John Paul II
John Paul II holds a very special place in my heart. I have always followed the Pope. I am a Pope groupie. I have traveled to see the Pope in Detroit in 1987, in Denver for World Youth Day in 1993, in Rome in 1995, in St Louis in 1999. My father also went to see the Pope on most of these trips. He's a bigger Pope groupie than I.
I have always been discouraged by the media in their representation of the Pope as a feeble man. In Rome one of the guys from our group had the opportunity to shake the Pope's hand. He described him as being built like a football player and having a strong grip. I saw the Pope at St Peter's saying Mass and had an aisle seat that was no more than ten feet from him as he walked down the aisle. My memory is of a strong man. Even in 1999 that is not the way he was portrayed in the media. He was portrayed as a wimp. And they tried to use his physical ailments as leverage to attack his ideals and causes. Now that he has died from a debilitating disease, the media wants to make him less of a man because he was weak.
How do we remember Muhammad Ali? As a weak victim of Parkinson's right? Let us give John Paul the same respect we give Ali.
I remember sleeping on the concrete on a street in Hamtramck, Michigan, on the route where the Pope would be traveling the next day. We came to see the Pope and to have a carved wooden statue of Mary blessed. We came a day early to camp out for our spot by the parade route. (If people can do it for Cubs tickets, why not for the Pope?) I remember the Pope coming around the corner in the Pope-mobile, blessing the people on the left with a small sign of the cross, turning to the people on the right, blessing them, turning back towards us, seeing our statue of Mary high on a pole, seeing our signs in Polish and English asking him to bless the statue, his face lighting up, smiling and raising his hand in a large sign of the cross.
I remember world youth day in Denver. I remember the size of the crowds. The press always wanted to under-estimate the numbers. (Why not take satellite photos and count?) They filled the entire side of a valley. That was a fun time. I remember sleeping on those fields, and sneaking onto the luggage rack of the tour bus to sleep on the way to Denver.
I remember the Pope in Denver trying to stop the wave that had started going around Mile High Stadium, and failing because the crowd kept it going. I lost track of how many times it went around. I've never seen such a good wave. I remember playing with contraband beach balls in the stadium that the security guards were desperately trying to take away, and the crowd kept inflating more and trying to bounce them away from the security guards.
I remember my father bringing my former Geography teacher, Joe Benedetto, with him to see the Pope. Mr Benedetto was dying from brain cancer, and this was one of the last active things he did before he died.
I remember going with a group from St John's in Champaign to St Louis to see the Pope. I remember playing soccer in a field with complete strangers and carrying a Vatican flag and taking pictures over the crowd as the Pope drove past. I remember hearing the Pope talk to the president and to Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire. I remember him saying he would come back to the US to play hockey, and pretending his crosier was a hockey stick. His sense of humor was phenomenal. I remember deciding to stay an extra night with friends of Fr Tom Gibson. I remember being hosted with food and drink, port and congac, and sleeping like a baby... correction, sleeping like "two babies."
I remember his voice. He sounded like Count Dracula, but said good stuff. He has been Pope as long as I have been alive. He based his hope for the future on his trust in youth. I do too. I will dearly miss him.
I am trying not to focus on his death as much as the media wants me to. I don't like their attitude. Every article has a jab about his not allowing this or that unorthodox or immoral practice in the church as if he were doing something strange. If he wasn't important to the media last month, being dead shouldn't make him more important. The media seems to care more about what evil practices Catholics can start sliding under the radar of the Vatican now that he is gone. Let's not focus on how much bad stuff we can get away with and not get caught. Let's focus on how we can improve ourselves. Let's write the obituary, grieve, and move on. He was a man: a holy man, but only a man. He will be replaced by another Pope who will be different, but still only a man.
I have always been discouraged by the media in their representation of the Pope as a feeble man. In Rome one of the guys from our group had the opportunity to shake the Pope's hand. He described him as being built like a football player and having a strong grip. I saw the Pope at St Peter's saying Mass and had an aisle seat that was no more than ten feet from him as he walked down the aisle. My memory is of a strong man. Even in 1999 that is not the way he was portrayed in the media. He was portrayed as a wimp. And they tried to use his physical ailments as leverage to attack his ideals and causes. Now that he has died from a debilitating disease, the media wants to make him less of a man because he was weak.
How do we remember Muhammad Ali? As a weak victim of Parkinson's right? Let us give John Paul the same respect we give Ali.
I remember sleeping on the concrete on a street in Hamtramck, Michigan, on the route where the Pope would be traveling the next day. We came to see the Pope and to have a carved wooden statue of Mary blessed. We came a day early to camp out for our spot by the parade route. (If people can do it for Cubs tickets, why not for the Pope?) I remember the Pope coming around the corner in the Pope-mobile, blessing the people on the left with a small sign of the cross, turning to the people on the right, blessing them, turning back towards us, seeing our statue of Mary high on a pole, seeing our signs in Polish and English asking him to bless the statue, his face lighting up, smiling and raising his hand in a large sign of the cross.
I remember world youth day in Denver. I remember the size of the crowds. The press always wanted to under-estimate the numbers. (Why not take satellite photos and count?) They filled the entire side of a valley. That was a fun time. I remember sleeping on those fields, and sneaking onto the luggage rack of the tour bus to sleep on the way to Denver.
I remember the Pope in Denver trying to stop the wave that had started going around Mile High Stadium, and failing because the crowd kept it going. I lost track of how many times it went around. I've never seen such a good wave. I remember playing with contraband beach balls in the stadium that the security guards were desperately trying to take away, and the crowd kept inflating more and trying to bounce them away from the security guards.
I remember my father bringing my former Geography teacher, Joe Benedetto, with him to see the Pope. Mr Benedetto was dying from brain cancer, and this was one of the last active things he did before he died.
I remember going with a group from St John's in Champaign to St Louis to see the Pope. I remember playing soccer in a field with complete strangers and carrying a Vatican flag and taking pictures over the crowd as the Pope drove past. I remember hearing the Pope talk to the president and to Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire. I remember him saying he would come back to the US to play hockey, and pretending his crosier was a hockey stick. His sense of humor was phenomenal. I remember deciding to stay an extra night with friends of Fr Tom Gibson. I remember being hosted with food and drink, port and congac, and sleeping like a baby... correction, sleeping like "two babies."
I remember his voice. He sounded like Count Dracula, but said good stuff. He has been Pope as long as I have been alive. He based his hope for the future on his trust in youth. I do too. I will dearly miss him.
I am trying not to focus on his death as much as the media wants me to. I don't like their attitude. Every article has a jab about his not allowing this or that unorthodox or immoral practice in the church as if he were doing something strange. If he wasn't important to the media last month, being dead shouldn't make him more important. The media seems to care more about what evil practices Catholics can start sliding under the radar of the Vatican now that he is gone. Let's not focus on how much bad stuff we can get away with and not get caught. Let's focus on how we can improve ourselves. Let's write the obituary, grieve, and move on. He was a man: a holy man, but only a man. He will be replaced by another Pope who will be different, but still only a man.
posted by poleguy at 8:04 PM
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