Bishop Gregory Aymond sat for an in-depth interview with News 8 Austin’s Senior Web producer Christian R. González on the memory, legacy and impact of Pope John Paul II on the world. The interview was conducted near the pope's 25th anniversary.
Q: As a priest how does the pope’s death affect you?
A: I’m deeply touched by the death of Pope John Paul II. I was a priest just a couple of years when he was elected as pope and so he is the pope that has meant the most to me. I saw him carry out in a very careful way what Paul VI had done, what John Paul I began to do in 30 days and to see him want to carry out the spirit of Vatican II and to renew the church. And so, he would be the pope that I am most closely identified with and it’s very difficult to see a man like that, first of all, to have seen him become frail in body, not in mind, but in body, and now leave us as the one who has been a great, significant spiritual leader for the Catholic Church, and the world. And so as a priest, I feel bound to him as a son.
Q: As a bishop how does the pope’s death affect you?
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Bishop Aymond
Watch the complete interview with Bishop Gregory Aymond. It runs about 25 minutes.
 
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A: He is the one who appointed me as a bishop of the church in [January] 1997. He is the one who appointed me as the coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Austin and later as the diocesan bishop. So, there is a link to him that I feel in a sense as a father, but also personally just knowing that most of my priestly ministry has been lived under his leadership, under his pontificate. So, it’s a personal loss that I feel that’s like having a father die … I had the opportunity … in June of [1997] to go Rome and celebrate Mass with the Holy Father in his private chapel and to have an audience with him afterwards. And I had the opportunity at that time to thank him for appointing me as a bishop … and his response was, ‘You must be a good leader. You must lead God’s people well.’ And I will always remember those words, because I felt the fatherly care, but I also felt in his words a charge, a mission, a command.
Q: What was it like celebrating Mass with the pope?
A: It was a very powerful experience. I remember going to the chapel and the Holy Father was in prayer, personal prayer … I was positioned in such a way that I actually could watch his face … His facial expressions would actually change in prayer as whatever was happening between himself and God … And then, to be able to stand at the altar, and there were only three of us … the Holy Father in the middle, myself on the left and on the right hand side was another bishop … There were about only 20 or 30 people … One other time I had the opportunity to do that in his private chapel, that was during our ad limina visit … every five years the bishops of the church have to go and meet the Holy Father personally … I did have the opportunity to concelebrate with him at that time also and had the privilege that day, I remember, of proclaiming the first reading from the scriptures … and doing that … was truly a very powerful experience and I remember after Mass, we met with the Holy Father … in his library. And when I was introduced to him I remember him saying, … ‘Oh, you are the rectory of the seminary.’ … And I was always amazed … at his ability to recall the lives of individuals … and the church will always remember him … as one of our popes who did not say to the world, ‘Come to me,’ but he was there for them.
Q: Did you meet him on other occasions?
A: I met him in a formal situation … in February of 2003 I was in Rome acting in the name of the Bishop’s Conference of the United States and I was introducing [people] to the Holy Father … I introduced them in a formal way ... and then I was told, well as the Holy Father greets them individually you sit next to him. … Well, my goodness, what a privilege … It was a really personal experience because in the midst of these greetings, he would turn to me at times and say, ‘I’m so glad you’re here’ … He was chatting with me … He asked me to remind him … where the Diocese of Austin was in Texas. Then, he would … recall bishops and cardinals from the United States that he knew … and … he would say, ‘Bishop, … did you know Archbishop Sheen?’ ... And it was, I must say, just an ability to chat with the Holy Father. One remembers those and cherishes those, I cherish them in my heart … Those are memories that I will always hold very deeply in my heart.
Q: Explain the pope’s connection with the young people of the world.
A: The times that I’ve been at World Youth Day, I have just been amazed and electrified by the rapport that John Paul II had with kids and this was certainly true in his earlier years as pope, but even his late years. I was at World Youth Day in Canada, in Toronto, and even this frail man who was wheeled in, but stood up to speak, not only spoke from his text, to the youth, but he spoke from his heart. He called them to love. He called them to Jesus. He called them to fidelity. And he just had an incredible rapport with the youth. And there’s no doubt that John Paul II will be known for World Youth Day and for inviting the young people of our church to truly be part of the church. He always said when meeting the young people, ‘The Holy Father loves you. The Holy Father needs you. The church is in your hands.’ And he will be known as, I think, a pope for the youth.
Q: What will John Paul’s legacy be?
A: He was a strong voice who stood for the teachings of the Catholic Church. He did his very best day by day in his talks … and his encyclicals. He was known as the one who stood for the teachings of the Catholic Church … one who tried to make those teachings make sense to the everyday life of the Catholics and of the world. And he did not back down from the teachings … I think he will also be known as the champion of justice. There is no doubt that John Paul II, in his lifetime, had a genuine … passion for justice. He had lived under a communist regime. He had seen the death and the injustice of people … He spoke for those whose voices would not have been heard otherwise … He spoke for the poor. He spoke for the homeless. He spoke for respect for the unborn. He spoke for respect of the born, of the handicapped, for those with disabilities. He spoke in terms of healthcare, saying that everybody in the world deserves healthcare, everybody in the world deserves a place to live. He spoke for the right of those on death row and spoke against capital punishment. Name the issue and the Holy Father embraced it.
He was a prophet. And a prophet is not the one who foretells the future. A prophet … is one who reads the signs of the times and speaks God’s message to the times …
I also think that he will also be known as the missionary of the world … [he] had the heart of a missionary. … And he did much to care about the missionary work of the church throughout the world. But he also lived what he spoke … he visited … other countries, up until his death. And so, he was the missionary to the world … No other pope visited the number of countries … than John Paul II … (He) was never afraid to speak against the institution, or the government, he always did it with respect … but he was never afraid to tell the truth … He was a man of integrity.
Q: What changes did he make in the church?
A: His many, many encyclicals on social justice. He has been the voice that called us to live in a just way … calling us to peace. … I think his other encyclical that will always be hallmark of the church is the one on the gospel of life … I think one of his more recent encyclical on the Rosary, calling us to a deep understanding of who Mary is, as the mother of the church, and giving us the Mysteries of Light.
He called the bishops to be heralds of the gospel and that is what we are named for.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the thought of John Paul II and … that brings us the clarity. The fact that we have a new church law … that was finalized in 1980s, those are the gifts of John Paul II that we will always value and remember.
And it’s hard shoes to follow and hard shoes to fill. The person who will be asked to follow him, his ability to speak the languages of the world, his ability to be there for people and meet people of the world.
Q: With all the saints the pope canonized, will he be sainted?
A: I truly believe without any doubt that he will become a saint and his name will be “John Paul the Great” and we do have some in our church who are called “The Great.”
He has canonized more people in his pontificate than most popes have ever done in history. And I think the reason he did … was first of all, he wanted to raise up people of holiness … But secondly, … they were from every country of the world. He wanted to make sure that every country in the world had a hero in faith … someone that they could identify with.
Q: Did the pope have any direct dealings with Austin?
A: One is that he was next door in San Antonio during one of his visits to the United States. And the second … was that he sent the bishops here and in sending us Bishop [John] McCarthy and myself, he thought of Austin.
Q: What about the changes at Brackenridge and Seton?
A: The situation with Brackenridge and Seton … the Holy Father, was aware of it … He chose to give it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. So, our negotiations on that ... and our coming up with a solution … were done … directly with … the members of the congregation.
Q: Was anything sent (officially) to Rome?
A: First of all every year the people of the Diocese of Austin give a gift to the Holy Father and that is done in June on Pentecost Sunday … the Holy Father is to use that for his charities … in the areas of the world where he feels there is the greatest need. So, in my mind, every year, for the past 25 years, the people of this diocese have given a direct gift to John Paul II.
Also … every five years when the bishops of the diocese goes for the ad limina visit, we do bring a gift to the Holy Father. It can be a material gift, but also with that material gift, is a check … to use for the good of the church.
Q: Why did the pope name so many new cardinals on his 25th anniversary?
A: Intuitively, and in his relationship with God, he had to know his death was coming. He named cardinals … who once again, represented the world. And he wanted to make sure that the election of the new pope was not by a small select group. He wanted to expand that group … I think it’s evident that John Paul II always thought ahead, not for himself, but for the church … I don’t think it’s stuffing the ballot box.
Q: What happens when the pope dies?
A: First of all, there’s no embalming of the pope. The pope is laid out to be observed by others in a natural state in his vestments as a sign of his leadership in the church. It’s several days. It’s usually a week or more. … But then there will be a funeral and shortly after that the cardinals of the world will enter into conclave. And to qualify for that, one has to be a cardinal. And a cardinal can vote until he is 80 years old.
Q: How is a pope selected?
A: First of all, for this conclave it will be a little different because there is a building right next door to St. Peter’s … It was built to house the cardinals for the conclave and it’s never been used for that purpose … they will live there … the ability for telephone communication is cut off. Obviously, the ability for entry of the media is cutoff. So, it is a time for the cardinals, it is a time for the retreat. It is a time of prayer … They would have their meetings in the Sistine Chapel … after the discuss things and they pray together and so forth, they go and place their vote on the altar … in a chalice … the votes are then counted …. And as we know that the old tradition of whether its white smoke or black smoke … black means they have not come to a consensus … white smoke means they are ready and very soon you will see, from the balcony, a new pope … after voting … however long that takes … then the smoke will go up. Then after the person is elected they’re brought into a little ante room from the Sistine Chapel … it’s called the Room of Tears … and its said … its called that because the new pope … goes into room and one would expect that he would have two sets of tears … tears of joy … but also … the tears of ‘My God, how could this happen. What responsibility. My God, what have you done to me?’ in a positive sense ... The pope is then vested there … the are three sets of vestments, or cassocks, that are available: small, medium and large … The person is then dressed and will go out to the public, and the new “Papa,” the father of the church, is introduced to the church.
Q: Do you have any predictions?
A: I really have no predictions … the joke is, its more than a joke, those who go into the conclave as pope, never come out as the pope … I have never ever heard of a consistent name or a consistent country and I see that as good because I truly believe that the Holy Spirit has something to do with this.
Q: If you could tell a nonbeliever, or a stranger, one thing about the pope, what would it be?
A: John Paul II had a great love and affection for the religions of the world. He saw, as a spiritual leader … his responsibility and also his personal love to relate to the other Christian denominations and the Catholic Church under his leadership, as well as before, he strengthened the relations our liaisons and dialogue with other Christian denominations … and so he was interested in fulfilling that dream of Jesus when Jesus said someday we will be one flock He was interested in dialogue that would someday lead to that … but John Paul II did not limit himself to Christian religions. The great love that he showed for the Jews in talking about the Holocaust … what an image that is, he visited there. How he called us to dialogue and to respect the Muslim community how he tried for continued understanding of the Buddhist … I would say the heart of John Paul II was a big heart and he had the love and desire to reach out to the people of the world, to the religions of the world, to other denominations and to some day fulfill that dream that Jesus gave that there would be one flock and shepherd.
Q: With the pope’s death, what has the world lost?
A: Because of the pope’s death, the world has lost a holy man. He knew Jesus personally. Because of the pope’s death, we have lost a great, if not the greatest spiritual leader of the last century. Because of the pope’s death, we have a lost a great prophet, the one who was the spokesman … for those voices who were not heard in society.
Q: Will you go to Rome for the funeral?
A: As bishops, the father of the diocese, our role is to stay home with the family and to be able to commemorate the life of John Paul II locally and to do that in a way that mourns his death and to also pray for his successor. So, I do not intend to visit Rome.
