Saint Paul VI blessed the town of Kroonstad
Catherine Nicolette
No-one was more thrilled than I was when I heard that Pope Paul VI was to be canonised. Pope Paul was a figure of my childhood for whom I had the greatest respect. During my youth, the second Vatican Council and the sweeping changes it wrought were an everyday phenomenon. I loved reading the Council documents, and there is no doubt they were a significant part of my theological formation.
Also beloved in my youth were the great Bishop Brenninkmeijr of Kroonstad and Sr Bernwarda OP, my charismatic art teacher. One day during art class, Sister told me that the Cathedral of Kroonstad had been graced with new art which would be famous internationally. I listened wide eyed to this new development.
What I did not know was that Saint Paul VI had personally donated the obelisk with an angel of the resurrection. Zoltan Borboreki - the esteemed South African artist (1907-1992) - had executed the sculpture, and Bishop Gerard van Velsen OP had dedicated the Cathedral. The then developing mission territory gratefully received all gifts.
Pope Paul VI was instrumental in assisting far flung corners of the Church, from laying the Regina Mundi foundation stone in Soweto to donating an angel to the Free State. I only wonder how many acts of kindness and evangelization may be attributed to the saint from Concesio.
Saint Paul VI not only brought new life into the Church, but in the miracles attributed to his intercession before God has protected unborn life within the womb.
It is a glorious day that this Saint who - so many years ago - thoughtfully helped the people of Africa with material and spiritual aid, has at last been recognized as one of the luminaries of heaven.
Luky
Correction, Nicolette. I am sure I was even more delighted than you were to hear about St Paul VI's canonisation for unlike you, I was an adult member of the Catholic Church who witnessed his spiritual martyrdom for telling the truth in Humanae Vitae.
I suffered to see the pictures of that saintly man and the patient humility with which he bore all the denigration. At that time in a column I wrote for the Catholic press, I stated: "Starting the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII opened the window to let fresh air into the Church, but it was Paul who bore the icy blast that followed."
Whenever I read about Jacinta, the little Fatima visionary, now also a canonised saint, and how she said: "Shame, the poor holy Father," I would see the tormented face of St Paul VI in my mind's eye. Today in heaven and on earth he was gloriously vindicated. Hurrah.
St Malachy, a twelfth century bishop of Armagh, Ireland, is said to have prophesied a list of 112 papal mottos of which that of St Paul VI was the 108th. St Malachy called him Flos Florum, Latin for Flower of Flowers. Apparently this motto may have referred to the fleur-de-lisdepicted on the pope's coat of arms. Somehow I always mistakenly thought St Malachy had called him the Angel of Angels - but Flos Florum will do.
On this wonderful day I recall that I have honoured all the popes who ruled the Church from Pope Pius XII onwards until Pope Francis. But among them all it has always been Pope St Paul VI whom I have loved. I rejoice in his newly declared sainthood.
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