Young People Return Pope John Paul II’s Love

By JOHN THAVIS, CNS

Published: October 16, 2003

VATICAN CITY (CNS)—When he slurs a line in a speech or fails to stifle a yawn, Pope John Paul II shows his age. But put him among young people, and watch the years fall away.

His eyes light up. His voice gets stronger and more emphatic. He extemporizes and might even sing a song. And a smile—that telltale barometer of papal humor—returns to his face.

At 83, the pope has learned that young people are often the best medicine. But it’s not only that they rejuvenate him: He reaches them in a special way, too.

“It’s almost like a direct link to God, that goodness, and you feel connected to that. You can see that he thrives on young people and wants to bring them back,” said Clair Sweeney, a young Scottish woman, after hearing the pope during World Youth Day celebrations in Rome in 2000.

The pope’s affinity for young people began early. As a bishop in Poland, he loved to lead groups of youths on hiking and canoe trips, discussing religious and moral questions around a campfire.

After his election in 1978, he made young people a priority. In 1984, he instituted World Youth Day, which brings hundreds of thousands of Catholic young people to a different city every two or three years.

At World Youth Day, Pope John Paul is definitely the star attraction, but the cheers and chants that erupt from the crowds are only part of the story. Perhaps more than any other audience, young people listen closely to his words.

“We have a sense he is speaking the truth to us,” said one Polish girl at a recent youth day event.

At one level, the pope’s message to young people is simple. At Toronto in 2002, for example, he asked them to get to know Jesus and accept him as “the faithful friend who never lets us down.”

But he also explores the challenges that flow from the Gospel, asking young people to be more honest, more giving, less materialistic and more chaste than much of contemporary society.

Papal biographer George Weigel said the pope has had a great impact on younger generations precisely because he holds “the bar of expectation high” when it comes to questions of faith and morals.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Vatican spokesman, said he thinks the pope strikes a chord of authenticity that appeals to young listeners.

“In a culture of images, the pope’s message is that human identity is not formed from outside images but from within.” “He demands from young people what no one else has the courage to demand, sometimes even the parents. But he does more than make demands—he gives them reasons for what he says,” the spokesman said.

Pope John Paul often appeals to young people’s sense of justice and generosity, as well as their optimism. In Toronto, asking youths to build a better world, he told them: “The future is in your hearts and hands.”

Coming from an octogenarian and self-described “old” pope, those words had the ring of someone passing the baton to younger generations.

Over the years, the pope also has recognized that gestures as well as speechmaking can have a huge impact on his young audiences. He has held hands and danced with them on stage, answered their questions in a classroom, invited them for lunch, listened to their personal testimonials and accepted their gifts—including a St. Louis Blues hockey stick, which he gamely swung once or twice.

It’s not always easy to measure the impact of the pope’s personal appearances, but it seems to run deep in many cases.

At a recent conference in Rome anticipating the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul’s election, a Congolese seminarian, Gabriel Mukekwa, sat in the audience. He said he decided to become a priest after the pope visited his city in 1985 and asked young people to consider a priestly vocation.

Today he counts himself among the “John Paul II generation”—young Catholics who grew up under this pope, who share his vision of the church and who are determined to live it in the decades to come.