Today being the centenary of the birth of Pope St John Paul...

It is only fitting to remember such an auspicious event. I was able to attend the Pope's celebration of Holy Mass at Des Moines in Iowa in October 1979-- I remember cold rain and mud (and the charity of a local family who gave us their basement to sleep in the night before: we were planning on waiting it out at... whatever the site was called, outside the city). At my distance, his Holiness was a small figure in white. I saw him again at St Peter's in May 2000, after the Jubilee Mass for the Diocese of Rome, from perhaps ten feet away: age and the burden of the years had taken their toll, certainly. The Laudes regiae that began the Mass remain in my memory, connecting the Holy Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, the Protomartyrs of Rome, and all her saints through these 21 centuries. Feliciter! Regnum Christi veniat!

Father Hunwicke, here, and Father Zuhlsdorf, here.



***

Comments