LEWISTON – The leader of Maine’s Roman Catholics celebrated the life of Pope John Paul II on Thursday with more than 1,000 people.
Bishop Richard Malone led the funeral Mass at Saints Peter and Paul Church, calling the charismatic pope “a prophet and a priest.”
Pope John Paul II never wavered from Christian truths, Malone said.
“He was not one to be swept along with the tide of public opinion or political correctness,” said the bishop, highlighting such issues as abortion, marriage and poverty.
Sometimes, it made the pontiff a polarizing figure.
“In my view, he was extraordinary precisely because he had that effect,” Malone said.
“We can know that some things are always right and some things are always wrong,” the bishop told the gathered congregation.
The crowd of people from across the region began gathering at the church two hours before the 7 p.m. service.
By 6:30 p.m., most had filed in past the framed photo of the pope, his hands outstretched in welcome.
“He was a great man,” Rich Cote of Auburn said before the service. He and his wife, Sue, attended to celebrate the pontiff’s achievements, not to mourn. His accomplishments were too great, he traveled so far and he lived so long. He was 84.
“One of the things that I respected was the way he incorporated all the different religions,” Rich Cote said.
Both he and Sue planned to get up by 4 a.m. to watch live television coverage of the funeral at the Vatican.
Deborah Goepel of Bridgton, who once saw Pope John Paul II at a gathering in Toronto, said she, too, was celebrating.
When she saw him in 2002, he was already ill with Parkinson’s disease but had experienced a surge of energy, walking unassisted from his plane and raising his hands.
“You could definitely feel the Holy Spirit,” she said.
Inside the church, the bishop led the crowd through a traditional Mass, entering slowly behind an escort of uniformed members of the Knights of Columbus.
And during his sermon, he talked of his own memory of Pope John Paul II, watching him in the third floor chapel of his Vatican City residence.
Malone recalled seeing the pontiff deep in prayer, consumed by the experience as people entered the room behind him.
“His conversation with God was so encompassing, I am convinced he was not aware we were there,” Malone said.
“It was there that God’s heart, day after day, spoke to his,” Malone said.
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