‘John Paul II, we love you!’

It was a cry and a mantra. A chant and a cheer.

Everywhere in Manila on Jan. 17, 1995, from Luneta to Taft Avenue, the throngs that had gathered to see Pope John Paul II were cheering, "John Paul two, we love you."

On the day the Pope was due to fly out of Manila, my son Chino, nephew Raymond and I hiked from Vito Cruz to the Apostolic Nunciature on Taft Avenue where the pontiff was staying for his visit. Like thousands others, we staked out in front of the Nunciature, hoping to catch a glimpse of John Paul II as his "Popemobile" emerged from the Nunciature’s iron gates. At the very least, we knew he would wave at us.

We had a feeling the Pope could hear us, and as an expression of affection, we started chanting, "John Paul two, we love you. John Paul two, we love you."

And lo and behold! All of a sudden, without fanfare, the French windows of the balcony facing Taft Avenue burst open, and the Pope emerged smiling and waving.

"John Paul II loves you, too… even more," he declared through a megaphone.

And then in a voice laden with emotion, he told the crowd, "Goodbye."

Most of us were smiling, even through our tears.

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According to Archbishop John Foley, who accompanied the Pope to Manila and annotated much of the TV coverage of his visit, the five-million strong crowd that had turned up for the Pope at the Quirino Grandstand for the World Youth Day celebration was the biggest ever in his then 16-year papacy. I believe it has not been matched since. So moved were Filipinos by the Pope’s presence in their midst, crime rates dropped in the metropolis.

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Although the Pope arrived on an Alitalia jet, he left for his next stop, Papua New Guinea, on a Philippine Airlines A 300. He was joined during the five-hour flight by then PAL chairman Sonny Dominguez.

Though the Business Class section of the plane was converted into a little room for the Pope (complete with Skybed), the Pope chose to rest on seat IA of the aircraft.

Sometime during the five-hour flight, wherein he had a lunch of beef followed by fresh fruits for dessert, the pontiff walked up to the cockpit to thank and bless the pilot, Capt. Johnny Andrews, and his crew.

"Thank you for the very nice flight" he told the pilots. Then turning to Dominguez, he added, "And this is a first-class airline."

I wonder where that particular A 300 is now and if there is a marker of sorts on seat IA proclaiming, "Pope John Paul II sat here."

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Because the Pope made over 100 foreign trips during his 26-year reign, with millions flocking to see him on each stop, it is conceivable he was seen, in varying degrees of closeness, by over 60 million people in this planet. And because the Pope made each person he came into contact feel special and unique – a laborer got the same pat on the head or cheek as a CEO – so many people have a story to tell about the Pope. Going over footage of him makes one realize that he does not hurry when he greets a person the way celebrities are in a hurry to work the crowd, to shake the next hand so he can get to the end of the line pronto. The Pope stops for each person, he leans forward when spoken to and kisses the head of almost every child held up to greet him. The next person on the line is never impatient because he knows that when his turn comes, the Pope will look at him like he were the only soul that mattered in Christendom.

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Former President Cory Aquino, who was blessed to have been invited by the Pope three times for a private Mass in his inner sanctum at the Vatican before and after her presidency, recalls, "Pope John Paul II, in reaching out to the people in the crowd, did as Christ did. He personified Christianity."

"Watching the Pope pray after Mass was truly inspiring. I hoped then that I could learn to pray like him – with total concentration," the former President says.

Cory Aquino was invited by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to be part of her official delegation to the Pope’s funeral, but she politely declined.

Cory acknowledges the moral influence the Pope wielded over his flock during the dictatorship, when he spoke for freedom and human rights. Coming from a country gripped by the vise of totalitarian rule for decades, the Pope championed human freedoms wherever he went.

Was it a coincidence then that God gave the world of Catholics and non-Catholics alike a Polish-born Pope in the second half of the 20th century, when oppressive regimes ruled the world? And now those regimes, from Romania to the Philippines, are just history.

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Of the millions of stories told about how the Pope touched lives, let me add mine. I was privileged to be the in-house writer of the Office of the Press Secretary when President Aquino made a state visit to the Vatican on June 18, 1988. I will be forever grateful to then Press Secretary and now STAR columnist Teddy Benigno for assigning me to cover the visit.

And so one lovely day under the bright Italian bright sky, in a formal black blouse borrowed from a sister and a long skirt borrowed from a friend, I walked past the iron gates of the Vatican, past the towering Swiss Guards and into an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime moment.

An audience with the Pope in his biblioteca.

Actually, the audience was for President Aquino and her entourage, which included then Labor Secretary Frank Drilon, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Dominguez and Agrarian Reform Secretary Philip Juico. After their private meeting, the Pope and the President moved to the biblioteca (where he receives dignitaries), and he gave a short speech.

I was at the far end of the hall, behind the cordon that separated the members of the press from the dignitaries. After all, we were there to document the event, not primarily to participate in it.

Again, lo and behold! In a moment that was to matter to us for the rest of our lives, the Pope suddenly walked up to where the press was and smiled a beatific smile. An aide – or was it his photographer – suddenly unhooked the cordon that separated us from the Pontiff.

And he reached out to us, the way Christ did in his time, even to those who were just looking on from the sidelines.

I found myself first in line! The Pope just stopped right in front of me.

I dropped to my knees and kissed his ring, and the rest of the press delegation (which included Assistant Press Secretary Mila Alora, RTVM chief Maria Montelibano, Sammy Santos of the Manila Chronicle, Vangie Sarenas of Balita, and presidential photographer Val Rodriguez followed. The Pope’s aides then started giving us rosaries.

And then I realized that since I was first in line and everyone was caught unprepared by the Pope’s crossing over to us, no one was able to take my picture. So I fell in line again.

No one shooed me away and the Pope didn’t look like he minded.

For didn’t Christ once preach that we all deserved a second chance?

John Paul II, I truly love you!

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