Archbishop and vicar general share
memories of the late pope
By Mary Ann Wyand
An emotional Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein said Pope John Paul II was like “a father” to him during a press conference following an evening prayer service for the Holy Father on April 1 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.
“He’s fought the good fight,” Arch-bishop Buechlein told the reporters. “He’s run the race. He’s kept the faith, and he certainly merits a crown.”
As the pope’s health continued to worsen, Archbishop Buechlein presided at a first Friday evening prayer service for him at 5:30 p.m. in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the cathedral.
“We are all praying [for him],” the archbishop said, “and I have no doubt that he’s going to go straight to the kingdom. We’re praying with him and for him, and we join all the thousands [of people] in prayer in Rome.”
Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general and pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis, said on April 3 that the pope’s death reminded him of his own father’s passing in September 2001.
“The death of Pope John Paul II recalls the death of my dad,” Msgr. Schaedel said. “Like Dad, we had all been somewhat prepared. We knew his death was imminent. But, at the same time, it was still a shock. And I again feel somewhat like ‘an orphan.’ We are without a pope. There is a void.”
Archbishop Buechlein said the pope was much more than a personal friend.
“He made me a bishop,” the archbishop said. “There is a feeling of sweet sorrow. … I’ve been a bishop 18 years, and … I’ve met with him formally or informally about once a year.”
The Holy Father appointed the Benedictine monk who was president and rector of the School of Theology and former college at Saint Meinrad as the Bishop of Memphis, Tenn., in 1987 and Archbishop of Indianapolis in 1992.
“My prayer is that he will go home to God peacefully without suffering,” Archbishop Buechlein said the day before the pontiff’s death.
“He’s been such a witness, even in his last days, in sickness,” the archbishop said. “… My wish is that he will pass peacefully and be received with open arms by Christ. … I’m happy for him.”
The archbishop said the fact that the pope “decided not to go to the [hospital] in Rome and to stay in his apartment because he wanted to be near the people, I think, is … characteristic of his ministry. He’s been a pope of the people.”
Archbishop Buechlein said he also will remember how, during the Way of the Cross held on Good Friday at the Colosseum in Rome, the Holy Father watched the prayerful procession commemorating Christ’s Passion on a television in his chapel at the Vatican.
“There was a [television] camera behind him,” the archbishop said. “At one point, he embraced the crucifix, which was his way of embracing the cross of Christ … and his suffering.”
Pope John Paul was “a missionary to the world” and “a pastor in a global society,” the archbishop said, who wanted “Christians [to be] more united and also for all people of religious faith to be united as one.”
The pope also was “a man who stood for the truth,” Archbishop Buechlein said. “His landmark writings—[including] The Gospel of Life [and] The Splendor of Truth—are all legacies that I think will only unfold as time goes on.
“I think he’s been a leader that everyone could believe in, a man of integrity,” the archbishop said. “He was who he said he was, and he practiced what he preached, and he was consistent in telling the truth.”
The Holy Father died on the eve of the feast of Divine Mercy—a devotion to Jesus initiated by St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun canonized in 2000—that the pontiff instituted as a universal observance of the Church each year on the first Sunday after Easter.
“Mercy was one of the great teachings of his papacy from the very first encyclical all the way through,” Archbishop Buechlein said, “so the [observance of] Divine Mercy Sunday became kind of a symbol of his great teaching on the mercy of God.”
Reflecting on the pope’s teachings about the value of redemptive suffering, Archbishop Buechlein said the Holy Father was very inspirational in his last days in his witness to elderly people, those who feel they have no hope, and people who have spiritual, mental or physical disabilities.
“What a tremendous witness,” the archbishop said. “He didn’t quit. He kept going.”
Pope John Paul was a servant, minister, father, pastor and teacher, the archbishop said, as well as a spiritual leader who was loved by people all over the world.
“We have a deep faith that God provided Pope John Paul II,” he said, “and God will provide his successor. … God has a special plan for each of the popes who are elected. Pope John Paul I was a wonderful intermediary after Pope Paul VI. The pope who smiles brought a smile to the papacy, and Pope John Paul II then picked up a whole different role as a great teacher of the Church.”
This pontiff will also be remembered for his love and devotion to the Virgin Mary, Archbishop Buechlein said. “His love for the Blessed Mother began early. As a young man, he prayed very much to her for consolation when he lost his father, his mother and his brother before he was 21. That devotion, very appropriately a part of the devotion of the Polish people, has stuck with him all the way.”
Archbishop Buechlein also praised the pope as an inspirational and extremely intelligent theologian and teacher who worked tirelessly to end the culture of death in society.
“He spoke the truth as he saw it,” the archbishop said, and his papacy “centered around the dignity of the human person.”
Msgr. Schaedel said he appreciated the “comprehensive and sensitive [news media] coverage given to the death of the Holy Father. … They allowed us to accompany Pope John Paul II in a real way on the final leg of his journey.
“I have fond memories of meeting the Holy Father on several occasions,” Msgr. Schaedel said, “especially when I was in Rome for the beatification of Blessed Mother Theodore Guérin.” †