Devotion to John Paul II: the Pope of the young, that's what he said about them

"I looked for you, now you have come to me and for this I thank you": they are in all probability the last words of John Paul II, spoken with great difficulty last night, and are addressed to the boys who watched in the square under his windows .

"It will bring the young people where you want", the French writer and journalist Andre 'Frossard prophesied to him in 1980. "I think rather they will guide me," John Paul II had replied. Both statements have proved true because a close and extraordinary bond has been created between Pope Wojtyla and the new generations, that each party has received and given to the other courage, strength, enthusiasm.

The most beautiful images of the pontificate, certainly the most spectacular, are due to the meetings with young people who have punctuated not only Wojtyla's international travel, but also his life in the Vatican, his Sunday outings in Roman parishes, his documents , his thoughts and jokes.

"We need the joy of life that young people have: it reflects something of the original joy that God had by creating man," wrote the Pope in his 1994 book, "Crossing the threshold of hope". "I always like meeting young people; I don't know why but I like it; young people rejuvenate me, "he sincerely confessed to Catania in 1994." We must focus on young people. I always think so. To them belongs the Third Millennium. And our job is to prepare them for this prospect, "he said to the Roman parish priests in 1995.

Karol Wojtyla has always been, since he was a young priest, a point of reference for the new generations. The university students soon discovered that that priest was different from the other priests: he spoke not only to them about the Church, about religion, but also about their existential problems, love, work, marriage. And it was at that time that Wojtyla invented "the excursion apostolate", taking boys and girls to the mountains, or to campsites or lakes. And not to notice, he dressed in civilian clothes, and the students called him "Wujek", uncle.

Becoming Pope, he immediately established a special relationship with young people. He always joked with the boys, talked off the cuff, building a new image of the Roman Pontiff, far from the hieratic one of many of his predecessors. He himself was aware of this. "But how much noise! Will you give me the floor? " he jokingly scolded the young people in one of his first audiences, November 23, 1978, in the Vatican Basilica. "When I hear this uproar - he went on - I always think of San Pietro who is below. I wonder if he will be happy, but I really think so ... ".

On Palm Sunday in 1984, John Paul II decided to establish the World Youth Day, a biennial meeting between the Pope and young Catholics from all over the world, which basically is not, in much wider terms, that that "excursion" apostolate adopted in the years of parish priest in Krakow. It turned out to be an extraordinary success, beyond all expectations. Over a million boys welcomed him to Buenos Aires in Argentina in April 1987; hundreds of thousands in Santiago De Compostela in Spain in 1989; one million in Czestochowa in Poland, in August 1991; 300 thousand in Denver, Colorado (USA) in August 1993; the record figure of four million people in Manila, the Philippines in January 1995; one million in Paris in August 1997; almost two million in Rome for World Day, on the occasion of the jubilee year, in August 2000; 700.000 in Toronto in 2002.

On those occasions, John Paul II never coaxed young people, he did not make easy speeches. Quite the contrary. In Denver, for example, he condemned harshly permissive societies that allow abortion and contraception. In Rome, he spurred his young interlocutors to a courageous and militant commitment. "You will defend peace, even paying in person if necessary. You will not resign yourself to a world where other human beings starve, remain illiterate, lack work. You will defend life in every moment of its earthly development, you will strive with all your energy to make this land more and more habitable for everyone, "he said in front of the immense audience of Tor Vergata.

But on World Youth Days there was no shortage of jokes and jokes. "We love you Pope Lolek (we love you Pope Lolek)," shouted the Manila crowd. "Lolek is a baby name, I'm old," Wojtyla's answer. "Noo! Noo! ”Roared the square. "No? Lolek is not serious, John Paul II is too serious. Call me Karol, ”concluded the pontiff. Or again, always in Manila: "John Paul II, we kiss you (John Paul II we kiss you)." "I Also kiss you, all you, no jealousy (I kiss you too, everyone, no jealousy ..)", replied the Pope. Many also the touching moments: like when in Paris (in 1997), ten young people coming from different countries of the world they took each other's hands and took by the hand Wojtyla, now bent and insecure on the legs, and together they crossed the large esplanade of the Trocadero, right in front of the Eiffel Tower, on which the luminous account text had been lit upside down for 2000: a symbolic photo of the entrance to the Third Millennium remains.

Even in Roman parishes, the Pope has always met the boys and in front of them he often let himself go to memories and reflections: "I wish you to always remain young, if not with physical strength, to remain young with the spirit; this can be achieved and achieved and this I also feel in my experience. I wish you not to grow old; I tell you, young old and old-young "(December 1998). But the relationship between the Pope and young people exceeds the world dimension of Youth Days: in Trento, in 1995, for example, setting aside the prepared speech, he transformed the meeting with young people into a happening of jokes and reflections, from "Young people, today wet: perhaps cool tomorrow", motivated by the rain, to "who knows if the fathers of the Council of Trent knew how to ski" and "who knows if they will be happy with us", up to lead the choir of the young people by twirling the stick.