[JoeFromSidney]

As it happened, I, my wife, my brothers, and their wives, were taking a cross-Canada train trip at the time of World Youth Day. Our train was packed with young people going to the event in Toronto. We were fortunate in being able to attend Mass on the train, even though we had to stand at the bottom of the steps leading to the upper level of the car (the kids had priority; after all, it was their event). I could see the enormous effect JPII had on those kids.

[Mary Kochan]

I know he affected my journey into the Church. For a while I was considering whether to become Orthodox or Catholic. But his example of what the papacy was — when exercised with holiness, charity, and wisdom — helped settle me on the Catholic Church.