Rockland Teenager Remembers Blessing By Pope

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403 Union St. Rockland, MA 02370 (781) 878-0160

Rockland Teenager Remembers
Blessing By Pope

A picture of the pope hangs in a place of honor yesterday during the LifeTeen Mass at Holy Family Church in Rockland. (JEFF LOUGHLIN/The
Patriot Ledger)

By JOHN ZAREMBA
The Patriot Ledger

ROCKLAND - The time and place were less than opportune, but 14-year-old Janine Pendexter knew better than to complain about the circumstances when you get a blessing from the pope.

At about 7 a.m. on a summer day in 2002, Pendexter and thousands of other teenage Catholics packed an airfield in Toronto to hear Pope John Paul II say Mass at a youth conference.

Pendexter and her friends had trekked across the field and waited in line at a rest room.

Pope John Paul II came by quickly and unexpectedly in his Popemobile. He was only a few feet away when he blessed the crowd by raising his hand and making the sign of the cross.

‘‘It was extraordinary,'' said Pendexter of Bridgewater, now a 17-year-old member of Holy Family Catholic Church's LifeTeen group.

She is one of millions of teens worldwide who shared a special bond with Pope John Paul II, the only pope they have ever known, and one who focused much of his papacy on getting young people excited about Catholicism.

‘‘He said, ‘You guys are really going to put the flavor back into Catholicism,'' said Tim Brown, Holy Family's youth minister.

The pope's conservative leanings on social issues - he denounced homosexuality and artificial birth control, and stood against allowing women into the priesthood - polarized Catholics and led younger liberals to criticize him as out of touch.

But it also won him admirers - even young ones - who praised what they saw as his principled observance of traditional Catholic values.

While he was conservative, the pope was not stodgy, Pendexter said. ‘‘He talked like he was one of us,'' she said, remembering the message he delivered at the youth Mass. ‘‘It was life-changing.''

The pope showed his love for youth even in his dying hours; news organizations reported early Saturday that when his attendants told him of all the young people holding vigil in St. Peter's Square, he offered them a final message: ‘‘I came for you, now it's you who have come to me. I thank you.''

‘‘When he got up and said he loved us,'' she recalled, ‘‘you knew he loved us.''