Pope John Paul II, friend of the Cur\u00e9 of Ars? Certainly ! In his priestly life and then during his pontificate, the person of the holy Cur\u00e9 left his mark on the Pope and some of his initiatives.<\/p>\n
Born in May 1920 in Wadowice, he was ordained priest in 1946. Bishop in 1958, he became archbishop of Krakow in 1964, then pope on October 18, 1978.<\/p>\n
During his studies, he had the opportunity to visit Ars: \u201cOn returning from Belgium to Rome, I had the chance to stop off in Ars. It was late October 1947, Christ the King Sunday. With great emotion, I visited the old little church where Saint Jean-Marie Vianney confessed, taught catechism and gave his homilies. It was an unforgettable experience for me.
From my seminary years, I had been struck by the figure of the Cur\u00e9 d’Ars\u201d; \u2014 This meeting with the figure of the Cur\u00e9 of Ars convinced me that the priest accomplishes an essential part of his mission in the confessional, by volunteering to \u201cmake himself a prisoner of the confessional\u201d
[in \u201cMy vocation, Gift and Mystery\u201d].<\/p>\n
The Cur\u00e9 of Ars himself would have been frightened if he had known that one day, the successor of Peter would come to his parish, and bring together the priests of France to make him an example… This is what happened. passed in 1986! John Paul II then remarked:
\n\u2014 Personally, I am touched by his message. I am still very touched. And that’s why I come here, on pilgrimage, to kneel before these wonders of God…
He underlined: \u201cSo, Christ stopped here, in Ars, at the time when Jean-Marie Vianney was parish priest there. Yes, he stopped. He saw \u201cthe crowds\u201d of men and women of the last century who \u201cwere tired and discouraged\u201d, like \u201csheep without a shepherd\u201d (Mt 9:36). Christ stopped here as the Good Shepherd.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the person of the Cur\u00e9 of Ars, the Lord Jesus \u201cpassed\u201d and acted. He spoke to men, gave himself to them, welcomed them and immersed himself in his mercy. As priest, the Cur\u00e9 of Ars acted in the name of Christ in the sacraments, the Word proclaimed, charity spread. The same remarks could be made for John Paul II… The mystery of the presence of God is also manifested in the life and testimony of his friends, of those who allow themselves to be sanctified and who do his will.<\/p>\n
Also when John Paul II specifies that the holy Cur\u00e9 remains for all countries an unparalleled model \u201cboth of the accomplishment of the ministry and of the holiness of the minister\u201d, this is indeed what he means; in these two dimensions \u2013 as pastor and as saint \u2013 he is exemplary!
Mr. Vianney noted: \u201cwhere the saints pass, God passes with them! “. Here too, he would have been very surprised to see that his sentence applied to him and to the Pope who came to his house!<\/p>\n
Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005 in Rome after 26 years of pontificate.<\/p>\n
He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on May 1, 2011, then canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014, during the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass.<\/p>\n
Extract from the Annales d’Ars n\u00b0 332[mai-juin 2011] .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3169,"template":"","class_list":["post-7237","grands-temoins-dars","type-grands-temoins-dars","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/grands-temoins-dars\/7237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/grands-temoins-dars"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/grands-temoins-dars"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}