Bearing Witness to JPII

On the night before the Beatification of Saint John Paul II, the city of Rome was buzzing with excitement. Over one million pilgrims flooded the streets surrounding St. Peter’s Square in the hope of being able to get into the Square for the Papal Mass on May 1, 2011. They came from all over the world to honor the man who overcame so much become a priest and was later called to serve as a bishop, cardinal, and then the Supreme Pontiff.

A similar scene was seen in the evening of April 3, 2005, as the late Holy Father was dying from complications from Parkinson’s disease. As the pilgrims prayed in vigil as he died, many people were so impacted that they returned to Rome to see him declared “Blessed”. One of these people was Bianco Pierre, who traveled with his wife from France, to be present for the Beatification celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square. Pierre was present in the Square in 2005, when the announcement was made that the pope had died and he remained in Rome for the funeral. Over six years later, he returned to celebrate the life of John Paul II and to venerate the sarcophagus that was placed within St. Peter’s Basilica after the Beatification.

The Church spends a lot of time in prayer as it discerns the heavenly state of someone that had died. For John Paul II, prayers from the entire Church began immediately after his death. Even at his funeral, many remember the crowds roaring, “Santo Subito,” which means, “Sainthood now.” The prayers of one religious community were answered when Sr. Marie Simon-Pierre was miraculously cured from her own bout with Parkinson’s. Sr. Marie took part in the Beatification Mass by bearing the reliquary containing an ampule of blood taken from the pope during his last stay at a hospital in Rome before his death. During the Mass, this relic was reverenced by Pope Benedict XVI and then given to Sr. Marie Simon-Pierre to place on a stand for the pilgrims to venerate.

Personally, the Beatification was a deeply spiritual experience to see the entire world gather around the late Holy Father to celebrate his life, his pontificate, and his impact on human history over the last fifty years. I saw the Body of Christ in the Square, manifested in both the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims around Vatican City and our link to the countless Saints that have gone before us as examples of holiness, particularly seen in the Square by the statues of Saints and Apostles overlooking those at the Beatification. I was also struck by the clear apostolic link of St. Peter, buried beneath the Basilica, and the unbroken line stretching all the way to Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
Benjamin Starnes, a student living abroad in Rome for the semester, reflected on the importance of the life of John Paul II. “Holy men and women are normal people, they do not just fall from Heaven,” he said. Starnes added, “Everybody has the same potential to become holy and, as Blessed John Paul II taught us, we should not be afraid of holiness and sanctity.”

Brian Buettner ’13 Archdiocese of Oklahoma City Special Correspondent, Sooner Catholic