Bishop: Pope John Paul II like “a grandfather”

For Nunavut’s Roman Catholics, Pope John Paul II will leave a lifetime’s worth of indelible memories.

“I think for my diocese, Pope John Paul II is like a grandfather. I think that for Inuit that word is very meaningful. In every community there have been prayers and liturgical actions, but it intensified over the last couple of days,” said Bishop Reynald Rouleau of the Churchill-Hudson Bay diocese.

The Pope died April 2 after a lengthy illness. About two million mourners have flocked to Rome, where his body has lain all week at St. Peter’s Basilica, to pay tribute to him. His funeral was to have been held today.

Rouleau, who was travelling through Hall Beach and Igloolik this week, said he’s met the Pope four or five times, usually while visiting the Vatican with other Canadian bishops.

“We always had lunch with him, eight, nine, 10 bishops together… We would talk about anything. He was a very open person.”

Rouleau’s last private audience with the Pope was in November of 1999, where he remembers talking to him about the Arctic.

“He had the map of the diocese in front of him. He was very attentive and polite, and he was very attentive to the Inuit. He never gave me any specific advice. It was more of a friendly meeting, and I always brought a gift,” Rouleau said.

In July, 2002, a large delegation from Nunavut, 66 Inuit and six missionaries, attended the World Youth Festival. Many of those delegates were from the Mikilaaq Centre in Arviat.

Shortly before a lengthy mass that the Pope held at Exhibition Place, the Pope blessed an inuksuk erected near the waterfront.

“The day when the Pope was coming to Exhibition Place, all the Nunavummiut were near the Inukshuk waiting and getting ready to sing. When he passed by us, he blessed the Inukshuk and most of us felt it. We all sang and cried and said ‘we’re not sleeping, we’re awake,'” one participant said.

Another connection between Nunavut and Pope John Paul II is that the majority of Nunavut’s Roman Catholic priests are from Poland, the Pope’s native country.

When he was known as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the Pope was an inspiration to Poles who were opposed to that country’s repressive Communist dictatorship, especially the Solidarnosc trade union movement.

After he was elected to the papacy in 1978, Wojtyla played a major role in bringing about the collapse of Soviet-backed Communist governments in Eastern Europe.

Of the six Roman Catholic priests serving in Nunavut, four are from Poland: Father Tony Krotki, Father Bogdan Osiecki, Father Gregory Oszust, and Father Daniel Szwarc.