My time as a civilian employee of the US Army was uneventful. I was stationed at the base at Wiesbaden and worked with the local Catholic chaplain there. I gave my first homily there, and my last in Wiesbaden was about Papa Luciani. I spoke of my having seen his election and installation.
One of the local American families telephoned me early on September 28, to inform me Luciani had died. As so many others, it was a complete surprise. Luckily, my time with the Army was only two days from completion, and the trip back to Rome was only a day’s travel by train, so I knew I was able to get back for his funeral. I had already seen Pope Paul VI lay in state at St. Peter’s and attended his funeral Mass, so I knew what it would all entail.
No irreverance is meant by this, but whoever prepared Paul VI’s body did a terrible job. His death occurred in August which meant his body lay in state for mourners during the hottest days of the year in Rome, days in which most citizens escaped the city for the cool of the mountains or the ocean. As I and others filed by Paul VI’s body, we could scarcely endure the stench. His body had changed to an ugly greenish color. I have no idea how the Swiss Guard were able to stand at attention for hours at length. I know at least one of them had to leave to keep from fainting. There were big fans blowing, trying to cool things a bit and disperse the stench.
As I was anticipating Papa Luciani’s funeral rites, I hoped things would be different. They were in fact better. He looked like Pope John Paul I.
I attended his funeral, this time in the crowd with the people. If I recall correctly, the weather wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the best either. The Mass was held in the Piazza di San Pietro, and well attended.
When I returned to my dorm, I remember Fr. Enrico Garzelli walking in to the refectory and making a simple comment on how our pope had been like a bright star in the sky that cheered us ever so briefly. I was later amazed when I read Cardinal John Wright’s eulogy of Luciani, and his use of the image of a comet shooting through the sky which stuns and amazes us for a brief period of time. I sometimes wonder if Cardinal Wright didn’t get his image from Garzelli’s comment that day. I believe Garzelli quickly wrote a song about Luciani which included this image, although I do not have a copy of it. We sang it at the college at Mass soon after, if my memory serves me right.
Since those days, Papa Luciani has been for me a saint whom I was privileged to have encountered. The only other one is Mother Teresa, whom I met twice in the early 1970s. Perhaps John Paul II will also someday be declared a saint. It is my fervent hope that Papa Luciani cause for canonization will quickly be concluded and his name added to the official roster of canonized saints of the Church.
Papa Luciani, pray for us.
