35 years have passed. Those who had the privilege of experiencing those 16 and a half hours between 23 and 24 September 1989 have not forgotten. It was a historic event and is not a journalistic exaggeration. The visit of a Pope to Lucca is not frequent. Before John Paul II there had been Pius IX on 24-25 August 1857, therefore 132 years before, and even before that Paul III Farnese in 1541 therefore a good 316 years before.
For some time, however, there has been talk of a possible new visit by a Pope who could be invited to Lucca as early as 2025 (Holy Year) or in 2026 also as a moment of restitution to the faithful and the city of the Holy Face at the conclusion of the ongoing restoration.
We remember that the beatification of the Servant of God John Paul II took place on Sunday 1 May 2011 and just three years later, on 27 April 2014, or ten years ago, there was the canonisation. John Paul II was a Pope of records. Karol Józef Wojtyla, elected Pope on 16 October 1978, was born in Wadowice (Poland), on 18 May 1920. On 13 January 1964 he was appointed Archbishop of Krakow by Pope Paul VI, who created him Cardinal on 26 June 1967. He participated in the Vatican Council II (1962-1965) making an important contribution to the drafting of the constitution Gaudium et spes. He was elected Pope on 16 October 1978 and his ministry as Universal Pastor of the Church began on 22 October. During his pontificate he made 146 pastoral visits to Italy – including the city of Lucca – while as Bishop of Rome he visited 317 of the 332 Roman parishes. The apostolic journeys around the world, an expression of the constant pastoral concern of the Successor of Peter for all the Churches, were 104. Among his main documents are 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions and 45 Apostolic Letters. Pope John Paul II celebrated 147 beatification rites, in which he proclaimed 1,338 blessed, and 51 canonizations, for a total of 482 saints. He held 9 consistories, in which he created 231 (+ 1 in pectore) Cardinals.
On 13 May 1981 he suffered a serious attack in St. Peter’s Square. Saved “by the maternal hand of the Mother of God” after a long hospital stay, he forgave his attacker and, aware of having received a new life, intensified his pastoral commitments with heroic generosity. His concern as a pastor also found expression in the erection of numerous dioceses and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, in the promulgation of the Codes of Latin Canon Law and of the Oriental Churches, and of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He died in Rome, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, on Saturday 2 April 2005, at 9.37 pm; on the eve of Sunday in Albis or of Divine Mercy, instituted by him. The solemn funeral in St. Peter’s Square and the burial in the Vatican Grottoes were celebrated on 8 April 2005.
During his historic visit to Lucca there were many testimonies from those who approached him and were struck by his profound, visually suffering gaze. The first meeting with the citizens of Lucca took place in Piazza Napoleone, when he invited everyone to follow, with renewed commitment, with generosity, with intelligent responsibility the path so laudably practiced by the people of Lucca of previous generations, saying: «Your saints are examples of this: women of the people, like Zita and Gemma, educators like Elena Guerra, dedicated to the sick like Maria Domenica Brun Barbantini, missionaries like Angelo Orsucci, priests and religious like Giovanni Leonardi and Antonio Maria Pucci; all are the expression of your collective virtues. If they represent you in your best qualities, you have the duty to follow in their footsteps in the two fields in which they have expressed themselves exemplary: love for God and love for others; love for God which becomes a source of greater love for others. It is no coincidence that you have an ancient and great tradition of volunteering, which is both freedom of initiative and overcoming personal and group selfishness. My praise and encouragement to you to continue on this eminently evangelical path».
I found myself experiencing the event of September 23-24, 1989 in a triple role. First of all the professional one, as a reporter for the newspaper La Nazione, a role which in those hours required a good deal of time and energy, given that it was a historical event to which ample space was dedicated in the city news. Secondly as a member of the Committee for the procession of Santa Croce which was involved in the broader «Committee for the Reception of John Paul II», chaired by Monsignor Antonio Tigli. To these two roles was also added that of volunteer. Founder and animator of the activities of the Association named after Don Franco Baroni; association which in 1989 launched the project of the biennial appointment with the Health Prevention Days (first edition on 6 and 7 May 1989) and which played a role in the organization of the third edition of the Volunteer Day. The initial objective was precisely to organize this event, which had had two previous ones in spring 1985 and October 1987 coinciding with the visit of John Paul II, setting up the stands in Corso Garibaldi or in another space in the historic center which would allow the passage of Pope Wojtyla. This objective was not achieved and so the Volunteer Day was postponed to 6, 7 and 8 October 1989, two weeks after the visit of Pope John Paul II, with the setting up in Piazza San Michele.
However, the meeting with the guests of the “Italian Solidarity Center” group “Youth and community” was included in Pope Wojtyla’s visit, a very active reality in Lucca since 1976, thanks to the work of Monsignor Bruno Frediani and the support of Archbishop Monsignor Giuliano Agresti, on the front of support and assistance to the poor, the marginalized, drug addicts, the sick; also activating the first communities intended above all as a lifestyle and as a model of relationships.
It was therefore no coincidence that John Paul II in his speech in Piazza Napoleone referred precisely to volunteering, in a period so rich at a local, national and international level in terms of this model of life. Lucca had hosted national conferences, had established the National Center for Volunteering in November 1984 (forty years ago), and in that same year 1989 had also hosted the meeting to establish the European Center for Volunteering (Cev). In the meantime (17 December 1985) the United Nations General Assembly, with Resolution 40/212, had established the International Volunteer Day which is celebrated on 5 December, with the aim of raising awareness of the important contribution of the volunteer service volunteering, in order to stimulate more people of all conditions to offer their services as volunteers, both in their own country and abroad, demonstrating that even today there are good-hearted people willing to roll up their sleeves for free, investing time and energy for the benefit of the next one.
We also remember the great attention of Pope John Paul II for the sick and suffering, as clearly emerges from the Apostolic Letter «Salvifici Doloris» of 11 February 1984 and again from the Motu proprio «Dolentium Hominum» of 11 February 1985. For this reason, on the eve of the canonization of Pope Wojtyla there was a prayer meeting in the same «Don Luca Passi» Pensioner which is located in via Civitali 261 in Lucca, i.e. in the structure which had the great gift and privilege of hosting Pope John Paul II in the night between 23 and 24 September 1989, for approximately 10 of the 16 and a half hours of his visit to Lucca.
The chronicle of that visit recalls six meetings with seven messages from John Paul II.
- With the citizens and authorities of Lucca in Piazza Napoleone.
- With representatives of the local Church in the Cathedral of San Martino.
- With the young people in Piazzale Arrigoni and with the memory of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
- With the cloistered congregations of the archdiocese of Lucca at the Sanctuary of Santa Gemma Galgani.
- The Holy Mass for the faithful of the archdiocese in the municipal stadium of Lucca.
- Finally, the visit to the guests of the Children’s Village and the «Italian Solidarity Center» of Lucca on the urban walls.
Beyond the news there are the memories of many protagonists of those 16 and a half hours between 23 and 243 September 1989. For example, members of the police force called to guarantee safety both during public events and in the evening and night of the Pope’s stay in Lucca, in particular in the villa in via Civitali.
It was an unforgettable day also for the blood donors from Lucca who had the same blood group as John Paul II. To avoid surprises in the event of an emergency (let’s not forget the attack in Rome on 13 May 1981) the blood donors remained in a room of the then Campo di Marte hospital for the entire time of the visit. Fortunately everything went well, thanks also to the security apparatus, and there was no need to resort to extraordinary and/or urgent blood donations.
Then a final meeting in Lucca, short and unscheduled, took place on the morning of 24 September 1989 in Borgo Giannotti, precisely in the crowded Piazza della Croce, where John Paul II stopped for a prayer and a blessing, then the return to the ex Balilla field where another helicopter was waiting for him and accompanied him to Pisa for the Sunday visit to that city and its institutions.
