What were you doing this week eighteen years ago? Perhaps you were just married or starting a new job? Maybe the retirement you now enjoy seemed then to be ages away? Perhaps you were not yet born! Most of us will probably have to stop and think what it was we were doing this week in October 1978.

One person who won’t have to think very long is the man who eighteen years ago this week found himself getting used to a new name. He’d been baptised ‘Charles’ but upon his election as the 263rd successor to St Peter had continued the tradition begun by John II in 533 of taking a new name. He chose that of his predecessor becoming Pope John-Paul II By that name he will be forever known. This week he celebrates the anniversary of his inauguration.

Previous popes had been crowned and not with any old band of gold. The papal crown had consisted of three crowns stacked, as it were, on top of each other. The last pope to be thus crowned had been Paul VI in 1963. He'd worn what was cruelly described as a beehive. His successor, the short-reigning John-Paul I, had chosen not to be crowned but invested only with the pallium, made from lambs wool and representing the yoke of a shepherd. Pope John-Paul II chose the same and in doing so totally disappointed one young lad who then, as now, had a lot to learn!

In 1978 it seemed to me to be unfair that having been elected not just pope but supreme pontiff, bishop of Rome, shepherd of the shepherds etc. this man from Poland should choose to shun the vestiges of power. I can remember watching the inauguration on TV and thinking why on earth was that bit of white wool being placed around his neck. Eighteen years on, it all begins to make sense and seems so much more appropriate. As we commemorate the Holy Father's inauguration I find myself being thankful that he has, everyday since then, worn that pallium around his neck. It seems to symbolise his dedication to leading Christ’s flock It also reminds me why it is right and fitting that at every mass we pray in the Eucharistic Prayer for him and our own bishop, that with them we will work to give to God what belongs to God: the unadorned divine image that is ourselves.
DG