20 years later, papal visit still has impact on Valley

Twenty years ago, the Valley basked in the rare visit of a sitting pope. Perhaps no one more famous could have created such a buzz. Most may never live long enough to see it happen again. It may never.

Read Lawn Griffiths' Blog 'Beyond Belief'

Tens of thousands of Arizona Catholics fondly remember those 24 hours spread across Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 14 and 15, 1987.

As luck would have it, Pope John Paul II was one globe-jaunting Holy Father, and during his 26 years at the Vicar of Rome, he traveled to 117 nations. He logged about 1.1 million miles, and it’s said no human was ever seen, in the flesh, by more people.

From his installation in 1978, he hit the planet running, and a decade into his tenure, he included Phoenix and Tempe on his itinerary. With a more sedentary pope, the chance of such a papal visit would have been remote.

The focus on the Valley visit was on Catholic health care and ministry to American Indians.

I had barely been named religion editor at the Tribune in early 1987 when I got a call from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix inviting me to represent the secular press in the Valley on a communications committee for the papal visit. That way our needs in covering the papal visit would be accommodated.

Bishop Thomas O’Brien, then head of the diocese, set loose an army of diocesan and parish staff and volunteers to ensure that all details were covered. They dealt with logistics with the Vatican, Secret Service, Valley law enforcement, hotels, media and organizers of the events for his six primary stops.

O’Brien had appealed to the Vatican to include a stay in the Southwest and Phoenix. Early talk was that the papal itinerary included a flight from Miami to Los Angeles “so it was obvious he had to pass by, or fly over, Arizona. So I went to work quickly,” O’Brien told me in 2002 while reminiscing on the 15th anniversary.

The pope’s plane, “Shepherd One,” a Boeing 727, arrived at 8:30 a.m. from San Antonio. All Valley streets for his route were blocked off for clear sailing by his entourage and the all-glass “Popemobile” that let his admirers behold him.

Two weeks from today, more than 500 are expected to gather at St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix for an evening on the theme “An Encounter With Christ.” After a 5 p.m. Mass, they will cross East Monroe Street for a dinner and program at Phoenix Convention Center.

They’ll remember.

They’ll remember how the pope spoke to a throng in Civic Plaza from a balcony at St. Mary’s. I was in that crowd that sunny morning to hear his appeals to people to reflect Christ in all they do. They’ll remember packed Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe that night where the comedian and syndicated columnist Erma Bombeck was the host for a program that included a three-hour Mass and the anointing of the sick and aging, including a Mesa police chief. They’ll recall how Bombeck mistakenly called the pontiff “Pope Paul.”

They’ll remember how all references to “Sun Devil” and images of Sparky, the hellion mascot, in the stadium were covered up to make the place proper.

They’ll remember American Indians’ expressive rituals with the pope inside Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the intimate gathering with pastors, nuns and Catholic leaders at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral.

They’ll recall the brief controversy when then-Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham was asked how he would greet the pope and replied, “Golly, I don’t know. I don’t know whether he speaks English or not.”

Anne Wuycheck of Scottsdale was 17 years old and a student at Xavier College Preparatory when her father, Dr. John Murphy, was helping at the pope’s first stop, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. She got a ticket to be among more than 1,000 gathered in the courtyard beside West Thomas Road. At the time, Wuycheck said she regarded the Holy Father as “pretty much a picture on the wall.” But it all changed that day.

“I became one of his fans,” said Wuycheck, who, with her husband, John, is chairing the Sept. 15 event to celebrate the pope’s impact on the church and the world.

“It was as if this man could look into each and every one of us and love us then and there. He knew us, and he loved us, and I felt that in the crowd.”

Flash forward 20 years. The Wuychecks are members of St. Bernadette Parish in north Scottsdale and have children attending Pope John XXII Catholic School

there.

Bishop Olmsted and the Rev. Fred Adamson, vicar general and moderator of the curia, asked the Wuychecks to head the organizing effort for the 20th celebration. “It would be fun to relive the memories, and it was really appealing to us,” Anne Wuycheck said. A “dear friend,” she said, has been Monsignor John McMahon, who was the diocese’s chairman for the papal visit. She was excited to hear him recount those two days two decades ago. “But we found, when we got into it, that everyone has a story about the Holy Father.”

She invites anyone to post their memories of the visit at www.jp2visit.com, where 41 historic photos can be seen, along with a video of the visit.

Olmsted, who spent most of a decade in Rome starting in 1979, told some of his Pope John II stories to the Wuychecks. Anne Wuycheck says the bishop’s years of work and close association with the pope is not very well-known by Catholics. “I believe it will be after that night and in the years to come.”

She laughs that recently the Secret Service called her home while she was away. “I lost a good baby sitter because she was scared to death that the Secret Service was pursuing me,” she said, “but they were just calling to tell me they knew about the celebration and (recalled) what impact the Holy Father had had on their lives.”