How Pope St. John Paul II Changed My Life (And Still Does), by Daniel B. Gallagher

I’ve lived long enough to see smoke rise from the Sistine Chapel five times. One of those times, working as a Latin secretary for Benedict and waiting to see who my next boss would be, I could even smell it.

Each conclave has been as exciting as the previous, but nothing will match the election of John Paul II in 1978. Never had anyone so young, so vigorous, so dynamic emerged on the balcony of St. Peter’s. I was only eight years old, but my world changed instantly. Suddenly, an accomplished athlete and actor was donning the white cassock; a Pole, a polyglot, a philosopher.

A year later, my family joined over a million people in Grant Park to celebrate Mass with him. John Paul was only the second pontiff to visit the United States, the first being Paul VI in 1965. The Windy City boasted a large Polish population, and, though Irish, I felt one with them as a Chicagoan, as did the Germans, Italians, African Americans, and Hispanics. …