Priest recalls day he polished off Pope's dinner

The day he burst in on the Pope and ended up eating his dinner was recalled today by an Irish priest as Catholics around the world mourned his passing.

Father Brian Darcy was one of the organisers of the historic papal visit to Ireland in 1979 and inadvertently met him backstage after the celebration of Mass before over a million people in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

The Belfast based priest and religious broadcaster remembered: “I met the Pope at the back of the stand after the service – though I was not meant to.

“I was looking for the toilet but was directed by a guard to go through a door. I burst into a room and the Pope was having his dinner with the then primate Cardinal Tomas O’Fiaich, Jack Lynch, President Hillery and Archbishop Ryan – I nearly fainted.

“Efforts were being made to get the Pope to leave for his next engagement, but he didn’t want to go, he wanted to finish a great big cut of meat.

“Eventually he went on his way, giving me a look as he went.

“Cardinal O’Fiaich said to me: ‘You might as well finish the Pope’s meal because it is the nearest to him you will ever get.’ So I did and it was very good – it was the closest I have come to papal infallibility in my life.”

Father Darcy saw the Pope twice more during his visit to Ireland but never met him again.

“He was a very impressive man, it is sad to see they way he was recently, I hope he had an easy passing from this life, he deserved it after his life of service.”

Father Darcy described the Pope as one of the most influential leaders in the world adding: “He changed the face of the papacy.”

The Pope did not make it to Northern Ireland during his visit because of security concerns, but held a special Mass for northern Catholics at Drogheda.

Among the throng was Seamus Mallon, who that year became SDLP deputy leader and later, when he was Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, met the Pope in the Vatican.

“I was among the hundreds of thousands at Drogheda, it was quite an event. Even in the crowd you could see the enormous strength that exuded from the man - both physical and mental strength.”

Twenty one years later, as Deputy First Minister, Mr Mallon visited the Pope in the Vatican. “I attended Mass in his private oratory and read the lesson at the Mass and then had a long conversation with him.

“I was hugely impressed with his enormous strength and remarkable awareness of what was happening right throughout the world.

“I think he was remarkable and one of the great figures of the 20th century.”

Bishop of Cloyne Dr John Magee, who prepared the papal visit to Ireland in 1979, said the Pope’s humour was one of his great gifts.

With the trip hours behind schedule Dr Magee said the Pope feared for his life because of the hectic demands of the visit.

“In the first year of the pontificate we were trying out various things in regard to this visit, but as time went on the schedule become more refined,” Dr Magee said.

“We were shuttled here there and everywhere, we were running hours behind time and he said jokingly ‘the only place they tried to kill me was Ireland’. He got in as much in that weekend as would have been put in in a week-long visit.”

Dr Magee, who was personally chosen by Pope John Paul II to be his private secretary between between 1978 and 1982, said even a hectic Irish schedule could not dampen spirits.

“He had a great sense of humour. For all of us it’s a safety valve, we can sit back and look at things and laugh,” he said.

Dr Magee, who visited 64 countries during eight years as an aide to Pope John Paul, said the Pontiff would be remembered for his energy, his charm and as an inspiration to those who were in suffering.

“He had a great personal charm and a unique transparency of his persona, in a single moment he reveals himself to us,” he said.

“The fact that he has with such courage carried this suffering in true spirit of faith that has inspired so many.”

Dr Magee noted Pope John Paul II had great belief in the salvation of suffering.

He remarked that during visits to the sick in his diocese at Christmas time that many people noted it was the strength the Pope had shown in his suffering that had helped them.

All throughout the diocese prayers and special Masses have been celebrated in honour of Pope John Paul II, he added.

Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, described the Pope as a man of great courage even in the face of suffering.

“For a man who was extraordinarily fit, a man who travelled, a man who expressed himself extremely well, to find at the end of his life that his legs were gone, his expression on his face was gone and his voice was gone it’s a very sad situation,” the Archbishop said.

“But I’m sure that he is, as he always was, very close to the Lord at this stage.”

“I knew him well and had very, very extraordinary personal memories of the Pope as a man.”