What we witnessed was an outpouring of love and prayer for the late pontiff. The celebrations in Rome took me back to previous encounters with the Holy Father: in the crowd at Downsview Park in 1984 for the papal visit, cramming to see over the crowds as a young boy; World Youth Day in Rome 2000, along with two million other young pilgrims from around the world. Both Emanuel and I were blessed to meet the late pontiff on separate occasions and, of course, who could forget our final encounter with him during World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto?
For many World Youth Day veterans, JPII was “our” pope, the one our generation really got to know. He was like a grandfather to us, someone who challenged us to be “saints of the new millennium,” to raise the bar and be agents of love and service.
In St. Peter’s Square, more than two dozen banners depicted each year of his papacy. From the day of his surprise election, alongside Mother Teresa, surviving an assassin’s bullet, beside Gorbachev, at the Holy Door on the Jubilee year. Each moment was a reminder of the powerful legacy of Blessed John Paul II.
He was a man who showed us how to live and how to die. As I stood/sat/crammed and jostled my way through St. Peter’s Square, Emanuel remarked that he hadn’t seen crowds like this since he was in Rome for the late Holy Father’s funeral. Who can forget those final days? I can’t think of any other global leader that would so publicly live his suffering and pain. To demonstrate to us the sanctity of life from the moment of conception to natural death. His witness to the world in his declining days was nothing short of inspirational.
In many ways, a pilgrimage isn’t about us. Our small sacrifices pale in comparison to what the saints of the Church sacrificed. Yet through these uncomfortable moments, we remember that sometimes the most worthwhile experiences in life are the toughest ones.
This time around, the prayers that we brought to the Vatican for colleagues and loved ones were offered at a media tent, in the subway, waiting in line with thousands or on a long trek back home.
In some of his last reported words, Blessed Pope John Paul II proclaimed: “I have searched for you, and now you have come to me, and I thank you.”
But it is we who want to thank you Il Papa, 1.5 million strong representing our global Church to say grazie, danke, merci. These words somehow don’t seem strong enough.
The late pontiff challenged us, “Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and cast out your nets.”
For several days in Rome, two fishermen from Canada went on pilgrimage and cast out their nets. By the end of the week, we were fishing with 1.5 million others. Safe to say our nets were overflowing with love. Can’t help but thinking, Papa, you were right there with us.
(MacCarthy is the Director of Public Relations & Communications for the archdiocese of Toronto. You can read more about his and Emanuel's pilgrimage to the Vatican, including video, blogs and photographs at www.archtoronto.org/jp2/)