On the evening of the 16th October 1978, as I watched the small chimney rising above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, a small trickle of white smoke began to rise into the dusk-laden air. A buzz of excitement spread throughout the thousands and thousands who thronged St. Peter's Square and soon the transistor radios and the televisions in the nearby bars began to confirm what shortly would be announced from the central balcony of the Basilica: "Habemus Papam - we have a Pope". As the deafening cheer died down in expectancy, the name of Karol Wojtyla reverberated around the great square and I knew that the new Pope had been chosen from "a faraway country", from Poland and the Archdiocese of Krakow. I had known him because he had been chosen by Pope Paul VI to preach the annual Lenten Retreat to the Roman Curia in 1976 and I had met him each day of that Retreat.
Shortly after the announcement there appeared on the central balcony a figure dressed all in white. This was now Pope John Paul II, a name chosen in succession to the defunct Pontiff, John Paul I. With a strong and emotion-filled voice the new Pope's first words to the City and to the World were: "Praised be Jesus Christ". Six days later, again in St. Peter's Square this time filled with faithful and government figures from all over the world, Pope John Paul's Pontificate was inaugurated. In the course of a memorable homily on that occasion, when he called on all men and women not to have fear, his strong voice was heard throughout the world: "Do not be afraid! Open, indeed throw open the doors to Christ! To his saving power open the confines of States, of economic as well as political systems, the vast camps of culture, of civilization and of development. Do not be afraid! Christ knows what is within man. Only He knows!" And then he prayed: "O Christ, make me become the servant of your unique power! Servant of your sweet power! Servant of your power which knows no sunset! May I become a servant! Indeed, a servant of Your servants".
On the evening of the 16th October 2003, twenty-five years later, Pope John Paul II, now no longer the young 58 year-old energetic and youthful Pope but still the same faith-filled, spirit-filled servant of Christ, will celebrate in St. Peter's Square, before the world and with the world, the Silver Jubilee of His Pontificate. He has kept faith with Christ. He has guided the people of God without fear. He has seen confines of nations and systems, both economic and political, open before the power of Christ's Word. He has been the faithful messenger to the farthest ends of the earth and he has not held back from stretching out his hand of friendship and solidarity to peoples of every culture, language and creed. The youth of the world, as well as the aged and infirm, have been very much in his heart and mind as he has travelled the length and breadth of the earth calling on all to open up to the Person of Jesus Christ. His utter confidence in and encouragement for the youth of the world is epitomised in his final message to them in Rome at the end of the World Youth Day 2000: "If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze".
Now, at the age of eighty-three years, weakened in body but very strong in spirit, Pope John Paul continues to call on the Bishops, Priests, Religious and Lay-faithful of the Church to remain faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the traditions handed down to the Church and particularly to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. The thousands of encounters, both personal and general, the numerous Encyclicals and Apostolic letters, the hundreds of thousands of homilies and speeches delivered in numerous languages have given to the Church in our time a legacy of teaching and witness which make of Pope John Paul II truly "A man for all seasons". Perhaps, now that his physical suffering is so evident and so much displayed in public view, this is the time when he is most eloquent, this is the time when his consistent message of the sacredness of human life, from conception to natural death, is being spelt out visibly in his own person. Are we truly open to receive the message that is coming across from this extraordinary messenger of the Lord? Are we, spurred on by the media accounts, concentrating so much on the physical weakness of the messenger that we are missing the precious content of the Message being delivered? While we pray for the Person of the Vicar of Christ at this particular time - and he needs our prayers - let us not forget his call to us, some twenty-five years ago, to open the doors to Christ and not to be afraid.
As we thank God for the dedicated ministry of his Vicar on earth during the past twenty-five years, let us learn from the witness of his life. His dual-devotion, Eucharistic and Marian, have been the hallmark of his long Pontificate and the mainstay of his ministering efforts to spread the Good News of the Gospel. His Marian motto: "Totus Tuus ego sum" - "I am all yours" has ensured that he put his total trust in the Mother of God and, despite his having been wounded by a would-be assassin, he still trusted in Her who always takes care of Her children. The many, many times - and I personally witnessed them - when the Holy Father, after a long and tiring day of pastoral work, would throw himself down prostrate before his Eucharistic Lord, indicate where his priorities lay.
He the Vicar is the humble servant, he the Holy Father is the faithful son, he the Messenger is the spirit-filled bearer of Good News. His first words as Pope were: "Praised be Jesus Christ!" His whole Papal ministry in these twenty-five years has been a faithful carrying-out of this prophetic acclamation. May we now say "Praised be Jesus Christ" for all He has accomplished through his trusted servant, John Paul II, and may the Lord who chose him "from a far-away country" to be the Successor of Saint Peter now sustain him, bless him and continue to speak to the world through him for the salvation of souls and the welfare of every human life created and redeemed in His own image and likeness.
+ John Magee.
Bishop of Cloyne.