Pope John Paul II

The Vatican has announced his passing on April 2, 2005, at 9:37pm in his private apartments.

I saw him when he came to the Philippines in 1981 as a young 41 year old Pope, the first Polish pope and the first non-Italian pope after 450 years.

I was a young schoolgirl when he first came to the Philippines. He was blonde and blue-eyed, he stood out from the crowd of dark-haired Filipinos. He was a charismatic figure and was a symbol for peace, even for non-Catholics. In those days, terrorist threats were unheard of. He was riding in an open bus, waving to us schoolkids who were lined up on the streets of the Basilica del Santo Nino in Cebu City. I can still remember shouting, "Viva il Papa!" and Mabuhay ("Long live").

Looking back, I was sorry that I was not able to go to the World Youth Day 1995 where he also visited the youth delegates from all over the world. Mundane things like working for a living could not have compared with seeing him again.

He shall be deeply missed.