Third World Catholics recall pope

May 9, 1988, young Laura Reina was home in Lima, Peru, getting ready to go with her parents to see Pope John Paul II, who was coming there that day.

She’d been looking forward to the day, but she didn’t make it to see the pope. Instead, she was rushed to a city hospital, where she delivered a baby boy. Not wanting to forget the occasion, Reina gave the baby the same second name as the pope: She named him Mariano Pablo.

Now 16, Pablo is an 11th-grader at Central High School in Grand Forks.
Sitting quietly in front of the television at her State Street apartment and watching live proceedings from the Vatican, Reina told the Herald she would miss the pope.

“He was a great leader. It is really going to be tough to find a pope like him,” she said. “He did a lot for people living in countries like ours. He was a great hope for all of us.”

Hope for poor

A devout Catholic, Reina wishes her son and others from his generation were more religious. She appreciates John Paul II and what he did for people in her country.

Reina is not the only Catholic in Grand Forks who feels the same way about the pope. For her and many others, particularly those from Third World countries, John Paul II was much more than merely their religious head.

Still mourning the death of the pope, people of these countries residing in Grand Forks said in John Paul II they had a leader who cared and spoke for the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed.

“He was the only hope for the poor, at least in our part of the globe,” observed Sangtum Waingeh from Cameroon.

“The pope was an inspiration for us Africans. He gave us the strength to fight against oppression and injustice,” said Waingeh, a business graduate student at UND.

Referring to the frequent visits of the pope to Africa, he said, John Paul II gave Africans their due place among Catholic Christians.

“The pope during his time made Christianity a part and parcel of Africa,” Waingeh said. “It is he who appointed the first Catholic bishop and cardinal from Cameroon.”

The pope visited Cameroon twice.

“Pope John Paul II would always remain a source of inspiration for us,” he said. “It is he who gave us voice and brought the attention of the world leaders to our problems.”

For Waingeh and Father Filip Chacko, an Indian Catholic priest at St. Michael’s Church, Pope John Paul II was also instrumental in introducing the traditions and culture of Asian and African nations into the local church.

“This helped in making the church more popular in Asia and Africa. People increasingly started associating themselves with the church,” Chacko said.