John Paul II liked to stop and talk to those simple and ordinary people whom he met on mountain paths during his hiking trips. They took place very rarely, during the few days of rest as if “robbed” from such a responsible Petrine ministry full of innumerable duties. Those days spent in the bosom of nature allowed the Pope to temper not only the body, but above all the spirit.
Adamello, Lorenzago, Gran Sasso, Aosta Valley… In all these places the whiteness of pure snow mixed with the white robes of the Holy Father.. How can we fail to mention the mountains of Molise and his visit to Agnone, where the Prefect of Marinelli was born, about whom John Paul II said enthusiastically: ‘It was worth coming here!’ In this town the Pope visited the foundry of the bells of the Marinelli family and participated with great interest in the process of casting the bell, which was later given to him. The same bell, as the author emphasizes, was later sent by the Holy Father himself to the headquarters of the United Nations. Engraved on it are the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Nation against nation will not lift up the sword, they will no longer train themselves for war.”
The Prefect of Marinelli, as I recall, wished to thank the Pope, together with the other inhabitants of his town, with another special gift. On December 8, 1996, a month after the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Holy Father’s priestly ordination, huge torches illuminated St. Peter’s Square and their splendor rose to the windows of the Apostolic Palace: “the fire of fraternity”, as the Pope called it. Those high tongues of fire that illuminated that Roman night reminded, as the Pope commented, that “Christ is the true light that illuminates the darkness of the world”.
John Paul II, who travelled the length and breadth of the globe, proclaiming the salutary word of the Gospel and bearing witness to Christ, constantly reminds the whole world that Christ knocks at the door of every man and asks that no one be afraid to open wide the doors to the One who is the beginning and the end of everything.
Monsignor Piero Pennacchini, Secretariat of State
Enrico Marinelli * “The Pope and his General”
“Rafael” Publishing House
