At a conference in Rome on February 25, 2011, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the postulator of the cause of Pope John Paul II, said that he was “a man who lived in the presence of God, who let himself be guided by the Holy Spirit, who was in constant dialogue with the Lord, and who built his whole life around the question [asked to Peter]: ‘Do you love me?’”
Monsignor Oder said that the process of the cause was “a confirmation of the total transparency of his life as a man and a priest. There wasn’t a public Wojtyła and a private one,” he said. “The opinion about him developed by the world during his more than 26 years of pontificate has been shown to be true.”
The beatification process also showed that the source of the Pope’s consistency, energy, enthusiasm and depth was from within. The postulator recounted that the Pope said, “They try to understand me from outside […] but I can only be understood from within.”
From within the Pope had his “encounter with God, his falling in love with Christ and knowing he was loved by Him. [It was] the air he breathed, the water he drank, the food that nourished him. It was from prayer that the fecundity of his action stemmed.”
Monsignor Oder said that the Pope had a “capacity to tell the truth without fear because only one who is before God does not fear men.” Because of this he was able freely “to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and to defend the truth about man.” And from this freedom “was born the cry, ‘Do not be afraid,’ the beginning and motto of his pontificate.”
The Pope also embraced his cross Monsignor Oder said, “with dignity, and, at the end, in a silence that spoke more than words.Millions of people in the world keep in their memory the image broadcast by TV of the Pope from behind in his private chapel, embracing the cross during the celebration of Good Friday.”
