Gracias, Juan Pablo II, padre de todos Thank you, John Paul II, Father of all Danke, Heiliger Vater, unser Vater Foto: Pertino © 2005

Thank you, John Paul II. Yesterday, after these years of pain and suffering, and of the last weeks of agony, you entered into Life, you went through the threshold toward eternity.The were many times, experiences and memories that we hold in our heart. Your departure pains us, your arrival in the Celestial Homeland gladdens us.

We want to thank you, for your story, for your testimony of life, for the faith and love of the Triune God, who entrusted you with the task of being Pope, successor of Peter. Because of you we are proud to be Catholics, of being children of the Church.

Thank you...

1) Thank you for the passionate love for Jesus Christ, who called you to consecrate yourself to Him to follow the path of priesthood. Thank your for the very fruitful ministry that you did and because you were loyal until the end.

2) Thank for your smile, that we have learned to love from the first time that you appeared as Pope in 1978. It has been a reflection of the generosity and the mercy of God the Father. It has illuminated our lives.

3) Thank you because you taught us how to love life and to live in the grace of God: for your love of country, family, friends, nature, sports, theater, and music.

4) Thank you because you forged the culture of life. Because you stressed that human life, that each person, is a gift of God and that it has absolute value: because you defended life from the instant of its conception until death.

5.) Thank you because you have been the great pilgrim, and indefatigable promotor of peace, of justice, of solidarity. "Happy are they who work for peace, because they will be called sons of God", (Mt. 5,9) our Lord told us. You have been an angel of peace in this time of wars, terroism, and violence.

6.) Thank you for twice visiting our country, Argentina, that you loved some much, for having traveled our streets blessing everyone and for having impeded a fratricidal war with our sister country, Chile.

7.) Thank you for your teachings, for your fruitful Magisterium during these long years: thank you because in the midst of the confusion of so many voices, you have been the moral conscience of humanity, you have made the truth of Jesus Christ resound strongly and clearly, in times so lacking of ideals and values.

8.) Thank you for those simple gestures of tenderness and love toward children, the elderly, the sick, the poor and those suffering in this world.

9.) Thank you for your love of the youth, for your predilection toward them, because you knew how to enthuse them to heroism and to the construction of the civilization of love.

10.) Thank you because you have been a prophet of hope: you suffered the loss of your loved ones at an early age, the persecution and the oppression of totalitarian regines, an attempt on your life, that almost killed you, the slow cross of your illness and you always irradiated joy, you always preached hope.

11.) Thank you because you have truly been a "Pontiff": "a builder of bridges", between God and men and among men with each other. Thank you because in your innumerable trips, you brought Christ closer to so many peoples and cultures; for the many bonds you established with our Jewish, Moslem, brothers, and those of so many other denominations.

12.) Thank you because with your permanent example you taught us the inestimable value of prayer in the Chrisatian life: for your profound love of the Eucharist, the most Holy Virgen Mary, of whom you were an "instrument" and to whom you consecrated your ministry.

13.) Thank you for that humility that you irradiated and that impelled you to visit and pardon he, who attempted against your life; that led you ask for pardon for the errors of the Church, and to have compassion for all who suffer.

14.) Thank you because you always proposed the ideal of holiness, sustained in the example of your own life: you taught us that holiness is a calling for everyone, it is a responsibility and a commitment.

Let us keep your words, your writings and teaching but also your innumerable gestures: your walks through the forest contemplating the creation of God, your hand and the pardon for Ali Agca; your silent prayer kneeling before our Lady of Lujan; your prayer in the concentration camp in Auschwitz and at the wailing wall, the embrace of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the kiss to so many children, the blessing of the sick, the joy you irradiated when you were with the youth of all the world, the rosary in your hands, the masses celebrated on thousands of altars of the world, your last Good Friday, with a cross in your hand, your indefatigible desire to bless us even until the last days of your life... You were going into the Eternal Light.

From light to Light

Beloved John Paul, the light of your room in Rome went out yesterday, indicating that you were departing. You in turn, were entering Eternal Light. Our world was left covered in the half light of sadness. We need witnesses of light in our midst. We do not need arms, nor money, nor investments, nor power...we need giants of spirit, we need giants of generosity, pilgrims of love and of peace as you were for humanity.

The Blessed Mother whom you loved so much and whom you taught us to love so much, probably received you yesterday in Heaven, with affection and anxiety after 85 long and fruitful years on this earth.

Also, Jesus, the Redeemer of man, He who created you, who called you to be a priest and who entrusted you with the ministry of Peter, received you yesterday in his arms and surely he told you: "good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord" (Mt. 25,21). He was waiting for you, because he had a place for you: This is your home.

We are happy for your Easter, for your going to eternal life, we are happy because there is a new saint in heaven. But we also became orphaned and hurt, because we also want to see the saints in our midst, on television, to touch them, to hear their voice on the raido...

Thank your, Father of all

Beloved John Paul II, you will always remain in our hearts. Because love does not end with death, love is for always.

Thank you John Paul II, thank you blessed son of God, thank you Father of all.

Father Martin Gomez A., Cordoba, Argentina