Pope Benedict XVI Blog

John Paul II: The Man From a Distant Land

Who Taught Us to Not Be Afraid

By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 16, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Today marks another of Rome’s and the Vatican’s significant anniversaries taking place during the Twelfth Ordinary Synod of Bishops at the Vatican.

I remember very well this night 30 years ago -- Oct. 16, 1978. I was a 19-year-old university student, driving home from classes at the university, when the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church elected Cardinal Karol Wojtyla as the 264th Successor to the Apostle Peter. The radio announced that there was white smoke in the evening Roman air. After the sad events of the previous weeks of 1978 in Rome, anxiety and expectation were in my North American air. Little did I ever imagine that night that I would come to know this man, serve him, love him and strive to imitate him.

On that first night in 1978, Pope John Paul II stood on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica and opened his arms, his heart and his mind to the world. His refrain would become: “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!” During this synod, John Paul II’s name and memory have been evoked dozens of times by the synod fathers, especially in relation to his now famous letters “Redemptoris Missio” and “Novo Millennio Ineunte.”

There are few places on this planet that have not been touched by Pope John Paul II. He opened the doors to millions of human hearts, bringing to women and men of every race, nation and culture, a message of hope; a message telling us that human dignity is rooted in the fact that each human being is created in the image and likeness of God. He was a living exegesis of the Gospels. He walked his talk.

The final days

At the end of March and the beginning of April in 2005, we were inundated with words, stories, images, and profoundly moving ceremonies coming to us from this very place. We learned once again in the retreating and passing of Pope John Paul II how vast a person he was among us and on the world stage. Our memories of what he was like before his "retreat" or "departure" became suffused with the profound weight of post-mortem insight.

That period of 2005 was an extraordinary time of evangelization, catechesis and education for the universal Church. John Paul II was a bestseller in life and also in death. The Vatican daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, got it right on the Wednesday after John Paul II’s death with the huge title on its Wednesday daily Italian edition -- a day normally set aside to cover the Pope's weekly General Audience. The title read "Che Udienza!" (What an audience!) as over 600,000 people passed silently that day through the Vatican basilica to pray before the body of John Paul II.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 4:06 PM