Now that Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII have been canonized saints, I suppose I can now say that I walked with a saint, I talked with a saint and I photographed a saint, just as thousands have done during his many travels and his public appearances.
Saints are not expected to be perfect. We can be saints too by living out the Gospel message in all its simplicity as best we can.
We don’t have to have heroic virtue, just live so we can reach out and help others in need and share what we can with those who have less, to love like the Good Samaritan without seeking any reward.
It was in 1981 when Pope John Paul II came to the Philippines, and I was assigned to photograph and write about his visit.
Saint Pope John Paul II from Poland was not adverse to positive political outcomes of strong solidarity by the Catholics of Poland. Many hoped he would speak for the poor in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda held sway over a brutal regime that oppressed the poor and the church and plundered the public treasury at will. Yet Marcos was claiming he was a democratically elected official but the cemeteries were overflowing with victims of his death squads.
It was a stifling hot February day, 1981, in a slum area of Manila when I stood side by side with Saint Pope John Paul II. The people had gathered and strangely there were no politicians, bishop or priests or an official delegation waiting to greet the Pope. The media had not arrived either. Apparently there was a huge traffic jam nearby.
I stood around alone by the small stage and after a while, some vehicles came through the crowds. The vehicles stopped and out stepped Pope John Paul II. He was dressed in a simple white cassock and skull cap and only a few of his staff were there, gone were all the glitter pomp and ceremony of Rome. He stood alone calmly with a smile and gave a light wave to the clapping crowd. Nothing seemed to perturb him.
I stood within three meters and greeted him with, "Welcome Your Holiness." I didn’t know what else to say. He smiled and nodded.
After about eight minutes, with sirens wailing, the vehicles arrived through the crowd and a horde of church and civic officials rushed to the stage and got on with the official welcome. John Paul gave a speech that applied the beatitudes to the people of Tondo, "Blessed are the Poor," he said, and he encouraged them to pursue the social teachings of the church. It was a warning to the rich cronies of Marcos to respect the dignity of God’s children.
It was not the first time I had met and walked with living saints. Those who have dedicated their lives to the unselfish service of the sick and helpless, those risking their lives defending human rights and the poor, those dying in the struggle for justice and the rights of the oppressed are martyrs and saints and I walked and worked with many of them. They live heroic lives of virtue and self-sacrifice, they will stand proudly with the two Popes in God’s kingdom.
Fr Shay Cullen SSC has been a missionary in the Philippines since 1969.