Today is the sixth anniversary of the death of Ven. John Paul II.
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And the 112th anniversary of the Ven. Pius XII’s ordination.
Interesting. A Cardinal confirmed my daughter his morning, no mention. He did mention B16, which is nice…I don’t hold with some trads attacking his pontificate. It seems most disloyal. One’s father always has faults; only our Father in heaven is perfect.
Santo subito!
I remember the day well, and I remember watching you on Fox News, Father, during the coverage of the election. It was great they asked you to contribute!
…and the 6th anniversary of my 10th birthday!
And, alas, the scandals finally ended. I was in Munich when he died. Every church bell was ringing! We rushed to the Frauenkirche and sat in the front row for the Rosary and Mass. The church was already full. The streets of Munich were like the running of the bulls in Pamplona. We were on the German news. It was incredible being in Europe for a Pontiff’s death. Very different from here. Every day after his death, the church bells would ring again at noon. There are so many churches in Munich, it was surreal.
Requiescat in pace.
I will remember to pray for him at my adoration hour later.
Requiescat in pace, Ioannes Paulus PP. II
I will pray for him.
Ioannes Paule Magne, ora pro nobis!
His beatification in a few weeks time will be a great event. 2 million persons expected in Rome.
My husband and I will never forget every moment of that day; it was my husband’s birthday and he had very mixed emotions about the Holy Father dying on his birthday. Between our house and our parish, which was 45 miles, the Papa passed away. When we walked into church the first thing I saw was a huge picture of him with flowers surrounding it. Well, I just lost it right then and there and it still brings tears to my eyes. Heck, for all the years he was Pope, I couldn’t watch him or listen to him without crying. There was something about him………. Also, since he passed there was a favor I was asking him for, and I received the favor through his intercession. ;0)
I also can’t think of him without crying. But I have a feeling my tears are flowing from a different spring, semperfi. My experience of his pontificate was far different from yours, I think.
PJPII was the pope when I became Catholic in 1985. I saw him 5 times in person on my trips here and there. But I didn’t belong to his “personality cult,” which was enormous and still is. After I became Catholic in 1985, I learned a whole lot that I hadn’t even realized when I came into the church. I’m still here and I intend to stay because the church is more than what it seems, regardless of the confusion and frustration of those years in the late 80s and 90s, when it seemed as though anything could happen and nearly everything was loss.
The church was nearly decimated in the last half of the 20th century, after WWII. The depth of the damage that was incurred is still not yet grasped by many people. We went from one disaster to another, glossing over the damage all the way because that’s what Catholics do. But damage always has consequences, even religious damage. We’ve seen that drag on and on and we’re nowhere near the end of that, I think.
A lot has been said about the papacy of PJPII, including that we needed the years of the PJPII pontificate to start to recover from the disorder of the 60s/70s. I don’t know what I think of that exactly, except that I don’t understand how engaging in disorder of your own sort is any remediation to disorder, in general. I didn’t see the logic of that then, and I don’t see it in retrospect either. I have no idea what kind of power a thing would have to have such that the pope himself could not deal with it rather like Benedict has.
I’m happier with the situation in the church now. She will hold up largely not because of the bishops but because of the fact that she is what she is, and because of the many courageous lay people who practice the faith in the only homely way they know how. And to some degree also to Benedict XVI. Nevertheless, huge damage has been done. The intellectual patrimony of the church lies in ruin like the skeleton of an old English cathedral, ceiling off and walls tumbling down. And so does her authority with it.
May the Lord grant him blessed repose and eternal memory!
My fiancé came into the church that Easter. He had asked God to keep JP2 with us until he came into the Church. His prayer was answered. He was the only Pope I had ever known at that point. We cried on each others shoulders at the Mass our college Neuman Center held the day he died. We young people miss him greatly.
That day has been stamped on my mind, too.
I was working in the local Catholic bookstore then. We were incredibly busy, with people coming in to get all our framed pictures we had of him for their parish memorials. I was in the back office helping the boss with his paperwork, and we had the radio going, which gave out updates. A little after 3:30 our time, the bookkeeper said simply, ‘He’s gone…’ I looked down at my boss, and what really surprised me was that he made the sign of the cross, folded his hands and prayed briefly in silence, then blessed himself again! We were all very quiet the rest of the work day.
I remember going home in a rain and wind storm, and I stayed up until after midnight to watch the TV tributes (that weekend, as this one, the Final Four was going on, so everything on CBS was pushed back).
I still miss our Papa Giovanni Paulo Segundo (I just like the way it sounds in Italian!). Santo Subito! His beatification, which is coming soon, will be a huge event in Rome! Wish I could be there!
I believe JPII was very holy, but the pontificate is a mixed record. May he, however, intercede for us and for the whole Church.
A thought experiment: What if Joseph Ratzinger were elected in 1978? Off the top of my head, I am guessing that Paul VI already, by that time, made him Cardinal.
I’ve read that there has often been a period of disruption or at least uncertainty after an Ecumenical Council; given the near collapse of the modern West at the same time, I think we have no warrant to expect anything less than what happened — in my mind, as bad as it was, it could easily have been vastly worse. The Catholic Church still has a significant presence in the Anglosphere, and I’m not entirely sure that was a foregone conclusion.
I think judging JPII against BXVI is not really meaningful; their gifts were not in the same sphere. JPII was, I think, a good Pope – but one for that age, an age that was ending even in the last years of his pontificate. BXVI on the other hand I think is a Pope ‘for all time’.
@catholicmidwest: I do think there is something to the idea that JPII’s pontificate was exactly what was needed at that moment. He usually was extremely good at distinguishing between essentials and nonessentials; he did not really change anything, and did reaffirm important things that were under attack (eg the male-only priesthood in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) . And his ‘Theology of the Body’ strikes me as really exceptional. I think he “got” something about how to address moderns and postmoderns that most do not; BXVI is in my mind the greater intellectual and theologian, but he isn’t reaching the culture the way JPII did.
Now, certainly he made a few mistakes (he was a bit over-ecumenical early on) but even that was corrected with Dominus Iesus. So I think — taking his pontificate *as a whole* rather than looking at the few but real flaws — it was really a very good thing.
The Church needs both the “JPII” and “BXVI” models, at least in this era.
Mike says:
I believe JPII was very holy, but the pontificate is a mixed record.
He inherited a huge mess.
A thought experiment: What if Joseph Ratzinger were elected in 1978? Off the top of my head, I am guessing that Paul VI already, by that time, made him Cardinal.
Yes, he was already a Cardinal.
The Italians have a saying: Every epoch has its pope. 1978 wasn’t Ratzinger’s epoch.
abiologistforlife says:
Now, certainly he made a few mistakes (he was a bit over-ecumenical early on) but even that was corrected with Dominus Iesus. So I think — taking his pontificate *as a whole* rather than looking at the few but real flaws — it was really a very good thing.
Disagree. He was anything but ecumenical early in his pontificate. He didn’t turn to Ecumenism until after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Much of JPII’s pontificate concerned European Unity. That was first manifest in his opposition to Communism. After the fall of Euro Communism, it was manifest in Ecumenism.
The death of John Paul the Great brought me to my senses and helped re-awaken my faith. They say his first miracle was all those who he brought back to the Church. I consider myself one of those. I love him for all of his faults and because of his holiness. He was THE right person for his time, just as Pope Benedict is the right Pope for his time. I will grieve just as much for Papa Benedict as I did for Papa John Paul.
True, it wasn’t THAT early. But the Assisi interreligious thing, which is often considered the really questionable bit, was 1986 … still before the fall of Communism.
abiologistforlife says:
True, it wasn’t THAT early. But the Assisi interreligious thing, which is often considered the really questionable bit, was 1986 … still before the fall of Communism.
I consider “overly ecumenical” to be when it precludes attention to liturgical or doctrinal matters. Assisi was a short term event that wasn’t all that significant.
After the fall of the Soviet Empire, however, JPII began to show a preference for Ecumenism over the reform of the Church.
I remember that my friends and I were planning on going to the basilica in town to pray for the Pope. When we heard that he had passed, we decided to go to the local church, as our college did not have a vigil Mass.
I also remember falling asleep to the sound of Cardinal Foley during the funeral Mass. It’s funny how these memories stick with you, but for most of my life, there had only been one pope.