Sr. Margaret Joseph
Dr. Peter Redpath
Ralph Martin
Daniel J. Johnson
Mary Ann Donaleshen
Sr. Colie Stokes, SSMN
Tom Kinarney
Virginia Esquinaldo
Margaret “Maggie” Gray

In 1992 my wife and I attended the first international conference of the Lay Missionaries of Charity in Rome. On the Wednesday of our conference week the members of the Movement who attended all spent the day touring the Vatican. But first, we attended Pope John Paul II's regular Wednesday audience.

As the pilgrims left the audience hall, we all moved forward to the first four rows in our section. Our spiritual director and founder, Fr. Sebastian, M.C., who is well known to Pope John Paul II, had been able to arrange for His Holiness to greet us. The pope started from the right side of the hall greeting the sick and disabled, then worked his way toward us and a group of Franciscan Friars on the far left side. I knew I was just one row too far back to be able to even touch the pope as he shook hands with everyone he could reach, so I prepared to get a good angle and a clear shot with my camera. I had a zoom lens and took four very good pictures of him as he greeted the people in the rows ahead of me.

But the second I put the camera down as the pope continued on, I felt a deep sense of regret. His Holiness was reaching toward me while I was trying to take his picture. If I had just let the camera hang around my neck and reached forward as far as I could, I could have shown him that I wanted to greet him as urgently. To this day, I have mixed feelings about those prints. Still, that meeting taught me a great lesson: the pope's genuine one-to-one communication is substantially different from the "speak as if you are addressing one person" technique that public speakers and TV and radio announcers learn. His Holiness doesn't greet only the whole audience--he truly seeks out each person in the audience, too. He makes eye contact with each person, he reaches for the hand of each person he can. He is fully present to each person, even if the encounter is for only a few seconds.

Daniel J. Johnson
Writer and Pauline Cooperator
Hainesville, Illinois

In my opinion, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, is a saint following in the footsteps of John the Baptist and Thomas Aquinas. Like John, he has been a man crying out in the wilderness as a witness to a greater truth of which he is the herald. Like Thomas, he has been a revolutionary Catholic intellect who started a Renaissance whose influence will be felt for millennia to come, if the world lasts that long.

Like a comet from the East, this Pope burst on the scene and captured a dormant Western culture by surprise. During the past several decades he has acted like a Catholic Socrates to challenge modernity and wake the West and East, like big sleepy horses, from their dogmatic slumber. In so doing, he has existed among us like Teiresias among the dead: something real among shadows, a man possessed of mind among those who have lost theirs.

A man like this comes along once in hundreds of years. One of the great blessings of my life has been to have been able to live during his papacy.

Peter A. Redpath, Ph.D.
Professor of philosophy, St. John’s University, N.Y.,
co-director Great Books program, Staten Island, NY

The saintly presence of Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has been an inspiration to my own life of faith. Guiding me always towards Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, Pope John Paul II is a saint of our modern times. I believe that he will be remembered as one of the greatest popes who ever lived.

I will be eternally grateful for his writings and teachings, which have inspired me to stay close to the magisterium, that teaching authority of the Church where I have found the Truth which has set me free, and which I continually long for and desire. Having been in the presence of Pope John Paul II on five separate occasions, I find that it is his love and his great compassion for humanity that will remain as reminders to me of the way that I, too, ought to live and witness to my faith. Thank you, John Paul II, you have made a difference in the world and in my life.

Mary Ann Donaleshen
wife, mother of four, director of World Youth Day activities
Diocese of Calgary, Alberta

What an extraordinary exercise of the ministry of teacher and prophet we have had in the pontificate of John Paul II.

His clear and deep teaching, evidenced in very important encyclicals over the years, has steadied a Church that was beset by not a little confusion in the years after Vatican II.

His prophetic preparation of the Church for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 was extraordinary in its spiritual fervor and depth. His leadership in the area of humility and repentance is truly inspiring and will remain a permanent part of his legacy. His repeated prophetic summons to prepare ourselves for a "new springtime of Christianity," for a "new Pentecost," is remarkable for its sensitivity to the Spirit's urging.

And his summons to "contemplate the face of Christ" and reconnect with the mystical tradition of the Church as we enter into the new millennium remains a challenge and a hope that has scarcely been responded to but holds such rich promise for the true renewal of the face of the Church, which indeed, is the face of Christ.

Personally he has been a source of inspiration, strength and encouragement for all the years of his pontificate.

I was living in Belgium, working with Cardinal Suenens, at the time of Paul VI's and John Paul I's deaths. The Cardinal invited me to accompany him to Rome in preparation for the upcoming conclave. I was in St. Peter's square the evening the election of John Paul II was announced and was among the many thousands who received his first blessing as pope.

Shortly afterwards I and some other leaders of the charismatic renewal were invited to spend an evening with John Paul II sharing about our respective experiences of the Spirit at work in our lives.

Some time after that I was asked to have lunch with Pope John Paul II. I was astounded to hear one of the Pope’s collaborators from the Secretariat of State tell the Pope about a tape series I had done entitled A Crisis of Truth (later was published as a book). The Pope asked me how I saw the condition of the Church at the time and after a lengthy conversation he confided to his collaborator that we both saw things in a similar manner. He told me, "You must continue your work; you must continue your work."

Because of my role in lay renewal movements I have had many opportunities to be with the Pope over the years and it has always been a source of inspiration and strength.

I recall in the mid-1990s, a very special moment after a morning Mass celebrated by the Pope in his private chapel. I had the opportunity to give him a copy of a new book I had written, The Catholic Church at the End of the Age: What is the Spirit Saying. The Pope took it, looked at the cover, and said "I've already read it." And then he asked me: "What is the Spirit saying to the Church today?"

I knew he didn't want the whole 300 page answer, and I felt that the Spirit gave me one word to say in response to his question. "Holy Father, I think what the Spirit is saying to the Church today is 'Jesus.'"

He took my hand and simply said in response, "Jesus." It wasn't a question or even a statement, but seemed to be a prayer, an affirmation, a cry, a hope. And then I simply said in response, "Jesus." And then he said again, "Jesus." And for a few minutes we stood there together, holding hands, saying the holy name of Jesus together, in adoration, in thanksgiving, in communion, in proclamation, in intercession.

Thanks be to God for the ministry of Pope John Paul II. May we continue to plumb the depths of the direction in which he has pointed us!

Ralph Martin
Catholic Charismatic Renewal, South Bend, IN; well-known author and presenter

One of the things I appreciate the most about John Paul II is that he has been an ambassador to so many countries, an ambassador of peace. He has shown that the Church is involved in the cares and concerns of so many lives, especially the poor. I remember one of the things he wanted to do when he came to Columbia, South Carolina, was to meet with Church leaders, Catholic ministers as well as the pastors and ministers of the various Christian denominations. At the meeting I turned around and there was a Baptist preacher seated behind me and ministers of different denominations around me. As far as I know that was the first and only time that has ever happened here. That event impressed on me how important it is to nurture these relationships among ourselves.

Sr. Colie Stokes, SSMN
Spiritual director, "Carolina Catholic" radio, Charleston, SC
Adult Education Coordinator, Blessed Sacrament Church

When it comes to what we expect of our leaders we’re all the same. We want them to be, if not mirror images of ourselves, then reflections of the best of ourselves, images of what we want to be. What makes us different is how we define that "best."

By who he is and by how he is, John Paul II is challenging our very notions of Church leadership. Here is a man in his sunset years, who understandably can no longer stride across the world’s stage as he once did. He struggles to speak. He can hardly walk. Though mentally sharp, still he is tired. Such a figure in a prominent position proves an embarrassment to a culture in which appearances and efficiency are often considered the measure of leadership.

Without prejudice to all the requirements of the Petrine ministry, such embarrassment beckons each of us to examine the real issue.

Christ’s humiliation—his passion and death—and his resurrection stand at the salvific center of his entire redemptive life. Paraphrasing Teresa of Jesus, one of the greatest Christian mystics, ours is not a time for following everyone, but only those who model their lives on Christ. He is the "leader in the work of salvation [made] perfect through suffering" (Heb 2:10). Thus the life of the Church, and by association, the life of every Christian and of every Christian minister, is salvific for itself and for the world to the degree that it does mirror—Jesus Christ—sharing "in his sufferings by being formed into the pattern of his death" (Phil 3:10).

Is what some call John Paul’s "clinging to power" actually his fidelity to God’s call: not to papacy as such, but to the testimony of what is at the heart of all evangelical ministry? The call to shepherding, perhaps, even to the laying down of one’s life?

Sr. Margaret J. Obrovac, FSP
Co-author, www.johnpaulpapacy.com

I had never thought much about John Paul until one day, while on a visit to my parish chapel, I happened to pick up, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope." I was aware of John Paul’s political and moral impact, which played a crucial role in the demise of the Cold War, but I was unaware of his great intellectual and spiritual depths until I began reading this book. In it he answers complex questions regarding contemporary problems facing the Church and addresses them with intellectual clarity and deep spiritual insight. I was personally touched listening to John Paul’s mind and heart and my faith and confidence was reaffirmed that the Holy Spirit does indeed lead us through this great and holy man.

Tom Kinarney
Artist

There is so much to admire about Pope John Paul II. His vitality and intellect, his respect for human dignity, his ability to challenge world leaders, and his connection with young people are all outstanding traits. However, I have discovered one particular attribute that really touches my heart.

The Holy Father demonstrates this special quality so well to all the world. It became clearly evident to me while I stood shoulder to shoulder in a roaring crowd of people in St. Peter’s Square. As he passed by and gave us his Papal Blessing, I noticed that I was not the only one whose eyes brimmed with tears. I believe that it is his sincere humility that has such a stirring effect on everyone.

There are times when I see him struggling with his frailty or deep in prayer that I feel that I am witnessing his profound spiritual connection with our Lord. The world is much in need of a saintly pope, and I thank God he gave us John Paul II to lead us into the new millennium.

Virginia Esquinaldo,
Illustrator

As a national organization of women whose mission is to “support, empower and educate all Catholic women,” the National Council of Catholic Women places great value on Pope John Paul II's statements regarding the “genius of women.” It is the recognition that women of the church have sought in its efforts for a full and collaborative ministry to answer the needs of society today.

Pope John Paul II's spirit during his reign as pontiff, has been that of hope, light and great faith for the millions of catholics around the world. It is our hope that this same spirit will live on in the people of the Catholic Church well into the future.

Margaret “Maggie” Gray,
President, National Council of Catholic Women