With the passing of Pope John Paul II, Bishop Robert J. Baker declared April 8 as a day of mourning and prayer for the pope in the Diocese of Charleston. He encouraged priests, deacons, religious and representatives from parishes around the diocese to attend a memorial Mass at the Cathedral, and also invited religious and civic leaders from around the state. He encouraged families to pray the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet or another fitting prayer for Pope John Paul II. Last week The Miscellany published the first part of Bishop Baker's homily. Following is the second part.

Pope John Paul II was “the Pope of the Eucharist,” giving us this “Year of the Eucharist” to rediscover the gift of the Eucharist as light and strength for our daily lives in the world. In his great Encyclical of 2003, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, he said that “the Church draws her life from the Eucharist,” which he described as “the Heart of the Mystery of the Church.” He pointed out that the Eucharist is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history, the possession that the Second Vatican Council described as the “source and summit of the Christian life” because it contains “the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and living bread.”

Pope John Paul II is the “Pope of Interfaith Relations,” the pope who led groups of religious leaders twice to Assisi, the town of St. Francis, to help build bridges of unity in a sorely divided world.

He reminds us Catholics that ecumenism and interfaith relations need to be prominent on our agenda. Religious differences should not give birth to hostility and wars. One should presume good faith in partners in dialogue. In his visit to the “Palmetto State” in 1987 he praised ecumenical programs, saying that “despite lack of full agreement, it is no small achievement of the ecumenical movement that after centuries of mistrust, we humbly and sincerely recognize in each other's communities the presence and fruitfulness of Christ's gifts at work.” His visit here touched the lives of so many people in our state in his personal effort to promote religious dialogue.

Pope John Paul II loved young people and showed his great affection for them and concern for them by traveling to different parts of the world every two years for World Youth Day. Although he will not be physically present at the next World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, he will be there with our young people in spirit. At the last World Youth Day in Toronto, there was a sense, on his part and on the part of the people present, that that would be his last World Youth Day. It was an emotional occasion as he celebrated his final Mass with the youth in an outdoor pavilion.

It began with rain, heavy rain, drenching rain; but thousands of young people stayed to see the “Pope of the Youth.” Shortly after the pope began Mass, the sky almost miraculously began to clear, and it providentially became a sunny day and a Mass filled with many blessings, portending the many blessings that would stay with those young people in the years to come, as a result of that holy Mass with their Holy Father.

Finally, this pope was the “Pope of Prayer and Contemplation” who gave over a couple of hours a day to prayer. Those who celebrated Mass with him knew that prayer was the beginning and end of all he did in his day. How fitting that we gather today on this day of Mourning and Prayer to pray to God for Pope John Paul II that the mercy of God be extended to him with the reward of eternal happiness in heaven. We are confident that he is already there in the embrace of the Lord and God he served so well, with the Blessed Mother, the angels, and all the saints.

Thank you, Lord, for sending us your great Vicar and Pontiff, our Holy Father, to lead and guide us, especially with the example of his holy life, these past 26 and a half years.

May your light and love shine on him forever. Amen.

Published April 21, 2005, The Catholic Miscellany