A Living, Young Church Was What We Saw in St. Peter's Square on May 1

Putting into words what those of us who were in St. Peter’s Square last May 1 experienced is almost impossible. The magnetism of Our Home drew more than a million faithful and hundreds of journalists from all over the world, who had arrived just hours or days before.

As soon as we landed at Fiumicino airport we began to see the beautiful posters announcing the coming beatification. Taxi drivers said Rome had never seen so many pilgrims. In the days before the beatification, thousands of young people, radiant with happiness, walked through the Eternal City, where so many martyrs and saints rest and give off an indescribable spiritual strength that renews you inside to keep up the struggle to be an exemplary Christian.

We saw thousands of young priests and sisters of every charism and congregation, of every color and from every part of the world. The happiness they radiated is impossible to describe. In the early hours of May 1, as we made our way to St. Peter’s Square at four in the morning, we saw many pilgrims sleeping on mats on the bridges near Castel Sant’Angelo. By then hundreds of faithful were already in the streets around the Via della Conciliazione.

The cold, the sleepless night, the hunger, the hours of waiting, the security lines: none of it mattered at all. Nothing mattered, because we were attending one of the most eagerly awaited events in our Holy Catholic Church: the Beatification of the Great John Paul II, who had surely shaken hands with many of those present, and to whom many surely owed their conversion and their encounter with the Faith and with our beloved Jesus Christ.

We journalists went through the usual security checks and were then taken up on a lift to a very high terrace, together with reporters from all over the world. Little by little the Square filled, and from above we saw a sea of people singing and praying as they waited for that unique moment, which they would never live again.

Our Great John Paul II was to be declared Blessed. Our Great John Paul II, who traveled the whole world bringing God’s Love to everyone, and who took it upon himself, in an impressive way, to communicate the Truth of our Faith clearly, simply and attractively. All of that was the fruit of great work and great sacrifice, because this Great Pope also took care to purify and set out very clearly the Truths of our Faith and of our Holy Catholic Church.

Then the hour came: ten o’clock sharp. The beatification began, with Cardinal Agostino Vallini opening the rite by reading a short biography of John Paul II. Then the Holy Father Benedict XVI declared John Paul II Blessed, and the image hanging on the front of St. Peter’s Basilica was unveiled.

At that moment the applause thundered, and those of us on the media terrace were left “speechless and frozen,” because John Paul II’s gaze was directed straight at that terrace. Many of us thought, “What does this mean?”, and many of us reached for our handkerchiefs. We remembered how important communication was to John Paul II, and how much he insisted that Catholic journalists be well formed, be brave, and spread the Truth of Jesus Christ in every medium.

For many, John Paul II’s pontificate revolutionized the relationship between the Church and communication, and thanks to that, today we see Catholics all over the world who clearly know Jesus Christ’s message and the Doctrine he entrusted to his Church to guard. We are sure that many of the journalists there understood the message, as if John Paul II, with his penetrating gaze, were saying something like: I am counting on you to carry the Truth of Christ bravely through the media where you work.

Then Holy Mass began, and one of the things that struck everyone most (especially the media covering the event) was the silence and concentration of more than a million people, who followed the liturgy in a remarkable way. Many journalists shed tears of emotion, and those who didn’t were surprised to see their colleagues so moved.

Benedict XVI looked happier than ever. Who would have thought he himself would beatify his friend, his soul brother, with whom he had worked for more than 20 years? In his homily he recalled, in substance, that for more than 23 years he had been close to John Paul II and had come to revere him more and more; that his spiritual depth and the richness of his insights had sustained his own service; that he had always been struck and edified by the example of his prayer, immersed in his encounter with God even amid the many demands of his ministry; and that in his suffering, as the Lord slowly stripped him of everything, he remained a “rock,” as Christ wished. His deep humility, rooted in his close union with Christ, allowed him to keep guiding the Church and to give the world an even more eloquent message precisely as his physical strength was failing. In this way, Benedict said, he lived in an extraordinary way the vocation of every priest and bishop: to become one with the Jesus he receives and offers each day in the Eucharist. He ended by calling him blessed for having believed, and asked him to keep sustaining the faith of God’s People from Heaven.

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, the nun miraculously cured through John Paul II’s intercession, helped carry the relic of the new Blessed’s blood. Communion was distributed quickly to all the faithful; we journalists had the joy of a priest coming up to our terrace to give us the Body of Christ. At the end we sang the Regina Coeli and the Pope gave the final blessing.

To close this opinion report of sorts, we want to leave you with the same reflection the Entre Líneas team made from that high terrace as we looked out over that sea of people: what would the future of our Catholic Church be like if all these Catholics (plus everyone watching the beatification at home) followed the example of the first apostles? There were only twelve of them, and they changed a world that was in worse shape than this one. And now we have the wonderful means of communication, with which we can do wonders, and where, thank God, there are more Catholic journalists every day willing to spread the Truth of our faith and of our Holy Catholic Church.

So all that remains is for us to keep forming ourselves in order to put into practice all the teachings of Blessed John Paul II, whom we had the joy of welcoming in our country twice. He expects a great deal from us: he expects us to follow the universal call to holiness that the Second Vatican Council made and that he himself reminded us of so often, and he wants us not to be afraid. As he said so many times: do not be afraid to open wide the doors of your hearts to Christ, for he takes nothing away and gives us Everything.

The beatification is over, and now we have John Paul II closer than ever, to help us walk along God’s Way and carry the Good News of Our Lord Jesus Christ to every corner of the earth.