Correspondent caught between two views

AS the life of Pope John Paul II entered its final hours the Irish Examiner dedicated several pages to this wonderful man, including reports of his historic visit to our country in 1979.

Unforgettable, outstanding, immense, extraordinary, wonderful and fantastic were some of the superlatives used in an attempt to describe the effect his presence had on us.

Your correspondent TP O’Mahony’s sole contribution to the events taking place was to write about Archbishop Marcinkus (an aide to the Pope), who was allegedly corrupt in his conduct of financial affairs with the Vatican Bank. He concludes by stating “the sight of him (Marcinkus) with his cigar on the papal plane remains one of my few enduring memories of 1979.”