trinity. The family is truly the primary model for all human associations including the larger society itself. The Christian family becomes a unique mirror of the Trinity that radiates through neighborhood, city and country. It is the first school of faith, love and community. It teaches the lessons that make society possible. The pope is right when he says that the future of humanity passes through the family. And he is right to say the family must have the highest priority in the Church’s pastoral mission. John Paul II means this in two ways. First, the family must be an “object” of evangelization — families must be given greater pastoral assistance at every level. Second, the family must also be a “subject” of evangelization — families must themselves take up the mission of evangelization regarding their own members as well as of their neighbors.		And so we should say with the pope that the whole Church (ordained and lay) is meant to serve the family. One sure place to begin is by taking to heart the pope’s message in Familiaris Consortio and the Letter to Families, both now available from our Catholic Information Service. In this way, the “marble floor” that is Peter will go on guiding our steps for years to come. Vivat Jesus! n this issue of Columbia, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. With this in mind, it is important for us to recall the words of Pope St. Leo: “Out of the whole world one man…is chosen to preside at the calling of all nations and to be set over all the Apostles and all the Fathers of the Church.” Our dear Holy Father is “this man,” for he is Peter and only through Peter has Christ willed to bestow on others what he has shared with him. We firmly believe: Peter is the first to confess his faith in the Lord and thus, is first in rank among the Apostles. He is called “Blessed” because he is Peter, the “Rock” of the Church against which no power can prevail. Peter, whom no chains can bind and whose words are the words of life for those who listen and profess them. We further believe that our dear Holy Father is Peter! Pope John Paul has interest only in being “the servant of the servants of God.” As his heraldry indicates in his episcopal motto, Totus Tuus, his life has been given over totally to God through Mary. He teaches us to do the same. In Scripture we read that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers roles of service for the faithful to build up the body of Christ, until we become one in faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, and form that perfect man who is Christ come to full stature. For 25 years, who better, dear brother Knights and families, has filled these roles than the present Holy Father who in word and action seems ever conscious in forming that “perfect man” Christ come to full stature? We salute Pope John Paul II with love and respect. We are inspired by his fearless preaching of Gospel truth. We are ennobled by the example of his total dedication to fulfill God’s will. We rejoice with the whole Church on this the 25th anniversary of his pontificate and pray that he will always be the visible center and foundation of our unity in faith, in hope and in love, through Christ our Lord. Ad multos annos, Holy Father!

[Coleus]

K of C ping

[Coleus]

`

[Hermann the Cherusker]

The most travelled Pope, as a percentage of his pontificate, was St. Leo IX. He spent something like 3/4 of his time outside Rome encouraging the spread of the Cluniac reform.

[SuziQ]

Bump for reading tomorrow!!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[chimera]

We salute Pope John Paul II with love and respect. We are inspired by his fearless preaching of Gospel truth. We are ennobled by the example of his total dedication to fulfill God’s will.

Amen to that. As a convert to Catholicism, I have come to have a deep love and respect for this man and his selfless service to God, the Church, and mankind. Certainly an example for the rest of us.

While I was not Catholic at the time, I was deeply moved when the Holy Father visited his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, in prison in 1983. An inspiring example of forgiveness and compassion in a world whose aggregate morality at times seems to lean more towards the vengeance of High Plains Drifter.

[Coleus]

I forgot to post the link, the articles came from the September issue of Columbia, the magazine for the Knights of Columbus.

Columbia, September, 2003, Issue

[NYer]

Pope John Paul II places a letter into a crevice of the Western Wall. The letter, expressing the Vatican's apology for centuries of anti-Semitism.

Palm Sunday Address to Youth on the Passover

Pope John Paul used the Palm Sunday celebration, which fell in 1994 on the same weekend as the Jewish Passover, to invite people "to pause spiritually" at the site of "the temple of God's covenant with Jerusalem."

"Only a modest fragment of this remains," he said. "It is called the Wailing Wall because before its stones the children of Israel gather, recalling the greatness of the ancient sanctuary in which God made his dwelling and which rightly was the pride of all Israel."

The wall, he said, "is eloquent for the children of Israel. It is also eloquent for us because we know that in this temple God truly established his dwelling." [Catholic News Service]

March 27, 1994

Happy Anniversary Holy Father

[Coleus]

Pope John Paul II
Memories to Cherish

It is said that Pope John Paul II is the most recognized man in the world. An ambitious travel schedule and uncanny skill with all forms of media have helped him maintain that high-celebrity profile. And while he has been transformed in office from a man of vigor to one slowed by illness and age, he has continued to travel tirelessly to spread the gospel throughout the world. He is the most widely-traveled pope in history.

St. Anthony Messenger has been privileged to be on the scene at many of John Paul II's visits to the Western Hemisphere. From his initial visits to the U.S. and Ireland, when Catholics worldwide were still getting to know their pope, to his more recent visits to Cuba and St. Louis, we have brought our readers eyewitness accounts of John Paul II among his followers. The following features from St. Anthony Messenger present John Paul II's papacy through the accounts of his travels.

Q U I C K L I N K S

The Pope in America: First Papal Visit (1979)
The Pope in Ireland: A Salute to Irish Faith (1979)
The Pope in Central America: What Did His Trip Accomplish? (1983)
The Pope in Canada: A Journey Into the Heart (1984)
The Pope in Chile: Giving a Boost to Human Rights (1987)
The Pope in America: Dialogue With Diversity (1987)
The Pope in Denver: Giant Festival of Faith (1993)
The Pope in New York/Baltimore: A Prophetic Voice (1995)
The Pope in Cuba: A Call for Freedom (1998)
The Pope in St. Louis: A Call to Protect Life (1999)

 

 

POPE JOHN PAUL II: 25 Years of Service

By Cindy Wooden, Cardinal Roger Mahony, John Thavis, Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M., and Bishop Joseph Galante

Five people who have worked with the pope offer personal reflections.

Q U I C K S C A N

When Outside Rome
I've Lost the Holy Father!
A Snub for the Pope
Calling on the Young
Lost in Prayer

ALL PHOTOS FROM
L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

On October 16, 1978, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected as the Bishop of Rome, choosing the name John Paul. This October 16th, he will have completed 25 years of service as the successor of St. Peter. Only three other popes have served longer.

John Paul II: A Light for the World is a collection of texts and photos honoring this anniversary. The 256-page book, with pictures by official Vatican photographers, was edited by Sister Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M., for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and published this month by Sheed & Ward, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

The following photos and five excerpts are reprinted with permission of the publisher.

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When Outside Rome
By Cindy Wooden

In 1982 the pope greeted a child in Nigeria. Between 1980 and 2000, his 14 pastoral visits to Africa took him to 41 countries.

At a 1995 Mass at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, the pope emphasized our country's need to be open to newcomers. He also visited the United States in 1979, 1987,1993 and 1999, with a 1981 stopover in Alaska.

Watching Pope John Paul II in Rome and around the world, I realize that being pastor of the universal Church sometimes means being prepared for anything.

Vatican officials have discussed, debated and tried to legislate the extent to which local cultural expressions, including dance and music, should be allowed at Mass.

Yet Pope John Paul seems to accept and, most times, delight in the differences.

While the pope was prepared for a choreographed offertory dance at the opening Mass for the Synod of Bishops for Africa, the sounds of joy were not scripted: Ululations sprang from the throats of African women, bouncing off the walls of St. Peter's Basilica, providing a totally natural "surround sound" effect.

Native American pipe-smokers and incense smoke rising from clay pots rather than thuribles bring attentive looks, not scowls, from the pope.

He places Communion on the outstretched hands of the faithful with the same reverently serious gaze as he has when he places Communion on someone's tongue. He did not hesitate leaving street shoes behind when visiting a mosque in Syria or a Hindu's tomb in India.

Even before physical limitations led Pope John Paul to shorten his speeches and hold fewer public meetings, what often attracted young and old, believers and nonbelievers, to him was not just what the pope said, but what he did.

Cindy Wooden is the senior Rome correspondent for Catholic News Service, where she has worked since 1989. She has covered some of the pope's travels.

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I've Lost the Holy Father!
By Cardinal Roger M. Mahony

In 1986 and in 2002, the pope met with heads of the world's religions in Assisi, home of Italy's co-patron, St. Francis, to pray for world peace. On another visit there, he waves to people outside the Basilica of St. Francis.

In 1988 the pope beatified American Katharine Drexel, who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. He canonized her in 2000. Her sisters have worked with Native Americans and African-Americans for over 100 years.

In September of 1987, Pope John Paul made an extensive pastoral visit to the United States, beginning in Miami and concluding in Detroit. Two memorable days were spent in Los Angeles.

On the first night of the pope's stay in our cathedral residence, after we had returned from a large public Mass in the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Holy Father was running a bit early on his schedule. It had been planned for him to have a late dinner in the small dining room on the third floor of the residence.

When the Holy Father, then-Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz (his secretary) and I exited the elevator for dinner, we could smell the food cooking in the kitchen but there were no cooks, waiters or other personnel anywhere. Feeling that overwhelming sense of panic, I assured the Holy Father that the staff must be nearby somewhere, and invited him to be seated in the dining room while I searched for them.

It seems that the Secret Service had brought everyone down to the first floor as part of their security protocol but had failed to inform the cooks and waiters that they could return to the dining room area.

When I went back into the small dining room, the pope and Monsignor Dziwisz were nowhere to be found. I heard voices in the kitchen, and upon entering, I saw the Holy Father lifting the lids on various pots and pans on the stove. Before I knew it, they were serving themselves a nice helping of soup!

The pope seemed so relaxed, truly enjoying his time in the kitchen, and made us all feel like mutual friends enjoying a meal together.

Roger M. Mahony was named auxiliary bishop of Fresno (1975), bishop of Stockton (1980) and archbishop of Los Angeles (1985). He was appointed a cardinal in 1991.

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A Snub for the Pope
By John Thavis

The pope has great affection for children, who receive special attention in papal audiences and during pastoral visits.

It was the end of a long day in Mexico City. The pope was running late; and when he trudged into a crowded hospital, he seemed exhausted. Then a little baby caught his eye and he lit up. I've seen it so many times over the years, but it's always amazing how small children and John Paul II connect in a special way. In this rundown clinic, he reached out and caressed the soft cheek, then traced a cross on the child's forehead. A blissful moment.

In Rome, I've watched over the pope's shoulder as babies are passed up to him for a blessing. He lifts each one with extra care and a watchful eye. But not all kids react the same way to a papal embrace. Some smile, some coo and a few burst into tears.

On a summer's day many years ago at his villa outside Rome, the pope reached out for our own baby daughter. It's all captured in our family photo album: the white-robed pontiff approaching, ready to plant a kiss on her cheek. The proud parents beaming. Then our three-year-old bailed out with a stiff-armed refusal. The pope took the snub in stride, still smiling.

John Thavis has worked in Rome for Catholic News Service since 1983, heading the office since 1996. His coverage of the pope has won several awards from the Catholic Press Association.

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Calling on the Young
By Sister Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M.

On October 8, 1995, the pope shared a lunch with 17 people at Our Daily Bread in Baltimore. This downtown soup kitchen is run by Catholic Charities. Here Pope John Paul II hugs one of his lunchtime companions.

Leaders of all stripes emerged in the 20th century but only Pope John Paul II thought to convene young people and offer a vision to the leaders of tomorrow.

Beginning in Rome in 1985 and continuing through to Toronto in 2002, John Paul has invited young people to join him for a series of World Youth Days. By 2002, he had drawn millions of young people to international gatherings in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1987), Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1989), Czestochowa, Poland (1991), Denver, Colorado (1993), Manila, the Philippines (1995), Paris, France (1997), Rome, Italy (2000) and Toronto, Canada (2002).

The meetings showed the particular appeal of John Paul to young people. Speaking in the language of the country where each event took place, he tapped into their idealism with a message that they are the ones to bring peace to the world.

He bantered with them—to their chants of "John Paul II, we love you," he responded, "John Paul II, he loves you too." He called them to be holy, bringing tears to their eyes; his words touched their hearts and souls.

He reminded them that there are no limits to what they can do with God.

World Youth Day is for the hardy. It involves hiking for miles to a site for an all-night vigil marked by prayer with the pope, Scripture, community and song. The following day the young people participate in a Mass celebrated by the pope. Some years it has rained, leaving young people coated in mud. Other years it has been chilly. Other years, hot. Always, the event has inspired participants and observers.

The pope's visit to Denver in 1993 amazed even the cynical. "It's like Woodstock, with all of the good and none of the bad," boasted a Washington Post page-one story. Viewers were amazed that hundreds of thousands of youth could gather for a lively five days of prayer and celebration of their faith.

Even as the pope grew older, World Youth Day energized him. In 1993, organizers coined a new verb, youthen, to describe a phenomenon they saw; as in, the pope youthens when he meets young people. In Toronto, nine years later, a visibly aging pope gathered energy from his first glimpse of youth from the plane.

Given his increasing difficulty in walking, organizers prepared a device to lift the pope down when he disembarked from the Alitalia plane. To everyone's surprise, the pope walked down the steps and headed for the microphones. Young people were calling him and he responded, as always, with the affection he feels especially for them.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M., serves as the deputy director for media relations at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. She worked for Catholic News Service from 1983 through 1993. Sister Mary Ann coordinated media relations for the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver.

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Lost in Prayer
By Bishop Joseph A. Galante

The pope prays at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in Missouri. He later participated in an interfaith prayer service there.

Pope John Paul II shared a warm handshake with Rabbi Elio Toaff outside Rome's main synagogue in 1986. The pope said, "You are our dearly beloved brothers, and in a certain way it could be said that you are our elder brothers."

 

During the six years that I served in Rome as undersecretary at the Congregation for Consecrated Life (1987-1992), it was my privilege to have lunch with the pope once or twice each year. These were memorable occasions, providing opportunities to experience the pope's sense of humor, his ease in conversing and his interpersonal skills.

The most profound experiences that I had were during the visits to his private chapel after the meal. I was very much struck by the profound sense of prayerfulness of the Holy Father.

Pope John Paul II is able to so focus on his relationship with God that all other people and sounds and settings are blotted out.

I came away from those times with a conviction that our Holy Father is truly a mystic. His relationship with the Lord is so total and consuming that to be in his presence when he is at prayer enables one to experience the presence of God.

That conviction endures within me and I seek to imitate in my own poor way the example of a man of profound prayer. A true mystic in our day.  

Joseph A. Galante has served as auxiliary bishop of San Antonio (1992), bishop of Beaumont (1994) and coadjutor bishop of Dallas (1999).

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