Pope John Paul II has died
Moderator: S2k Moderators
-
HurricaneGirl
- Category 5
- Posts: 5838
- Age: 61
- Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2003 9:45 am
- Location: Clare, Michigan
- Contact:
-
cycloneye
- Admin
- Posts: 149501
- Age: 69
- Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:54 am
- Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Rest in peace the best pope of modern time.He is already at heaven with god.
0 likes
Visit the Caribbean-Central America Weather Thread where you can find at first post web cams,radars
and observations from Caribbean basin members Click Here
and observations from Caribbean basin members Click Here
-
mikey mike
- Tropical Storm
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 9:01 pm
- Location: Gulfport,MS
-
swimaster20
- Category 1
- Posts: 285
- Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:41 pm
- Location: The Heart of Cajun Country
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Texas Polish town grieves for pope
By BILL MARVEL / The Dallas Morning News
PANNA MARIA, Texas – It was an odd kind of vigil that the men of this very Polish, very Catholic town kept the night and morning after the pope – their pope – died.
All through Saturday night and right up until Sunday mass, they labored at the community center, a big metal shed of a building just half a block from the historic Immaculate Conception Church. They smoked the beef and cooked the beans for the big spring social to be held the next afternoon.
"The community here probably feels the loss as much as anybody," said Frank Kruciak as he poured cans of Hunt's tomato sauce and V-8 juice into a large vat, making barbecue sauce. "But the food is ready to go."
The spring social had been planned for months. Gallons of potato salad and coleslaw were waiting in the freezer. Fliers had been sent out, and a thousand visitors were expected. And besides, the residents pointed out, the life-affirming pontiff who loved to don a sombrero and mingle with the people would have enjoyed a Texas barbecue.
Panna Maria, which considers itself the oldest Polish settlement in the United States (the name means Virgin Mary), was founded 150 years ago when Father Leopold Moczygemba led a group of Polish colonists up from Galveston. Most descendants of the original settlers have long since moved away – there are perhaps 100 families left. But the community is still the center of a cluster of Polish settlements that includes Cestohowa and Kosciuszko, all south of San Antonio and within 15 miles of one another.
These residents, most of them fourth-generation Polish-Americans and farmers, rejoiced when Karol Wojtyla, the archbishop of Krakow, was elected pope 26 years ago. Almost all went to San Antonio for his visit in 1987.
As his life ebbed in the last week, they kept an eye on TV sets and tuned in car and pickup radios as they went about their errands, waiting for the announcement they knew would come sooner or later. The news of his death on Saturday afternoon brought mingled relief, sadness and joy.
"I'm happy for him because my daddy suffered from that disease," said Regina Foegelle, 74, speaking of Parkinson's, the malady that afflicted John Paul II with extreme palsy during his final years. Mrs. Foegelle spent the morning mixing potato salad for the spring social. She led a rosary for the pope before Saturday evening Mass.
Lifelong Panna Maria resident Felix Mika Jr., 69, said that when he heard earlier in the week that the pope had received the last sacrament, he flashed back to his wife's final hours before she died of cancer five years ago.
Both were fighters until the end, he says, a trait he associates with Poland's long centuries of foreign occupation and persecution.
"The most important part of your life is now, and at the hour of your death," he said. "The church teaches that. The pope got that sacrament before dying, and that gave him the strength. Somebody said to me, 'I wish I could die like that.' He showed the example."
"The pope was going to come here to Panna Maria in 1987," said Bernice Keller, who sits watch over the Panna Maria Visitors Center, across the street from the church. She notes that the pope was exactly her age – 84 – when he died.
"They were going to have a platform for him and everything," she said. "Then they decided this was too small a place. They wouldn't have any place to park cars." Instead, he went to San Antonio. We were all definitely disappointed. But the whole town went up in three buses."
Five miles north of Panna Maria on State Highway 123 in the little community of Cestohowa, members of the Church of the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary men's club spent Saturday afternoon moving two flagpoles that were in danger of being engulfed by a hardy pine tree.
They paused in their labors to recall the 1987 visit. "I went," said Johnny May, 65, who operates a well-digging service. "I was there. I was close to him ... but not that close."
"I touched his hand," said his cousin, Adrian F. Wiatrek, 64, who works for the Wilson County road maintenance department. "My wife, Rosemary, said, 'The only pope I ever saw, and I got to touch his hand.' My wife said his hands were so warm."
Bells in the Church of the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary still toll for daily Mass and to announce deaths in the parish. Unlike push-button church bells in the area, the bells here are rung the traditional way, by pulling long, knotted ropes that hang in the belfry. And so plans were made to ring the bells to announce the death of John Paul II.
A parishioner called the parish secretary just after 2 p.m. Saturday with the news. She called David Krawietz, who tends the church's well-trimmed grounds and rings the bell for Sunday Mass. ("I know the ropes," he had quipped earlier.)
Twenty minutes later, Mr. Krawietz and his 8-year-old son, Thomas, pulled into the church parking lot. Thomas climbed a ladder and lighted the tall Easter candle next to the altar, symbol of the Resurrection. Then with another father-son pair, Louis Jaskinia Sr. and Jr., they climbed the narrow stairs up into bell tower.
At exactly 2:27 p.m., the first deep tones rang out over green fields still sprinkled with bluebonnets and scarlet Indian paintbrush. Even Thomas was pressed into service, bending with exertion.
"Don't let go of the rope," his father admonished.
The ringing lasted for five minutes, dying out as the elder Jaskinia sounded that last of 84 tones, one for each year of the pontiff's life.
Panna Maria also briefly rang the bells in its 100-foot bell tower. Within an hour, passing visitors – both Catholics and non-Catholics – and townspeople began to show up in front of the church.
The regular pastor at Panna Maria was on vacation – in Poland, it turned out – and so the Rev. Wieslaw Iwaniec, pastor of St. Mary's in Stockdale, offered the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday. As usual, the parishioners sang both English and traditional Polish hymns – one of them a favorite of the pope's.
The death of the pope was "like losing your father," he told parishioners. As a young Polish student, he told the congregation, he had been given a trip to Rome during which he had met the late pope three times. On the third visit, each member of the group had been encouraged to reveal something personal about themselves.
"I promised to serve the church as a priest, just one drop in the ocean," Father Iwaniec said. "He hugged me and kissed me and said, 'Bless you, my boy.'"
He reminded the congregation that the hand-carved chairs on the altar, where the priest and deacon sit, had been used by the pope during his San Antonio visit and were special gifts to Panna Maria.
"I think each one of us were touched by John Paul II," he said. "You people in this parish, every time you look at this chair, it's a souvenir of his presence."
By BILL MARVEL / The Dallas Morning News
PANNA MARIA, Texas – It was an odd kind of vigil that the men of this very Polish, very Catholic town kept the night and morning after the pope – their pope – died.
All through Saturday night and right up until Sunday mass, they labored at the community center, a big metal shed of a building just half a block from the historic Immaculate Conception Church. They smoked the beef and cooked the beans for the big spring social to be held the next afternoon.
"The community here probably feels the loss as much as anybody," said Frank Kruciak as he poured cans of Hunt's tomato sauce and V-8 juice into a large vat, making barbecue sauce. "But the food is ready to go."
The spring social had been planned for months. Gallons of potato salad and coleslaw were waiting in the freezer. Fliers had been sent out, and a thousand visitors were expected. And besides, the residents pointed out, the life-affirming pontiff who loved to don a sombrero and mingle with the people would have enjoyed a Texas barbecue.
Panna Maria, which considers itself the oldest Polish settlement in the United States (the name means Virgin Mary), was founded 150 years ago when Father Leopold Moczygemba led a group of Polish colonists up from Galveston. Most descendants of the original settlers have long since moved away – there are perhaps 100 families left. But the community is still the center of a cluster of Polish settlements that includes Cestohowa and Kosciuszko, all south of San Antonio and within 15 miles of one another.
These residents, most of them fourth-generation Polish-Americans and farmers, rejoiced when Karol Wojtyla, the archbishop of Krakow, was elected pope 26 years ago. Almost all went to San Antonio for his visit in 1987.
As his life ebbed in the last week, they kept an eye on TV sets and tuned in car and pickup radios as they went about their errands, waiting for the announcement they knew would come sooner or later. The news of his death on Saturday afternoon brought mingled relief, sadness and joy.
"I'm happy for him because my daddy suffered from that disease," said Regina Foegelle, 74, speaking of Parkinson's, the malady that afflicted John Paul II with extreme palsy during his final years. Mrs. Foegelle spent the morning mixing potato salad for the spring social. She led a rosary for the pope before Saturday evening Mass.
Lifelong Panna Maria resident Felix Mika Jr., 69, said that when he heard earlier in the week that the pope had received the last sacrament, he flashed back to his wife's final hours before she died of cancer five years ago.
Both were fighters until the end, he says, a trait he associates with Poland's long centuries of foreign occupation and persecution.
"The most important part of your life is now, and at the hour of your death," he said. "The church teaches that. The pope got that sacrament before dying, and that gave him the strength. Somebody said to me, 'I wish I could die like that.' He showed the example."
"The pope was going to come here to Panna Maria in 1987," said Bernice Keller, who sits watch over the Panna Maria Visitors Center, across the street from the church. She notes that the pope was exactly her age – 84 – when he died.
"They were going to have a platform for him and everything," she said. "Then they decided this was too small a place. They wouldn't have any place to park cars." Instead, he went to San Antonio. We were all definitely disappointed. But the whole town went up in three buses."
Five miles north of Panna Maria on State Highway 123 in the little community of Cestohowa, members of the Church of the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary men's club spent Saturday afternoon moving two flagpoles that were in danger of being engulfed by a hardy pine tree.
They paused in their labors to recall the 1987 visit. "I went," said Johnny May, 65, who operates a well-digging service. "I was there. I was close to him ... but not that close."
"I touched his hand," said his cousin, Adrian F. Wiatrek, 64, who works for the Wilson County road maintenance department. "My wife, Rosemary, said, 'The only pope I ever saw, and I got to touch his hand.' My wife said his hands were so warm."
Bells in the Church of the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary still toll for daily Mass and to announce deaths in the parish. Unlike push-button church bells in the area, the bells here are rung the traditional way, by pulling long, knotted ropes that hang in the belfry. And so plans were made to ring the bells to announce the death of John Paul II.
A parishioner called the parish secretary just after 2 p.m. Saturday with the news. She called David Krawietz, who tends the church's well-trimmed grounds and rings the bell for Sunday Mass. ("I know the ropes," he had quipped earlier.)
Twenty minutes later, Mr. Krawietz and his 8-year-old son, Thomas, pulled into the church parking lot. Thomas climbed a ladder and lighted the tall Easter candle next to the altar, symbol of the Resurrection. Then with another father-son pair, Louis Jaskinia Sr. and Jr., they climbed the narrow stairs up into bell tower.
At exactly 2:27 p.m., the first deep tones rang out over green fields still sprinkled with bluebonnets and scarlet Indian paintbrush. Even Thomas was pressed into service, bending with exertion.
"Don't let go of the rope," his father admonished.
The ringing lasted for five minutes, dying out as the elder Jaskinia sounded that last of 84 tones, one for each year of the pontiff's life.
Panna Maria also briefly rang the bells in its 100-foot bell tower. Within an hour, passing visitors – both Catholics and non-Catholics – and townspeople began to show up in front of the church.
The regular pastor at Panna Maria was on vacation – in Poland, it turned out – and so the Rev. Wieslaw Iwaniec, pastor of St. Mary's in Stockdale, offered the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday. As usual, the parishioners sang both English and traditional Polish hymns – one of them a favorite of the pope's.
The death of the pope was "like losing your father," he told parishioners. As a young Polish student, he told the congregation, he had been given a trip to Rome during which he had met the late pope three times. On the third visit, each member of the group had been encouraged to reveal something personal about themselves.
"I promised to serve the church as a priest, just one drop in the ocean," Father Iwaniec said. "He hugged me and kissed me and said, 'Bless you, my boy.'"
He reminded the congregation that the hand-carved chairs on the altar, where the priest and deacon sit, had been used by the pope during his San Antonio visit and were special gifts to Panna Maria.
"I think each one of us were touched by John Paul II," he said. "You people in this parish, every time you look at this chair, it's a souvenir of his presence."
0 likes
-
StormChasr
-
GalvestonDuck
- Category 5
- Posts: 15941
- Age: 58
- Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2002 8:11 am
- Location: Galveston, oh Galveston (And yeah, it's a barrier island. Wanna make something of it?)
GalvestonDuck wrote:Skywatch_NC wrote:It's interesting that his ring wouldn't go to surviving family members as a treasure memoriam of him.
I think he gets buried with it because it is a symbol of his "marriage" to the Church and the example he served.
Also, I'm not sure how many close surviving family members he has. All his immediate family was dead by 1942 (when he was 20) -- his mother, father, and brother. And he obviously has no wife nor any children of his own (in the usual sense of the word).
I thought wrong, Eric. Just read that the ring with the destroyed seal is buried with him to prevent forgeries since it is used to authentical Papal documents and certificates.
0 likes
-
montrealboy
- Tropical Storm
- Posts: 172
- Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2003 6:39 pm
- Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Live Webcast Coverage CBSNews: Remembering Pope John Paul II
Live Webcast Coverage CBSNews ''Remembering Pope John Paul II''
Follow continuing ''raw and unedited'' Live Coverage courtesy of CBSNews
in the Remembrance of Pope John Paul II.
Follow continuing ''raw and unedited'' Live Coverage courtesy of CBSNews
in the Remembrance of Pope John Paul II.
0 likes
-
StormChasr
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Pope's '87 visit is seared into memories
San Antonio Catholics proudly recall pontiff's historic, heat-filled stay
By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The experience of a papal visit can be overwhelming. So much is happening. So much emotion. It's hard to absorb everything.
One thing that sticks in the Rev. David Garcia's mind about Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to Texas was the pontiff's sunburn.
Last week, before the pope's death, Father Garcia vividly recalled the historic papal visit of Sept. 13, 1987. It marked the first and only visit by a pope to Texas. Father Garcia coordinated the outdoor papal Mass that drew the largest crowd in state history.
"It was a wonderful day, but it was so hot. The sun was scorching," Father Garcia said. "The Holy Father's face became redder and redder. After it was finished, I asked him if he was OK, and he smiled and said, 'I'm still alive.' It's something I keep remembering today."
That 23-hour papal visit remains for Father Garcia a bigger-than-life experience.
"Just in that short time, he boosted the church in Texas for years to come," he said. "But this was a visit for everyone. It was a day the city will never forget. And one that I will remember for the rest of my life."
>A special Mass was offered at San Fernando Cathedral on Sunday.
"This is a difficult moment for us, and we ask for prayers that he find peace," Archbishop Jose Gomez said. "This was a man of faith who reached out to everyone, Catholic or not. He spoke eloquently for the freedom and dignity of all people. He is a pope we love."
The 1987 visit started when the pope's plane landed at Kelly Air Force Base, greeted by Archbishop Patrick Flores and a mariachi band. In the next hours, the pope repeated in his homily and in talks in English and Spanish his concerns for Hispanic Catholics, who make up more than 60 percent of U.S. Catholics.
The outdoor Mass at a 144-acre site in northwest San Antonio near Sea World attracted about 350,000 people – 4,000 from northern Mexico. Crowds began forming at midnight for a Mass that wouldn't start until 11 a.m.
The specially designed site barely escaped disaster two days before, when high winds from a freak storm collapsed two 150-foot towers flanking the altar. No one was injured, and the site was quickly cleaned up. As the Mass began, Archbishop Flores told worshippers, "The towers collapsed, but the church of Texas is standing."
During the Mass, the pope praised those who work with immigrants, telling the faithful his hopes that the Hispanic community would "respond to its own needs and show generous and effective solidarity among its own members."
He also took notice of the blistering South Texas sun; "mucho calor" – very hot – he said at the end of the Mass. The crowd loved it.
During his brief stay, the crowds followed him everywhere. After the Mass, more than 325,000 cheering people lined the streets as he drove from an address to Catholic charities' officials at a downtown auditorium past the Alamo to San Fernando Cathedral to speak with a group of men and women studying to become priests or nuns.
As he passed in his popemobile, the crowds, which included many young people, chanted: "Hey, Pápa! Hey, Pápa! Hey, Pápa!"
"He was a man who had the uncanny ability to connect with young people," Father Garcia said. "When he walked into San Fernando, the young seminarians greeted him like a rock star."
The historic visit prompted an entrepreneurial outpouring of T-shirts, caps, commemorative pictures and other papal memorabilia. One of the more popular items was the "Pope Scope" – a periscope decorated with a picture of John Paul II for peering over crowds.
The San Antonio visit by John Paul II had special significance for Monsignor Frank Kurzaj, both as a Catholic and as a native of Poland.
"For the Polish Catholics, to have a pope from Poland carries extra weight," said Monsignor Kurzaj, a past president of the Polish-American Priests Association. "It means not only that God is watching us, but so is the pope. It is an honor, but more than that, it is a responsibility."
So when the pope's plane touched down in Texas, Monsignor Kurzaj was there to give the pontiff a touch of Poland, San Antonio-style.
"I brought in school kids to play music at his arrival at the airport. We played Polish tunes, for we knew he loved the melodies from the mountain areas of his home village," said Monsignor Kurzaj, known as Father Frank to his parishioners at Holy Name Catholic Church.
"It was a beautiful thing," he said. "As Holy Father was leaving, he made a point to thank the children. He stopped the bishops and politicians, made them wait so he could come over to the kids."
The papal visit was a special time for San Antonio as well, Monsignor Kurzaj said.
"This is a city in which people of different races, ethnic backgrounds and different faiths work well with each other, respect each other," he said. "I think the whole town, whether Catholic or not, were with the Holy Father that day."
On the city's predominantly Hispanic West Side, the pope gave another talk in Spanish at Guadalupe Plaza, urging more young Hispanic men and women to take up the mantle of church service.
San Antonio Catholics proudly recall pontiff's historic, heat-filled stay
By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The experience of a papal visit can be overwhelming. So much is happening. So much emotion. It's hard to absorb everything.
One thing that sticks in the Rev. David Garcia's mind about Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to Texas was the pontiff's sunburn.
Last week, before the pope's death, Father Garcia vividly recalled the historic papal visit of Sept. 13, 1987. It marked the first and only visit by a pope to Texas. Father Garcia coordinated the outdoor papal Mass that drew the largest crowd in state history.
"It was a wonderful day, but it was so hot. The sun was scorching," Father Garcia said. "The Holy Father's face became redder and redder. After it was finished, I asked him if he was OK, and he smiled and said, 'I'm still alive.' It's something I keep remembering today."
That 23-hour papal visit remains for Father Garcia a bigger-than-life experience.
"Just in that short time, he boosted the church in Texas for years to come," he said. "But this was a visit for everyone. It was a day the city will never forget. And one that I will remember for the rest of my life."
>A special Mass was offered at San Fernando Cathedral on Sunday.
"This is a difficult moment for us, and we ask for prayers that he find peace," Archbishop Jose Gomez said. "This was a man of faith who reached out to everyone, Catholic or not. He spoke eloquently for the freedom and dignity of all people. He is a pope we love."
The 1987 visit started when the pope's plane landed at Kelly Air Force Base, greeted by Archbishop Patrick Flores and a mariachi band. In the next hours, the pope repeated in his homily and in talks in English and Spanish his concerns for Hispanic Catholics, who make up more than 60 percent of U.S. Catholics.
The outdoor Mass at a 144-acre site in northwest San Antonio near Sea World attracted about 350,000 people – 4,000 from northern Mexico. Crowds began forming at midnight for a Mass that wouldn't start until 11 a.m.
The specially designed site barely escaped disaster two days before, when high winds from a freak storm collapsed two 150-foot towers flanking the altar. No one was injured, and the site was quickly cleaned up. As the Mass began, Archbishop Flores told worshippers, "The towers collapsed, but the church of Texas is standing."
During the Mass, the pope praised those who work with immigrants, telling the faithful his hopes that the Hispanic community would "respond to its own needs and show generous and effective solidarity among its own members."
He also took notice of the blistering South Texas sun; "mucho calor" – very hot – he said at the end of the Mass. The crowd loved it.
During his brief stay, the crowds followed him everywhere. After the Mass, more than 325,000 cheering people lined the streets as he drove from an address to Catholic charities' officials at a downtown auditorium past the Alamo to San Fernando Cathedral to speak with a group of men and women studying to become priests or nuns.
As he passed in his popemobile, the crowds, which included many young people, chanted: "Hey, Pápa! Hey, Pápa! Hey, Pápa!"
"He was a man who had the uncanny ability to connect with young people," Father Garcia said. "When he walked into San Fernando, the young seminarians greeted him like a rock star."
The historic visit prompted an entrepreneurial outpouring of T-shirts, caps, commemorative pictures and other papal memorabilia. One of the more popular items was the "Pope Scope" – a periscope decorated with a picture of John Paul II for peering over crowds.
The San Antonio visit by John Paul II had special significance for Monsignor Frank Kurzaj, both as a Catholic and as a native of Poland.
"For the Polish Catholics, to have a pope from Poland carries extra weight," said Monsignor Kurzaj, a past president of the Polish-American Priests Association. "It means not only that God is watching us, but so is the pope. It is an honor, but more than that, it is a responsibility."
So when the pope's plane touched down in Texas, Monsignor Kurzaj was there to give the pontiff a touch of Poland, San Antonio-style.
"I brought in school kids to play music at his arrival at the airport. We played Polish tunes, for we knew he loved the melodies from the mountain areas of his home village," said Monsignor Kurzaj, known as Father Frank to his parishioners at Holy Name Catholic Church.
"It was a beautiful thing," he said. "As Holy Father was leaving, he made a point to thank the children. He stopped the bishops and politicians, made them wait so he could come over to the kids."
The papal visit was a special time for San Antonio as well, Monsignor Kurzaj said.
"This is a city in which people of different races, ethnic backgrounds and different faiths work well with each other, respect each other," he said. "I think the whole town, whether Catholic or not, were with the Holy Father that day."
On the city's predominantly Hispanic West Side, the pope gave another talk in Spanish at Guadalupe Plaza, urging more young Hispanic men and women to take up the mantle of church service.
0 likes
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 136 guests