[Gocamino] Santiago pilgrim departed

[Liz Morris]

I am an Episcopalian and fairly active in my church. Throughout my 
upbringing I developed a certain distrust, and dislike,  of the Catholic 
Church and its practices  and felt safely distant from it.
About ten years ago,  I visited Rome as a tourist and part of the tour 
included a Papal audience. The  audience was held in a very large theater 
and attended by what seemed thousands of people.  Frankly, I considered  the 
unabashed expressions of enthusiasm on the part of most of the attendees 
unseemly and unreligious, and I felt quite out of place and not at all sure 
that I should, or wanted, to be there.
. The theater has a walkway running through the center of the seats of the 
audience.  I was sitting way back, but, perchance, at the edge of the row 
close to the walkway. At the end of the audience's speeches and 
presentations the Pope came down from the raised stage and walked slowly up 
and down the walkway, touching people's hands and talking to them.  I was 
somewhat discomfited by the onrush of people who seemed to want to jump over 
me to touch the Pope.  And then the Pope went by, looked at me, smiled, and 
I felt an overwhelming sense of belonging  to something larger and more 
powerful than mere religious denominational differences and costumes.
It was that sense of loving welcome that led me to my first Camino, and it 
has accompanied throughout my second and third.
And my heart does grieve, and joins its tears to those of our Catholic 
brothers and sisters and to those of all people of good will throughout the 
world.
Yet, I feel a certain joy by the gift of having had such a human being in 
our midst during my lifetime.

Elizabeth Boylston-Morris

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Blaroli at aol.com>
To: <GOCAMINO at oakapple.net>
Cc: <gebernardes at uol.com.br>; <jdufour at videotron.ca>; <royruns at mail.com>; 
<saintjames at yahoogroups.com>; <neidaludolf at hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 7:49 PM
Subject: [Gocamino] Santi9ago pilgrim departed


> As a  seminarian Karol Wojtyla walked the Camino del Norte, and, once 
> again,
> as a priest. As Pope John Paul II he made a ten-day visit to Spain in 
> 1982, at
> the end of which, from the tomb of Santiago, he made a stirring call for
> including spiritual renewal in the political reconstruction of Europe. He 
> also met
> with the "men of the sea" in Obradoiro Square, and, after praying with 
> them
> in the Cathedral  he flew back to Rome from Labacolla.
> In 1989 he flew directly from Rome to Labacolla in a visit in which he 
> deemed
> himself "a pilgrim". From Monte del Gozo he presided over a Youth World
> Forum; he then walked from Saint Francis Square to the Cathedral, as a 
> symbolic
> pilgrim, carrying a cedar walking stick and wearing a pilgrim's cape, to 
> pray at
> the crypt that holds the tomb of the Apostle.
>
> Like hundreds of millions all over the world, I am heartbroken and very, 
> very
> saddened by his death,  and I do firmly believe that the world has become
> quite impoverished without his wise, good, and loving presence.
> The Brasilians have posted a simple message on their pilgrim's e-list that
> expresses the only thing that, I think,  any one of us can say:
>       Adeus,  Joao de Deus.
> In Spanish:
>       Adios, Juan de Dios
> In English, roughly
>      Go on to God, John of God.
>
> Amen
>
>
>
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