Author: Fr. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik, Wojciech Rogacin – Vatican
Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State and one of the closest collaborators of Leo XIV, presided over Holy Mass on Thursday, September 17, at the tomb of St. John Paul II. After the liturgy, he was asked by Vatican News about his ties to the great Polish Pope.
Close bond with John Paul II
“John Paul II was the Pope of my youth, for a long time the only Pope I knew,” he replied. He added that during his studies as a seminarian in Rome, he had the opportunity to see the Pope frequently. “We had frequent contact with him. So there was a truly deep bond between him and us, the seminarians,” he added.
Later there also came a time to deepen his knowledge of his teaching, but – as he says – it was also a very human bond.
Period of service at the Nunciature in Warsaw
Already as a priest, Paolo Rudelli served in the Apostolic Nunciature in Warsaw between 2003 and 2006. There, too, he felt the presence of John Paul II, not least during the Pope’s pilgrimages to Poland.
“I arrived in Poland in 2003, so these were the final years of his pontificate,” he recalls. “St. John Paul II was already ill. Then came the moment of his passover, so to speak, when all of Poland experienced that time together with him. Therefore, I remember very well this witness of faith of all Polish believers,” the archbishop adds.
Appeal to study the teachings of John Paul II
In an interview with Vatican News, he also thanks the organizers for the opportunity to preside over Holy Mass on Thursday, September 17, at the tomb of St. John Paul II and to deliver the homily.
“This reminds me of events from twenty years ago, when the custom of celebrating Holy Mass at the tomb of St. John Paul II began,” he says. “It is wonderful to see that this memory endures – the memory of a great Pope, a great Saint of the Church,” Archbishop Rudelli emphasizes.
However, he encourages that this not be merely remembrance alone. “I hope that this will be an opportunity not only to recall personal experiences, but also to deepen knowledge, to re-read his teaching, his Magisterium, because even today he has a great deal to say,” Archbishop Paolo Rudelli concludes.
