Archbishop Martin: Pope John Paul "pushed the Church's teaching in peace way beyond any other of his predecessors, both in terms of rejecting violence and protecting victims", Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.
"We recall today the life and ministry of a great Pope, an extraordinary Pope. He was extraordinary for the extraordinary achievements of his pontificate; he was extraordinary in the disciplined manner in which he carried out the ordinary duties of his ministry," he continued.
The archbishop was speaking to a crowded Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. The Mass was celebrated with him by Cardinal Desmond Connell and the papal nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Lazarotto.
Archbishop Martin said he was was ending Mass in the Franciscan Church in Merchants Quay when he heard of the Pope's death. He said he left the church stunned. "It was natural for me to remember that it was Pope John Paul II who had asked me to become Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin and I remember well his words to me on my meeting with him before coming back to Dublin. 'Torni al tuo paese dopo molti anni' - 'You are going back to your own country after many years', he said, but he added 'but to a very different Ireland'.
"He spoke to me about the rapid change in Irish religious culture. He was concerned about the situation of the faith in Ireland."
The archbishop explained how by chance on Saturday he took up the text of a Lenten retreat the then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla preached to Pope Paul VI and the Roman Curia in 1976.
Reflecting on death, the future Pope said "each man finally dies alone". At that moment, the seed of eternity rebels against death. But this same seed of eternity, 'also recalls that every man has inherent in him the mystery of a new life which Christ has brought'. That awareness is the distinguishing mark of the Christian who faces death. And he (Cardinal Wojtyla) goes on with these words: 'Even though a man does not chose his own death, nonetheless by choosing his own way of life he does, in a way, choose his death too. Thus his death becomes the perfect ratification of his life and of the choices he has made."
