Pope’s vigor, availability impressed student-priest in 1979
Archbishop Dolan recalls first time he met Pope John Paul II

PAPAL AUDIENCE — Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan share a conversation while they join the Archdiocesan Festival Choir for a group photo following a private audience at the Vatican June 30, 2003. Archbishop Dolan received his pallium from the pope one day earlier. (Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero)

By Brian T. Olszewski, Catholic Herald Staff

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan will never forget the first time he met Pope John Paul II.

“Dec. 31, 1979,” he said.

Then-Fr. Dolan had been a priest three years and was a graduate student at The Catholic University of America. Realizing that as a parish priest he might never have another Christmas away from a parish, he visited the Holy Land and Rome.

On New Year’s Eve, the Holy Father was praying the “Te Deum” — a classical prayer of praise — at the Jesuit church, Gesu. While the 29-year-old Fr. Dolan and his traveling companions were unable to get into the church, they stood outside along the barriers.

“The pope comes out of church and starts chatting with hundreds of people. I was startled by his availability, and by how young and vigorous he was,” the archbishop said in an interview with the Catholic Herald.

That would be the first of at least two dozen times that Archbishop Dolan would meet Pope John Paul II. As rector of the North American College from 1994 to 2001, twice a year he would take priests who were on sabbatical at the college to meet the pontiff.

On a half dozen occasions, Archbishop Dolan had the opportunity to celebrate Mass with Pope John Paul II in the pontiff’s private chapel. Prior to the celebration of the liturgy, the Holy Father would kneel on his priedieu and spend time “locked in prayer.”

Archbishop Dolan noted that the shelf of the priedieu was “stuffed with cards — hundreds of them.” The cards were prayer requests that people all over the world had sent to the pope.

When Archbishop Dolan’s niece, Shannon, was diagnosed with cancer, he sent her name to the Holy Father, via the pope’s personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz.

Several months later, he received a letter from Archbishop Dziwisz informing him that the pope had, in fact, prayed for Shannon, who did recover.

Archbishop Dolan said that as auxiliary bishop, archbishop, cardinal, and pope, Karol Wojtyla’s approach to ministry was always the same — as that of a parish priest.

“He would teach, preach, visit the sick, work with young people, teach at the university, and continue to learn,” the archbishop said. “He notched it up a bit when he became archbishop of Krakow.”

Archbishop Dolan said he saw parallels between the man in which the pope approached his ministry and the way he himself ministers.

“All I wanted to be is a parish priest,” he said. “I see the Archdiocese of Milwaukee as my parish.”

It was with that parish that Archbishop Dolan spent much of the weekend of April 2 and 3 following the death of Pope John Paul II. After a press conference on the steps of St. John the Evangelist Cathedral, he went to East Troy to confirm at St. Peter Parish. He returned to Milwaukee and appeared live on the Channel 4, 10 p.m. news.

The next day, the archbishop dedicated the new church at St. Clare, Wind Lake, confirmed at St. Patrick, Milwaukee, and presided at Evening Prayer for the Dead at the cathedral. Speaking from the cathedra, he told the standing room only crowd, “I feel very much at home in the archdiocese. This is my chair.”

Archbishop Dolan said that as important as the chair was to him and to the Catholic community in southeastern Wisconsin, the pope’s chair — the Chair of Peter — was more important.

“It is the symbol of unity, authority, teaching and wisdom,” the archbishop said.

He noted that the death of the pope hit him as he celebrated Mass in East Troy Saturday night.

“I came to that part of the Eucharistic Prayer where for all of my priesthood I have prayed ‘for our Holy Father, John Paul,’ and for the first time did not say those words,” he said. Prayers for the pope will return to the Eucharistic Prayer when a successor is elected.

Archbishop Dolan noted that during this time, Catholics are in the “noble business of grieving” the loss of the pope.

“When we grieve, we love to be with family. We gather as brothers, sisters, friends, and neighbors,” he said. “We find solidarity in our grieving.”

The archbishop termed this a time for Catholics to be thankful for Pope John Paul II.

“We are grateful to Almighty God for the gift that was Karol Jozef Wojtyla,” he said.

After telling those gathered, “We owe him our prayers,” the archbishop said that Catholics must have “confidence and hope.”

“Are we going to miss him?” he asked. “You bet we’re going to miss him. There’s a hole, an emptiness.”

He added that the hope and confidence are possible because “God is your father, Jesus is your Savior, and the Holy Spirit is the source of unity.”

Archbishop Dolan said that when he is asked, “Who’s in charge (of the church)?” he replies, “I hope it’s the same person who has always been in charge — the second person of the Holy Trinity.”

He said mourners can find solace in the memorial acclamation — “Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again.”

Archbishop Dolan noted that the bells that tolled a requiem sound on Saturday “will be tolling joy” when the new pope is elected.

Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Sklba, an e-mail interview with the Catholic Herald said that he had met the pope personally “many times” during the 25 years of his episcopacy.

“The first few times he would express a question to the effect of whether I was ‘Slovak or Polish or what?’ Then thereafter he would always immediately identify me as “Sklba … you are Slovak! From Milwaukee!” the bishop recalled.

Noting that it was still too early to determine how history would see Pope John Paul II, Bishop Sklba said the pontiff would be remembered for his outreach to Jews, global travel, and “his willingness to engage the intellectual mind of modernity, especially in areas of personalist philosophy and culture.”

The bishop added that the pope’s anti-communism will also be noted.

“The future will see him as a centralizing figure who brought the fighting spirit of anti-communist experiences to a world stage with an overwhelming concern for the type of church unity which had been necessary in that climate,” he said. “Future generations will be able to determine whether there have been both blessings and burdens in that fact.”

In a prepared statement, retired Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland stated,

“Undoubtedly Pope John Paul II will go down in history as one of the most significant figures of our day. His long pontificate demonstrated an interest in the whole world and coincided with so many movements in society that were dear to him and about which he had much to say. He certainly forced the Catholic Church into becoming a global institution through his world vision and many trips. He also will be remembered for his position of support for the forces that ultimately led to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. His texts on social justice will be quoted for many generations. He has left his mark on both church and world and has assured himself of a position in world history.”

Contributing to this story was Fr. Tom Brundage.

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