Home/Stay Informed/All Diocesan Articles

All Diocesan Articles

Pope John Paul II 20 Years Later: ‘He Lives in Hearts’

Posted on April 02, 2025 in: News

Pope John Paul II 20 Years Later: ‘He Lives in Hearts’

In 1984, Pope John Paul II met in Rome with 300,000 young people from all over the world in a meeting that laid the foundations for today’s World Youth Day. | Credit: Gregorini Demetrio, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

 

Now 20 years since Pope John Paul II’s death on April 2, 2005, one of his closest collaborators says the Polish pontiff lives on in the hearts and memories of the many people who still feel connected to him today.

Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, John Paul II’s personal secretary for nearly four decades, told EWTN News during an interview in Krakow that visitors to the saint’s tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica “don’t go to the dead pope, they go to the living pope. He lives in hearts, he lives in memories.”

“There is still this dialogue between the pope and the people and the people with him. This is how I feel,” the 85-year-old cardinal and former archbishop of Krakow said. “He departed but at the same time remained with us. … People cling to him, study him again.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who has Polish parents, said John Paul II changed Poland and the world.

“The world that we live in today is in the shape it’s in, at least in some aspects, because of John Paul’s witness,” Wenski told EWTN News in Miami, “especially when he went to Poland in 1979 and inspired the people by saying ‘Be not afraid’ and asking the Holy Spirit … to change the face of this land, this Polish land.”

Dziwisz echoed this sentiment, noting that “many things changed in the Church and in the world under the influence of John Paul II and his activities. … In Rome itself and in the Church, there was a belief that the future belonged to Marxism. And the pope said that the future belongs to human rights, to the human person, to human freedom, and not to the enslavement that Marx gave.”

‘We want to be with him’

“I also remember his departure wasn’t a departure to history, to the archives,” Dziwisz said. “He works and you can see it. People run to God thanks to him and receive different graces.”

The cardinal remembered how emotional everyone was when they said goodbye to the Polish pope in the days leading to his final breath on Saturday, April 2, 2005: “How they approached the pope, crying, to kiss his hand and say goodbye.”

“It was only in the afternoon, on Saturday, the day of his departure and death, that the pope asked to have the holy Scripture read to him,” Dziwisz said, recalling that a priest there in his room “read the Gospel of St. John, nine chapters. And [the pope] followed, he didn’t say anything, he just followed and listened to the Gospel. He prepared [for death] simply, by reading the holy Scripture, consciously knowing he’s leaving.”

Then a priest, Dziwisz had been at John Paul II’s side as his personal secretary since 1966, when the future pope was the new archbishop of Krakow. He said he and others “opened the window discretely” of John Paul II’s apartment where he lay dying so he could hear the voices of the thousands keeping vigil in St. Peter’s Square outside.

“So that he could have the satisfaction [of knowing] that there are people with him,” Dziwisz explained. “There was this big, quite large youth group who had been camping for the second day [in St. Peter’s Square]. I said to them: ‘You are going home.’ They said: ‘He was with us, so now we want to be with him.’ And indeed, they were. The youth did not abandon him to the end.”

Umberto Civitarese, a longtime employee of Vatican Radio (now Vatican News) who covered up close John Paul II’s papacy, including many of his international trips, said the pope “never gave up, he didn’t give up, he managed everything until the end and he was trying in every way to be present.”

Civitarese told EWTN News he remembered an Angelus one Sunday in which John Paul went to the window but he couldn’t speak, but “that was enough” for his flock waiting below. People “didn’t expect anything else, it was enough just to see him,” he added.

Even when he was sick, he was active, Dziwisz said. “He had perfect awareness until the end, until the last day and hour.”

The retired Polish cardinal emphasized that even in suffering, John Paul II never complained: “What I know is what he said, that suffering has meaning. That’s how he approached it.”

‘A man united with God in prayer’

“Very early on, we, not only me, had the impression that we were dealing with a saint,” Civitarese said about his and his colleagues’ experience with the pontiff. “Because the example he set on a daily basis, in my opinion, remained inimitable.”

“So many times one asks but what does one have to do to become a saint? And I know, I understood — seeing him, yes, from following the example that he set … the commitment he put into his role, putting the meaning of being pope first,” he noted.

Dziwisz said John Paul II’s “holiness was because he was a man united with God in prayer.”

Civitarese saw this commitment to prayer in action on the pope’s many international trips, when, after a very long day, the first thing he would do is go to the chapel of the nunciature he was staying at to pray.

“While the others [traveling with him] maybe were refreshing, there were those who were eating, those who were phoning, those who were resting, he instead put prayer first,” the radio technician said, adding that these are the memories that have stuck with him and left a lasting impression.

“The thing I remember most strongly about him was this magnetism that he had,” he said. “When you are in contact with a personality like that I think it changes your life a little bit.”

By Hannah Brockhaus

This article was originallty published by the Cathollic News Agency on April 2, 2025.


Most Viewed Articles of the Last 30 Days

Watch the 2025 Chrism Mass and Homily by Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne
The 2025 Chrism Mass was celebrated on Wednesday, April 16th, at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Norwich. The Most Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Norwich, presided over the sacred liturgy, which marks a highlight of Holy Week. This special Mass featured the blessing of the holy oils—used throughout the year for sacraments such as Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, and Holy Orders—and the Renewal of Priestly Promises by the clergy of the Diocese. We invite you to watch the video of the full Mass, especiall...

Read More

Faithful Invited to Witness a Joyous Moment in Diocesan History — Parish Tickets and Livestream Offered
The Diocese of Norwich joyfully awaits the ordination and installation of Bishop-elect Richard F. Reidy as the sixth bishop of Norwich, to be held on Tuesday, April 29, at 2:00 p.m. in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Norwich. Due to the limited capacity of the Cathedral, each parish in the diocese has received an allotment of just four tickets per church to distribute. Anyone interested in attending in person must contact their parish office directly. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate ticket requests through the diocesan office. The ordination and installati...

Read More

2025 Kicks off with ACA Leadership Meeting

Posted on March 26, 2025 in: News, ACA

936

2025 Kicks off with ACA Leadership Meeting
  The 2025 Annual Catholic Appeal, One Faith One Family, Leadership Meeting and Dinner took place on February 26, 2025, at St. Maurice Church in Bolton, CT. Bishop-Elect Reidy was in attendance and heartfully thanked all of the priests, chairpeople and administrative assistants for their hard work on last year’s appeal. Executive Director, Mary Ellen Mahoney also expressed her gratitude to the attendees, noting that they never would have ended the year so close to goal without everyone’s dedication and sacrifice. Father Richard Breton hosted the even...

Read More

This Year’s Seton Honorees Announced

Posted on March 26, 2025 in: News, Events

770

This Year’s Seton Honorees Announced
Celebrating 15 Years of Honoring Catholic Educators This year will mark the 15th Annual Seton Scholarship Dinner, titled respectively after Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton who is known as a founder of this country’s parochial school system, established this nation’s first all-girls Catholic School in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Elizabeth was born on August 28, 1774, and originally raised Episcopalian before converting to Catholicism. She was married to William Seton, and they had five children. The Legacy of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Elizabeth Ann Seton was the fou...

Read More

Celebrating Our Faithful Servants: Priestly Jubilees of 2025
With gratitude and joy, the Diocese of Norwich extends heartfelt congratulations and prayerful best wishes to the priests celebrating milestone anniversaries of their ordination to the sacred priesthood in 2025. These dedicated men have faithfully answered God’s call, each offering years of devoted service to Christ and His Church. Celebrating 65 years of priesthood are Reverend Paul F. Ramen (ordained February 2, 1960) and Reverend John E. Welch, M.S. (May 28, 1960), whose lifetime of ministry continues to inspire. Marking 60 years, Monsignor James Carini (May ...

Read More

New Exhibition in New Haven Sheds Light on Persecuted Christians in Iraq and Nigeria
The Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven is hosting a powerful new exhibition titled Among the Persecuted and Displaced: Photographs from Iraq and Nigeria, on display from March 22 through September 7, 2025. The exhibition highlights the stories of Christians who face extreme persecution in these regions, where militant groups like ISIS and Boko Haram have inflicted devastating violence and displacement. Featuring the work and outreach of Stephen Rasche, an American attorney and advocate for persecuted Christians, the exhibit offers a poignant look int...

Read More

Annual Catholic Appeal

ACA DONATE

English

Español

 

Latest Articles
‘Death is not the End of Everything’: Vatican Releases Pope’s Reflections on Aging, Dying
Pope's Funeral Set for April 26, Public Viewing April 23-25
Pope Francis Remembered: Statement from Archbishop Coyne
Pope Francis dies at 88, Ending Historic Pontificate Marked by Mercy and Reform
Easter Vigil Spreads the Light of Christ
Celebrating Our Faithful Servants: Priestly Jubilees of 2025
From the Archbishop: The Resurrection Gives Us Hope
Watch the 2025 Chrism Mass and Homily by Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne
Recently Added Galleries
Click to view album: Students Called to Feed the Hungry
Click to view album: 40 Days for Life 2024
Click to view album: Blessing of the Fleet 2024
Click to view album: Mass of Ordination for Fr. Eric Carl Hosmer, Fr. Julian Felipe Cuervo-Lozada and Fr. Alexander James Pandolfe
Signup for Weekly Newsletter

     

    Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich
    201 Broadway
    Norwich, CT 06360-4328
    Phone: 860-887-9294