31 years ago today – John Paul II

Posted on 16 October 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Pope John Paul II was elected Bishop of Rome 31 years ago today.

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If you are old enough to remember, where were you when you heard this news?

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77 Comments

  1. frobuaidhe says:
    16 October 2009 at 11:44 AM

    watching tv

  2. Ellen says:
    16 October 2009 at 11:58 AM

    I was watching the news and I can remember how gob-smacked the anchors were when the new Pope was announced and he was Polish.

  3. Gabriella says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:05 PM

    I was preparing for my wedding :)

  4. DetJohn says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:16 PM

    I was driving from Los Angeles to Lancaster, California, to investigate a Felony Child Abuse case.

  5. thereseb says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:17 PM

    In school in Manchester, with a lot of Polish girls (ecstatic) and Italian girls (not so ecstatic – they couldn’t envisage a foreign pope). Mother was in Chicago, and said there wasn’t a bottle of vodka to be had anywhere, and the whole place was hungover for a week.

    I also remember going into school, and the shock and sadness when JP1 died – our tutor/chaplain, a Salesian was barely able to suppress tears.

  6. Joe of St. Thérèse says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:24 PM

    Not old enough to remember, but glad to share this day with him. 7 years later came me.

  7. Dr. Eric says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:31 PM

    I have lived through 4 Papacies, but only remember 2 of them. I was born in 1976.

  8. TNCath says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:35 PM

    I was in the 7th grade. It was, I believe, early afternoon. The Sister-Principal of our school announced on the intercom, “May I have your attention, please? We have just heard from Rome that the cardinals have elected a new Pope–a Polish Pope–Cardinal Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Krakow. Let us pray for our new Holy Father as he leads us as the new shepherd of our Church.”

    We couldn’t believe it. A Polish Pope!

    The next morning, our religion teacher, a Sister, offered her take on this unprecedented election saying, “I don’t want to sound biased against the Italians, but I think that electing a Pope from another country will be a good thing for the Church.”

    Not long after, Pope John Paul encouraged women religious to return to the wearing of the habit. We never heard another positive remark about the Holy Father from her again.

  9. Peggy R says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:35 PM

    In Oct 78, I would have been in 8th grade at a Catholic grade school. I recall no discussion of it in school. I don’t remember the news coverage. I don’t remember the events at all.

  10. irishgirl says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:36 PM

    I was at work [my first job was at a bank]. I just came downstairs from lunch in the cafeteria, and some co-workers said that a Polish Pope was elected!

    When I got home I watched the CBS Evening News [I think Cronkite was still the anchor] and watched the scene on the balcony of St. Peter’s. I remember being very happy when the new Holy Father mentioned Our Lady in his extemporaneous remarks.

    Then a day or two later, I exclaimed to my mother, ‘Hey! I’ve seen him before!’ I suddenly remembered my trip to the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philly. It was ‘Polish Day’, the last full day of the week-long event. Even though I wasn’t one bit Polish, a friend of mine at the time invited me to go with her. I went on a bus filled with pilgrims from two Polish parishes in my hometown-found out later that the priest who led the pilgrimage was a CLASSMATE OF THE NEW HOLY FATHER from Poland! Of course, I couldn’t understand anything at the Mass at the old Veterans’ Stadium-it was in Polish, remember-but Cardinal Wojtyla was the main concelebrant and preacher. He had such a strong speaking voice! My friend who invited me had at the time a replica of the Fatima Pilgrim Virgin statue in her home, and she had cards printed up stating that fact. She passed them out to every priest and religious she could latch onto. And at the end of the Mass, when Cardinals Krol and Wojytla walked at the end of procession, my friend attempted to lean over and hand the latter one of her cards! I said, ‘Helen, what are you doing?’ And it was at that moment that I saw the face of the future John Paul II!

  11. Bryan says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:53 PM

    Believe it or not…as a member of the press corps (ABC Radio Network), I was standing on top of the collonade with Vic Ratner, and a couple other ABC Radio types broadcasting the proceedings live from our vantage point. I had to supress cheering when the white smoke appeared (all the reporters and producers were jewish…go figure, right?). I do remember making the sign of the cross, though, as he blessed the crowd for the first time.

    It was my first year (and, thus, at the bottom of the union engineer pay scale, so cheapest to send…) of working for ABC. Amazing some of the history from the late 70s-early 80s I was a personal witness to.

    Also was the pool audio engineer for his visit to Chicago in 1979. On Shepherd-1 for one leg.

    (yeah, have a pretty good photo album(s) of some of the things I did…:))

  12. ray from mn says:
    16 October 2009 at 12:53 PM

    I was working in Rudy Perpich’s (Catholic, Croatian) re-election campaign office for Governor of Minnesota. [We lost, but he got it back four years later.]

    I was a pagan in those days. My Polish Dad had died two weeks earlier. My first reaction was an acknowledgment to “fate.” My Dad would have died of “excessive egotism and boasting” had he been alive to hear the news of the election of Pope JPII. I might have shot him myself.

    Thank God for Pope John Paul II. He wasn’t perfect,[neither was Peter] but he was pretty darned close. Santo Subito!

    If he can’t make it, nobody can.

  13. Jaybirdnbham says:
    16 October 2009 at 1:12 PM

    I was just out of college a couple of years, newly married, and still Protestant when JPII became pope. Never noticed the new pope until about 1980, when I began thinking about becoming Catholic. So this video here is such a rush! Even not understanding what he was saying, it’s still such a beautiful sight. Thanks for posting it, Fr. Z!

  14. Girgadis says:
    16 October 2009 at 1:14 PM

    I was at the Catholic college I attended on Philadelphia’s Main Line. Most of the discussion revolved around the surpise that a Polish cardinal had been elected Pope. I have a much more vivid recollection of where I was and what I was doing when I heard that JPII had been shot, but that’s not what you asked so I’ll save that for another time.

  15. Tom in NY says:
    16 October 2009 at 1:28 PM

    In illo tempore, officio meo agentis valorum bursae urbe Novo Eboraco laborabo. Notitiae electrifacientes et inspirantes fuerant. Etiam nemo (sed Deus) magnalia futura providere potest.
    Pontificium suum donum Dei fuit.
    Salutationes omnibus.

  16. Rob Cartusciello says:
    16 October 2009 at 1:45 PM

    I remember driving with my mom on Todt Hill in Staten Island, NY. We were passing the Conventual Franciscan seminary of St. Francis, when she remarked that it was a very rare thing to see three popes in as many months. I remember watching TV when the white smoke showed JPI was elected.

  17. Fr. John Mary says:
    16 October 2009 at 1:57 PM

    I was a sophomore in a Catholic college; the guys on the floor woke us up (in the middle of the night or the early pre-dawn) to tell us. It was incredible.

  18. Fr. John Mary says:
    16 October 2009 at 1:59 PM

    On second thought, this (the middle of the night or early morning) must have been when John Paul I died; or was elected. The three events are kind of confused in my mind!

  19. Rachel Pineda says:
    16 October 2009 at 2:08 PM

    It was my husband’s 6th birthday. :-)

  20. FrCharles says:
    16 October 2009 at 2:30 PM

    I was a first grader at dear old Worthington Hooker Elementary. But I do remember the amazement of my father.

  21. Hugh says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:02 PM

    I was in the Seminary, Down Under. A typical liberal seminary.

    In the days before, all the talk in the media and around the table was of candidates from Latin America (liberation theology), Africa (black pope), some European country with a preponderance of lefty Bishops, such as France, or God forbid, Holland (source of the communion in the hand rebellion) or, in the end, ANYWHERE BUT ITALY. It was depressing to listen to the rationales, and I was quite fearful of what might happen.

    My worst fears were initially confirmed ! A colleague was listening to the radio in the dead of night, heard the first announcement, came along to my room and burst in the door. “Guess what!! There’s a new pope … and I think they said he’s from HOLLAND !!!” He was a nice bloke, but there was definitely schadenfreude on steroids going on as he quietly closed the door on my reaction of disbelief and horror.

    As Dawn stroked the fields and gum trees with her dewy fingers, matters were clarified by other less auditorily-challenged members of the community. The blissful reversal almost made my initial trauma worthwhile, and the Holy Ghost was back in my good books.

  22. Fr. John Mary says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:21 PM

    thereseb said: “Mother was in Chicago, and said there wasn’t a bottle of vodka to be had anywhere, and the whole place was hungover for a week.”
    LOL!!!
    I’m sorry, and it’s not to condone drunkeness, but that’s CATHOLIC!!

  23. q7swallows says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:23 PM

    I vaguely remember rolling my eyes with all the dismissive interest that a 14-year-old public school kid can muster at hearing adults exclaim about boring subjects like political figures.  At that time, I only attended (N.O.) Sunday Masses, had had the Jesus-is-like-a-butterfly kind of catechism, and could barely recite the Hail Mary.
     
    Little did I know that 9 short years later, I—a Stoic, who never cried in public—would burst into tears as he blessed the crowd I was (accidentally) in at his Mass in San Francisco.  A private, parent-run (traditionally-minded) Catholic high school Fr. Fessio’s St. Ignatius Institute JPII’s writings Byzantine Liturgy had turned my entire life around. All prepared me to appreciate Pope Benedict and the precious TLM.
     
    It has been said that JPII was the pope of children and that BXVI is the pope for adults.  I’m exceedingly blessed to have had the best of both worlds!

  24. Dr. Edward Peters says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:30 PM

    I was a college student, sitting in a sign language class, when the professor came in and told us.

  25. gmarie says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:36 PM

    I was in 7th grade English class at and we were all eagerly awaiting news of the new Pope (it was a Catholic school). Across the canyon from our school, in line of sight, was a Catholic university which displayed a signal of white smoke when the John Paul II was named as our new Pope. Our principal, Sr. Bernadetta, excitedly made the announcement over the PA system to the delight of me and my fellow classmates. We couldn’t contain our excitement and cheered loudly because we had been through this process before and had just mourned the passing of John Paul I. I remember a television set on a large cart being quickly wheeled into our classroom so we could watch the live news coverage. I was even more thrilled to learn that the new pope was Polish, just like me. It was very exciting, indeed!

  26. Rachel says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:37 PM

    I was five months old. And I didn’t become Catholic until two years after he died, so I missed his papacy, darn it.

  27. yatzer says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:51 PM

    I had just becme Catholic, and wondering what the heck was going on, seeing as how two Popes had just died recently.

  28. DominiSumus says:
    16 October 2009 at 3:52 PM

    I was three months in the womb, so I obviously don’t remember it.

    I am sure I sensed and shared my parent’s excitement though.

  29. worm says:
    16 October 2009 at 4:31 PM

    I was in 3rd grade in Catholic school. The sisters stuffed us with everything they could in preparation for First Holy Communion, so I do remember Paul VI, but just barely and then the super short pontificate of JP1. JP2 was really the only pope I knew until four years ago. I actually cried when I heard the news about JP2’s death.

  30. Charivari Rob says:
    16 October 2009 at 4:39 PM

    Let’s see… It was a school day (public school, 4th grade). I probably heard when I got home from school. All-news radio was often on in our house.

  31. Tim Ferguson says:
    16 October 2009 at 4:39 PM

    I was in 6th grade. It was such a shock when John Paul I died – I had cut out every news article on him in the short month that he was pope and saved them in a file (yes, I was odd, even back then). When John Paul II was elected, it was the same. Here’s a young, energetic pope. I remember playing foursquare in the school parking lot hoping that he would still be pope when I got ordained a priest (and mentally practicing the phrase “…in union with John Paul our pope and Francis our bishop…”).

  32. Navarricano says:
    16 October 2009 at 4:50 PM

    I was a high school student in a small town in Mississippi, where my family had moved from Illinois the year before. I had been Christian for only a year, having been baptized in the Baptist church barely a year earlier, and while I remember hearing about the event and seeing the news broadcasts on TV that evening, it didn’t particularly register with me. I even remember talking by telephone a few days later to some Catholic friends “back up north” and making some typically dumb teenaged comment about seeing how long this one would last. Little did I know what Our Lord had in store for me!

  33. introibo says:
    16 October 2009 at 6:12 PM

    I was in high school- I had gone shopping after school and was in a Sears when it came on a TV there.

  34. taximom says:
    16 October 2009 at 6:20 PM

    I was still living in Rome, attending the “Istituto Magistrale San Vincenzo Pallotti” (sophomore year). I distinctly remember the feeling when we heard his mispronounced last name for the first time, something that sounded like ‘Boytiwa’. I think all the Italians who hoped for an Italian pope connected with him right away, especially after he said: “Se faro’ qualche errore, mi corrigerete”.

  35. Norah says:
    16 October 2009 at 6:40 PM

    I had drifted away from the practise of my Faith and the election wasn’t a blip on my screen.

  36. Malta says:
    16 October 2009 at 6:42 PM

    JPII was not a friend to traditionalists, and, in fact, harmed the Church in ways with such fiascos as Assisi I and II. But some traditionalists do not give him enough credit for role in felling communism, a great evil–Saint Padre Pio said you can not be both a communist and a Catholic.

    So, although JPII was liberal in ways, especially liturgically and in his uncritical belief in Vatican II (he was, after all a principal participant, as was Benedict XVI), he was a Marianist, and staunch anti-communist, for which the world owes him gratitude. Moreover, until his last breath he was a great defender of life, leading by example: informatio ut nex. May God rest his soul.

  37. Agnes says:
    16 October 2009 at 6:45 PM

    I was six years old. I don’t remember him, but I do remember watching tv with mom (a devout Episcopalian) and seeing the white smoke come out of the chimney. She must have tried explaining it – I remember, at least, that something very important was going on.

  38. cuaguy says:
    16 October 2009 at 7:15 PM

    Um, my parents had not even been married at that point in time. Father, where were you?

  39. Fr. John Mary says:
    16 October 2009 at 7:16 PM

    Malta: Please forgive JP II for his liturgical and “ecumenical” fiascoes. I know, I know. He was the Pope.
    But he was also a human with foibles like the rest of us.
    The Polish Church in those times was not going through what we, in the West, were undergoing. Someone explained to me that in Poland, there was no real problem with the changes in VII, because they were done correctly. Someone can critique this, but this is what I heard.
    As for Assisi, well, you know, stuff happens.
    He never taught syncretism; what happened there is maybe beyond what he had envisioned. I don’t know. But he was a holy, saintly Pope.

  40. Oleksander says:
    16 October 2009 at 7:34 PM

    My father always talk about how shocked they were

  41. donmar35 says:
    16 October 2009 at 7:49 PM

    I remember my dad(Slovak) saying to my mom (Italian), “Hail Mary full of grace, the Italians came in second place. I was 15 and I thought this was hysterical.

  42. Victor says:
    16 October 2009 at 7:52 PM

    I was 7 months old, so no memory here. But my parents later told me that we were in Italy for holidays that year, and when we entered the country, all flags flew at half-mast because the pope had died – and when we left, they were at half-mast again (same reason).

  43. Vincentius says:
    16 October 2009 at 7:58 PM

    I was in Perugia (Italy). I ran into a friend who said, ” hanno eletto un Papa Polacco!” My first thought was Card Wyszy?ski( he was the only Polish cardinal I knew). I did get to rome for the investiture Mass a few days later.

  44. JackG says:
    16 October 2009 at 8:02 PM

    I was working for a company in San Diego. A young Jewish co-worker blasted into the office and yelled out: “We have a Polish Pope!” He was elated!

  45. Sedgwick says:
    16 October 2009 at 8:07 PM

    I was a pagan groupie at the house of a 300-lb Jewish psychic named Marlene on W. 73rd St. in Manhattan. We were watching TV in her living room, and when the new Pope came out, Marlene said “Oh! The new Pope is a mystic!” (No, I’m not making this up.)

  46. Jakub says:
    16 October 2009 at 8:09 PM

    Cleaning a debris basin in the San Fernando Valley, the Polska side of me was happy, the Italian half said what ?

  47. Fr. John Mary says:
    16 October 2009 at 8:31 PM

    Sedgwick: That is absolutely incredible! God is good!!

  48. William H. Phelan says:
    16 October 2009 at 9:15 PM

    I was watching the Church go down for the third time. Paul VI’s last encyclical was Humanae Vitae which was issued TEN YEARS EARLIER. What was the first step that John Paul II took? He immediately stopped the laicization of priests!
    Depending on your source, 70,000 to 110,000 priests left the priesthood in the tenure of Paul VI. The Dual Magisterium, which was set up by dissidents after Humanae Vitae, effectively caused a silent schism, vis a vis the formal schism of the SSPX in 1988. If the Lefebvrites are not Catholic, the Chuckleheads, Contraceptors and C..(Oh, all right, the homosexuals) certainly are not Catholic. But they never consecrated bishops (they were there already!), so they were left alone.

  49. MareD says:
    16 October 2009 at 9:52 PM

    Where was I?

    I was ‘in’ the mind of God when JPII was elected! :)

  50. Tom A. says:
    16 October 2009 at 10:04 PM

    Father, who is the Cardinal announcing “Habemus Papem?” Is it the same Cardinal who announced for Benedict XVI too. I looked at the videos, its hard to tell, but seems similar.

  51. Malta says:
    16 October 2009 at 10:15 PM

    “I was a pagan groupie at the house of a 300-lb Jewish psychic named Marlene on W. 73rd St. in Manhattan. We were watching TV in her living room, and when the new Pope came out, Marlene said “Oh! The new Pope is a mystic!” (No, I’m not making this up.)”

    I guess “Marlene” was wrong, then, since PII is degenerating into dust, and was no “mystic.”

  52. thepinoycatholic says:
    16 October 2009 at 10:21 PM

    I was still a baby back then.

  53. Geoffrey says:
    17 October 2009 at 12:30 AM

    I wasn’t born yet! I thank God daily for the great gift of the Servant of God Pope John Paul the Great! Santo subito! Ioannes Paule Magne, ora pro nobis… especially for “traditionalists”!

  54. chironomo says:
    17 October 2009 at 7:25 AM

    Backstage rehearsing for our 9th grade production of “Finian’s Rainbow”… I remember my friend Brian Doyle ran in to tell us…

  55. Kate says:
    17 October 2009 at 8:08 AM

    Lucia and I were the only two ten-year-old Polaks among our classmates in the Catholic school in our Italian neighborhood. Often the debate had raged, “Who is more Catholic, the Italians or the Poles?” and every time the Italian kids came down on the winning side when they trumped us with, “The Pope is Italian, so we Italians are more Catholic.”

    When the announcement was made in school, I clearly remember locking eyes with my Polish friend – joy!

    Let me tell you, it was with nothing less than gut-bursting pride and a fair share of less-than-Christian nose rubbing that we progressed through the rest of school!

    And I would most humbly have to back up Fr. John Mary’s response to Malta. I believe JPII viewed the world through his Polish upbringing, and in my experience, the way devout Poles live their Catholic lives (at home, in the world, in the Church…)balances strict adherence to the truths of the Faith with a common sense interpretation of Vatican II. I am forever trying to find balance between “too strict, too loose”, and it is at our local Polish church that it feels just right.

  56. jaykay says:
    17 October 2009 at 9:11 AM

    Hmmm…. it would have been a Monday? I was barely a year into my first job and I had had to temporarily revert to living with my parents as the first accommodation I was in didn’t work out. So I would have been doing a 100 mile round trip commute each day. Probably didn’t hear about it until I got home at about 8pm. No walkman radios etc in those days! Like 99% of people in Ireland I wouldn’t have heard of Cardinal Wojtyla, but we were all fascinated by the whole “from behind the Iron Curtain” thing. A best-selling book came out a short time later called “Man from a far country”, which was pretty much what he called himself in his first address to the crowd, no? (the feed kept cutting out but I I think I got “… da un paese lontano”)

  57. Thomas S says:
    17 October 2009 at 11:02 AM

    Tom A.,

    The Cardinal Protodeacon was Pericle Felici. He had the rare distinction of making two “Habemus Papam” announcements, but not for Benedict XVI. He announced Popes John Paul I and II.

    It was Jorge Cardinal Medina Estevez that announced Pope Benedict XVI.

  58. jjoy says:
    17 October 2009 at 11:43 AM

    I was in 9th grade at a Catholic high school. I do not recall anything at all being said in school at the time. Of course, our school was full of progressive religios and lay teachers, including one who wore a button which said ‘if you won’t ordain women, then don’t baptize girls!’ I didn’t appreciate JP2 until many years later.

  59. Jack Hughes says:
    17 October 2009 at 12:07 PM

    I hadn’t been born, but I remmeber the election of B16 and thought ‘drat a conservative pope’ two years later I was in RICA :)

  60. Mary Bruno says:
    17 October 2009 at 12:14 PM

    I don’t exactly remember where I was, I was 14 yrs old. I am of Polish and Italian descent and I grew up in a Polish neighborhood/parish and every was very excited.

  61. Mamma B says:
    17 October 2009 at 12:41 PM

    I was 13 years old and in (public) middle school. I was not Catholic at the time but remember hearing about it, and about the death of John Paul I not long before, from the Hispanic Catholic family that I rode to school with every day.

  62. Sacristymaiden says:
    17 October 2009 at 2:14 PM

    I wasn’t born yet. Guess I missed quite a bit of excitement! At least I didn’t miss BXVI.

  63. Jayna says:
    17 October 2009 at 2:30 PM

    I was born six years later, so for me the idea of a Polish pontiff was not even an issue. He was the pope for roughly the first 20 years of my life. If you ask me if I remember BXVI’s election though, I could tell you to the minute what I was doing.

  64. Cricket says:
    17 October 2009 at 2:31 PM

    What a great question! I was a 20-something “survivor” of all the post-VII bad catechesis craziness. I attended Holy Mass regularly, but for the life of me couldn’t explain why. At the time I watched Pope John Paul II stride out onto that balcony I had the strange sense that the Papacy would never be inconsequential again. Now I sing in a Gregorian Chant schola at my parish EF. Coincidence??? I think not!

  65. LarryPGH says:
    17 October 2009 at 2:43 PM

    I was in seventh grade in a little Catholic grade school. The Polish side of me was bursting with pride, and when he came to visit the US, I made sure I was on my Polish parish’s bus to go see him in Philly. A Polish pope? Will wonders never cease?!?!?!?! I remember the pride with which the official portrait of John Paul II went up in a prominent place in my Grandma’s house…!

  66. IL Catholic says:
    17 October 2009 at 3:57 PM

    I was born a long time after that. I don’t know if my parents were even in college yet.

  67. Old Bob says:
    17 October 2009 at 4:25 PM

    I was at the MnDOT office at the Capitol complex in St. Paul; we were listening to the news on the radio. I made out loud the comment that the new Pope would not be Italian. I remember too that the large Polish community in northeast (“Nordeast”) Minneapolis went totally bananas. Fr. Frank Decowski of Holy Cross made up red and white buttons that said “The Pope is a Polish boy.” I bought six and gave away five to Polish friends; still have one. Thanks, Father, for the memory.

  68. Sedgwick says:
    17 October 2009 at 4:42 PM

    Malta

    Yep, Marlene the psychic was wrong about a lot of things – and so was I.

    Fr. John Mary

    That’s what the President of the local Carmelite Third Order said to me when I documented my past for her….in preparation for the Aspirancy….

  69. Sandra_in_Severn says:
    17 October 2009 at 6:18 PM

    I was in high school, and I was with my mother in my parent’s bedroom sewing a dress for school. My mother could pronounce Cardinal Józef Wojty?a’s name better than the news commentators. Can’t tell you which channel we were watching, but I knew I was a witness (via TV) to a historical event.

    Earlier one of the stations had shown the movie, “Shoes of the Fisherman” starring Anthony Quinn. My mother said this man was like the character in the movie. A man of the Church in a Communist Country.

  70. Christbearer316 says:
    17 October 2009 at 7:26 PM

    I hadn’t been created yet.

  71. Tom A. says:
    18 October 2009 at 10:15 AM

    Thomas S.

    Thank you for your answer.

    I was 18 yrs old and remember the tears of joy that fell from my Polish grandfather’s eyes. He was a staunch anti-communist (which he greatfully passed on to me) and immediately knew the ramifications of such a selection. Will never forget that day.

  72. thereseb says:
    18 October 2009 at 10:25 AM

    How interesting and encouraging that over 20 of the respondents (at a rough count) of this blog appear to be under 40, and many of those under 30!

  73. Sacristymaiden says:
    18 October 2009 at 11:59 AM

    thereseb–you’re right! That is very interesting…

  74. Mike Morrow says:
    18 October 2009 at 11:22 PM

    I was at sea on USS Daniel Boone, a ballistic misile submarine that was at the heart of the Cold War that John Paul II would come to affect so greatly and positively.

    I expected nothing from John Paul II beyond more of the same Paul VI anarchy and revolution that had been destroying the Church since Vatican II.

    Liturgically, John Paul II lived down to my expectations except for the very weak relaxation of Paul VI’s dishonorable oppression of traditional Roman Catholic liturgy and its adherents. Those third-world papal “masses” were often more aboriginal tribal dance romps than anything recognizable as Roman Catholic.

    Historically, John Paul II affected the world most positively as one of its greatest leaders, in conjunction with Reagan, Thatcher, and Gorbashev. Had a simple-minded clone of Paul VI been selected instead, I believe it likely that today there would still be an Eastern Block, a Warsaw Pact, a divided Germany, and a global Cold War, in addition to the Islamic threat.

  75. Lloyd says:
    19 October 2009 at 1:51 PM

    My first posting on this site, although I have been a frequent reader for roughly a year. Thank you Fr. Z. I just could not pass –up the opportunity to share our (wife’s and my) story in response to Fr. Z’s inquiry of 16 Octoer,“31 years ago today – John Paul II” “…where were you when you heard this news?”

    My wife and I are so truly blessed to have been present in Piazza San Pietro on that wonderful night. We were on our first trip ever to Europe – doing like 8 countries in 16 days and had arrived the day before (15 October). Although we went to S.P.’s that first night, we did not stay very long – I think about a hour – leaving to get in some sightseeing. On our second night in Rome, we went back to S.P.’s. After about 2 hours, we observed white smoke rising from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel – what a shock, as we never dreamt that we would witness such an event. Obviously, we could not possibly leave at that point – staying until we received the first blessing to be administered by Cardinal Karol Józef Wojty?a – now as HH Pope John Paul II. Since that trip in 1978, we have been fortunate to return to Rome and the Vatican on several trips including Holy Week, 1999, in which we attended Mass in St. Peter’s each day and on Easter Sunday in the piazza all celebrated by JP II.

    Coincidentally, we just returned this past week from a trip wherein we spent five days in Cracow – such a beautiful place – Old Town – where the people seem truly sincere and reverent in the practice of their faith. We attended Mass several times at St. Mary’s Cathedral and was so pleased to be able to receive the Eucharist on the tongue, while kneeling at a communion rail – Praise God. While in Cracow, we visited many of the pertinent sites of JP II’s life – childhood through his residence as Cardinal. Another very memorable trip.

    Lloyd

  76. bookworm says:
    19 October 2009 at 8:18 PM

    I was a sophomore at a Catholic high school. If I remember correctly, the teacher in my physics class — a very old and wise priest named Father Eugene — turned on a radio to hear the announcement of the new pope’s identity and all I heard was … “who has taken the name of John Paul the Second” and, of course, that he was Polish and the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years.

    My mom, a convert, said that night that if any nation “deserved” to have a pope it was Poland, whose people had fought communism so valiantly, unlike in Italy, where communists routinely got elected to public office.

    I saw JP II in person twice — in Denver in 1993 and in St. Louis in 1999. The magnitude of his influence on the church will probably take decades to be fully understood.

    Even now, four years after his death, it still sounds a little odd to me when I hear “Benedict our pope” in the Eucharistic Prayer instead of “John Paul our pope.” :-)

  77. Kate says:
    20 October 2009 at 3:25 AM

    Lloyd,

    Your experience at the Kosciol Maryacki in the Rynek (kneeling, receiving on the tongue) is exactly what I mean about thr right fit. I’m so glad you enjoyed your visit to Krkow. Sto lat!

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