(music) MAN: John Paul II was
an extremely charismatic, spiritual leader. There was just such a joy in him
that was present that you could see. MAN: He had an intensity about life and an intense love for people, I mean,
he intensely loved people, that's what he was driven by. He was an academic,
an amazing academic, but also did a lot
of work with families. He's like everybody's
grandpa. (laughs) MAN: John Paul II has
been a presence of Christ really on earth. MAN: One newspaper reporter
in Denver called him, "God's Ambassador
to the United States." MAN: He wasn't just a pope,
he was a pastor. He was not a person
that was above the people. He was just so able to put you
at ease in his presence. WOMAN: When the Holy Father
landed somewhere, it's like 900 square miles of grace
just settled on the city. World Youth Day is the largest
gathering of Catholic young people in the world,
and in 1993, all of those people from all over the world
came to Denver, and the Pope joined them. <i>"Colorado Experience"
is made in partnership</i> <i>with History Colorado.</i> <i>Inspiring generations to find
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Television, and Media;</i> <i>with additional funding
and support</i> <i>from these fine organizations
and viewers like you.</i> <i>Thank you.</i> (music) (music) WOMAN: Pope John Paul II
came into the world a man named Karol Wojtyla. He was born in 1920 in Poland. His mother died when
he was a small child, his brother died when
he was a teenager, his father died when
he was in his early 20's. He lost his entire family
right as the Nazis are occupying Poland
where he lives. John Paul II understood
the worst of humanity. This is a person who survived
Nazi Germany, this is a person who knew the ghettos of Warsaw,
this is a person who saw people starve to death, who were
murdered in front of him. He was hunted by the Nazis,
he hid in a closet while they were searching
his apartment at one point. He studied in an underground
seminary because seminaries were forbidden under the Nazis. So there was an intensity
in him about human life and the preciousness of
human life, because he knew, he knew the abyss,
he'd been there. And so, that's what shaped
him, that's was formed him. BONACCI: There came a point when they actually had to move into the seminary fulltime in hiding
because they were being hunted. So these are the conditions
under which he became a priest. FERRUGIA: Coming up in Poland, being a pastor, being a bishop, and then an archbishop
and then a cardinal, he had pastoral experience. He wanted to be out
talking to people and bring the church to them. BONACCI: He became Pope in 1978
and it was a very interesting time in the church. When Pope Paul VI died,
all the cardinals came to the Sistine Chapel and
Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland was one of those cardinals,
and they came and they elected a Pope who took the name
John Paul I. 30 days later, he suddenly died, and they're all back
in the Sistine Chapel. When this second gathering happened after the death of John Paul I -- when the Pope is elected, the white smoke comes out of the Sistine Chapel
and then the cardinal makes the announcement
"Cardinal Wojtyla." And everybody's looking
at everybody saying, "Who?" I mean, I can still remember
exactly where I was when John Paul II
was elected Pope. I remember sitting with a priest
friend of mine and we were watching, and both of us
looked at each other and said, "Wojtyla?
Where's he from, Africa?" And they said, "No,
he's from Poland." BONACCI: This beautiful, radiant, young man comes out, he's 58, which in the world
of the papacy is quite young, and he begins speaking
in perfect Romani, in perfect Roman-Italian,
so they all went crazy. And that was the beginning of
the world church's love affair with Karol Wojtyla. It is a tradition of the church
that in the moment in which a pope is elected, that
he may choose another name, so he chose John Paul II. To continue also, the legacy,
I believe, of John Paul I. MAN: One newspaper reporter
in Denver called him, "God's Ambassador
to the United States." And he was seen as somebody
with a strong following, with a strong message,
a man who was very good at inspiring people,
and inspiring young people. He was very charismatic and
people responded to that, young people particularly
responded to that. And he delighted in the young
people, and you felt that. BONACCI: The whole idea
for World Youth Day was John Paul II's, he really felt called to reach out to the youth, because not that they
were the church of tomorrow, but because they're
the young church of today. So, he got this idea in 1984 --
let's get a bunch of teenagers together, and they held
the first one in Rome in 1986. They had it on their home turf
first and then they said, ah, this is so successful,
let's take it on the road. And they did. FERRUGIA: World Youth Day
is the largest gathering of Catholic young people
in the world, and in 1993, all of those people from all over the world came to Denver, and the Pope joined them. DR. CONVERY: John Paul II
was seen as a rock star around the world and this
was sort of a personal tour, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people traveled from all around
the world to see the Pope, become energized about their
faith, to dedicate themselves to living better lives, and to sort of bask in the celebration of their church. Pope John Paul II was the one
who had approached the bishops of the United States and asked
if they would be willing to consider hosting a World Youth
Day event in the United States? And then they began to
look at various cities throughout the country that had not yet hosted a papal visit. Those cities included Buffalo,
New York; Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington;
and a few others. Archbishop Stafford called me
from Washington and said, "Are you seated? What would you think about
hosting Pope John Paul II on a papal visit?" I said, "The Pope's coming
back to the United States?" He said, "Well yes,
specifically for World Youth Day in the summer of 1993." I said, "You bet I'm seated
because I remember watching the video of the last one in
Czestochowa, and it was a mess. You mean to say that that mess
could be coming to Denver?" He said, "If you want it." I said, "We should, we should
go for it, we should want it." FERRUGIA: Denver is the West,
it's a new center of youth, it's the most vibrant city, and the Pope's looking to talk with young people, so to evangelize in the United States, Denver becomes the center. And also, as he said,
"The mountains are a cathedral." What better place for
the Pope to come to God's cathedral
than Colorado? There were two main reasons
why the Pope selected Denver as the site of World Youth Day
in 1993. The first was the landscape,
the scenery, the great backdrop of the Rocky Mountains,
he felt was very inspiring. The other reason was
the growing Hispanic population of Denver and of Colorado. Hispanic Catholics were
the largest growing segment of that community. And although the Pope could have
gone to many Latino countries, reaching out to Latinos
in the United States was very important
to his papacy. So when I heard he was coming to Denver, which is my hometown, and to speak specifically
to youth, that was exciting. Just to be recognized,
I mean, in the church and just in the United States. Out of every city, you know, we're not Los Angeles, we're not Boston,
we're not New York. Will young people really come
from all over the world to Denver, Colorado? Even some of the bishops
within the United States were skeptical. People in the church didn't know
how this was going to go, you know, was it going to flop? I mean, the state isn't
100 percent Catholic. Who would have said that the largest gathering in the history of this state was going
to be around a pope? I remember that there had been
lots of press about how the Holy Father's coming and we don't
really think it's going to be much of a success because he's
old and this is a youth event. And that was not the experience, at all...at all! Thousands of people came,
the largest gathering ever in Colorado history. AQUILA: There were well over
750,000 who showed up for the World Youth Day. Nobody really knew
what to expect in Denver from the arrival of the Pope, and hundreds of thousands
of people following him, it was the largest event that Denver had ever hosted, at all. Of course, there was great
anxiety with the Pope's arrival because Denver in 1993
was a very violent place. We were going through the summer
of violence in which more than 130 murders took place over
the course of the summer. There was a lot
of gang violence, there was a lot of
domestic violence. And it felt to city authorities
like Denver was a little bit out of control, and nobody
really knew how this phenomenon of increased homicides
and the arrival of the Pope were really going
to come together. It was becoming an international
news story, we were receiving phone calls asking if it was
safe to send their children, hearing that there was so much
gang on gang violence and so many killings
that were taking place. We actually had a drive-by
shooting happen on our street, it was a terrifying experience. And I heard a car speeding down
the street, it went by our house and I heard gunshots
and I heard people yelling. I'm like watching this
out my kitchen window like it's on TV or something. It was the summer of violence, it was a scary time. People were really worried about
the Pope coming here because of the violence, and they
were worried about an up tick in violence
and what would happen. When the Holy Father arrived,
it was incredible that all this violence
came to a screeching halt. Crime went to zero,
there was no violence. You can call that whatever,
but some people said, "It's a miracle." There was no summer of violence, it was a week of amazing grace. This was the largest mass influx
of people in Denver in our history. The largest number of international delegates was virtually a tie, if you will, between the Italians and the Mexicans. But there were also small delegations from very far corners of the world including
Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific. You could've heard
70 different languages. There were people coming from Angola and Argentina, and certainly Spain and Italy. We became a global society
in the summer of 1993. It was a major organizational effort to make sure that the travelers who came here
from around the world were safe and comfortable,
and had the basic amenities that they needed in order to celebrate their event. BUELT: We had to provide
transportation, housing, room and board,
and so on and so forth, for a quarter of a million
people, and that was my job. I only lost sleep over it
one night and that was, how am I going to house
all of these people? KING: They were expecting thousands of pilgrims. Organizers knew they wouldn't have enough housing. Even though we had this tiny little house, I was excited about offering our house to someone who would need shelter. When I opened the door,
the first one was the Carmelite Priest and
he introduced himself to me, and his name was Father Angel. I thought that was beautiful,
I thought that was just lovely. BUELT: We did use the entire
Auraria parking garage to house all of the Italian
delegates who came. But it was open air, it was
warm enough at night for them to sleep, to camp out
in a parking garage in the middle of downtown
Denver, they loved it. DR. CONVERY: World Youth Day
was really a five-day event that spanned from
Wednesday, August 11th, to Sunday, August 15, 1993. Celebrations began even
before the Pope arrived. On the Wednesday
before he arrived, there was a large celebration and a mass at Civic Center Park, which they renamed Celebration
Plaza in the Pope's honor. BUELT: The call came in that
the young people were frolicking in the fountains of
Civic Center Park, which you would expect young people to do on a hot day. However, that presented quite
a liability concern for us should someone be injured, and our insurance people required that we shut that down. And so they drained those fountains of water. Not a lot of happy young
people on that day. DR. CONVERY: The following day, the Pope arrived at Stapleton International Airport where he was greeted by the President of the United
States, Bill Clinton. BUELT: President Clinton came to greet the Holy Father upon his arrival here, they had a summit of some length -- an hour, hour and a half --
at Regis University. DR. CONVERY: On Friday,
the Pope celebrated a mass at the Cathedral of
the Immaculate Conception, renamed the Basilica
of the Immaculate Conception by the Pope. BUELT: It was an extraordinary sense of joy and satisfaction and relief that the event
was finally here and it was taking place. When Pope John Paul II decided on Denver, one of the things he wanted to do was to
go to the mountains. DR. CONVERY: He retreated
to Camp Saint Malo, a beautiful church on
the slopes of Longs Peak for meditation and reflection. After his visit to the Rocky
Mountains, he returned to Denver for an evening service
at Mile High Stadium and it was one of the sublime moments of his entire visit as 90,000 cheering young people went on and on and on in their celebration
of the Pope. Just hearing the roar when the
helicopters started to come in carrying Pope John Paul,
the pressure of the noise against the helicopters themselves had jolted the helicopters
a couple of times. When he came in to Mile High,
it was an amazing moment, there was this feeling in there
of being overwhelmed by something people
hadn't felt before. We are in Denver!
We are in Denver! (cheering) Denver, Colorado! (cheering) BONACCI: All eyes
are on this one guy, you catch a glimpse of him
and you cry, it's just this, it's the reaction to holiness. It was awesome and it was just, to be with that many
other people. I mean, the place was packed,
it was a wholly different motivation for being there and
a wholly different feeling. Nobody'd gone into Mile High
Stadium for this reason, people hadn't seen before,
they hadn't experienced that before in Denver. And he got in the "Popemobile." CAPUCCI: The Popemobile is a car that is custom made to carry basically the Holy Father amongst the crowd. DR. CONVERY: It was an automobile with an open top and sort of a Plexiglas,
a shield around the Pope. A very unusual car,
nobody else in the world drove one like the Pope. CAPUCCI: It does allow
the Holy Father to basically walk through the crowd. DR. CONVERY: The Popemobile
was trying to create a balance between allowing him
exposure with the people, but also protecting
his bodily person. (music) And then on Saturday, tens of
thousands of young people took a pilgrimage to
Cherry Creek State Park on the southeastern fringe
of Denver. The pilgrimage is an ancient
form of Christian spirituality. Perhaps the simplest way to
define it is "walking prayer." It worked out very well though
for the city and county of Denver because
the Cherry Creek ran from downtown Denver to
Cherry Creek Reservoir. DR. CONVERY: If you can imagine this lake and the lovely setting of the Rocky Mountain backdrops, beautiful, beautiful summer day. FERRUGIA: Hot, very hot,
you know, it's August, the sun was beating down. BONACCI:
It was long. BUELT: 13 miles is a long pilgrimage for anyone to make. It was a pilgrimage
and it was hard. There are many challenges
on a pilgrimage even if it's through the city, there were just people everywhere, it was an arduous
but beautiful experience. So we got up very early in the
morning and we began walking, and I remember more and more
people were walking with us, wanting to share the same
experience, faith experience, and wanting to have
an encounter with God. Because at the end, really this is what we were all seeking, and the experience
was really beautiful, to encounter young people
from all over the world. People started showing up
overnight, the pilgrimage, the walk out there. And prior to the Pope getting there -- you see this in third-world countries,
you see this sometimes at pilgrimages to religious sites -- but you had priests who were sitting in chairs
and you had a person, a penitent sitting next to them and they were hearing confessions, and you saw this
all over the park. And it was a pretty
amazing sight because in the United States
you hardly ever see that. Then you saw people who had
camped out, you know, disheveled people, at dawn, getting
out of their sleeping bags. It was like the Catholic
Woodstock, you know? It was just this enormous
mass of humanity. AQUILA: Crowds were estimated
at well over 800,000 there, some even said there
were close to a million, but it was just amazing to see that kind of mass of people. FERRUGIA: It was very orderly, people were enjoying themselves, almost like a Sunday picnic,
but with 800,000 people, and of course with all
the requisite issues, "Where are the restrooms?" KING: When his helicopter did get there, I was standing in a bathroom line that I'd been
in for like an hour, like, I am not leaving this line,
I'm just going to wave. I'll just be one of
the little tiny dots down here waving at him. It was crazy because you had
every age from everywhere. I saw everybody,
I saw a cross-section of ages, a cross-section of cultures,
and everybody's got the one thing in common --
we all love J.P. II, and a lot of them are
only in the moment discovering how much
they love J.P. II. So a lot of people were
having a real moment. It did change my life. I remember one distinct moment
in which he was speaking and he began to say that
it was necessary, urgent, to go and announce the love
of God to everyone. The mission of proclaiming it
to the ends of the earth is now passing
to your generation. (applause) CAPUCCI: And I remember in that moment, clearly and distinctly, I began to think about my life and see that everything that I was doing didn't have really a deep meaning, and in that moment the words of the Holy Father really struck my heart... Have no fear...have no fear. CAPUCCI: And in that moment,
I also felt for the first time a strong call from God to become a priest, and little did I know, that eventually I would have been ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Denver. So it all started with
John Paul II in 1993 and that experience is still present in my life, I cannot detach myself
from that World Youth Day. For a lot of people
it was a conversion moment and you can talk to so many priests who can trace their priesthood, their vocation
back to World Youth Day. World Youth Day produced
fruit here and certainly the Holy Father himself
said he was even surprised by the response of the people
here and the young people here, and he considered it
a revolution. And it was a revolution,
it was a revolution for the new evangelization,
for taking the Gospel into the third millennium. The message stayed, it wasn't
just a moment, it wasn't just a, "rah-rah, we love Jesus,"
but so many laypeople who found their faith, so many different
things sprung out of it. DR. CONVERY: World Youth Day strengthened the church in metropolitan Denver, it left a positive lingering effect in bringing people together in the Catholic Church in Colorado. FERRUGIA: I think the Pope
and World Youth Day really provided leaven for
the bread for the community. The Catholic community here after World Youth Day became energized. BONACCI: The impact on Denver was huge, the vitality of the church before and after World Youth Day was like two completely different cities, different environments, different experiences, it really started taking off after that. FERRUGIA: There are two seminaries in Denver, which is unheard of,
and they're packed, they're packed with young men
who want to be priests. CAPUCCI: There is an abundance of ordinations really and these two dioceses and
seminaries, for example, are fruit of the visit
of John Paul II. BONACCI: The Holy Father made it very clear that he felt God was leading him to Denver,
and that Denver was going to be a center and that has
turned out to be the case. Denver is the center of
the new evangelization of the Catholic Church
in the United States, and it remains that. [singing] <i>O come,
O come Emmanuel</i> <i>And ransom captive Israel</i> CAPUCCI: Something changed
for sure after 1993, his health began to deteriorate. He found it very important
not to hide his suffering, to show the world
that it's ok to be old, that it's ok to be feeble,
that we still have dignity. He didn't want to be one
who was just kind of shut off. CAPUCCI: To see him weak has shown even more his strength, his spiritual strength. BONACCI: We saw the ravage of
the Parkinson's on his speech, on his demeanor, on his face,
and he was out on the balcony blessing the crowds very
shortly before he died. CAPUCCI:
He died in April, 2005. Emotionally, it was a loss,
but at the same time, I felt that the whole church
was gaining a saint. KING: During his funeral,
it was just so beautiful and the crowd saying,
"Sainthood now." People were already
holding posters, "Santo Subido" --
"Saint immediately." We all believed he was a saint,
so the church is just affirming in an official way
what we already knew. I was so excited when I heard that the canonization process was starting and that he was going to be Saint John Paul II. He certainly changed my life
in enormous and profound ways. CAPUCCI: I did feel that
he spent his life for me, and this is a sign of love. BUELT: John Paul II was one
who always made his visitor to feel welcome and important. It was said many, many times
by many, many people that when they were in the presence of Pope John Paul II, it was as if there was
no one else in the world, and that really was a gift
that he could offer. He was able to transmit this
and this is what impacted probably so much. For sure, he changed the way
the Pope is perceived. BONACCI:
He was the first Pope rock star. Up until then,
Popes were old guys in Rome. And wonderful holy men,
but certainly youth didn't know who they were. They were just these guys
who made pronouncements. And he was your grandfather. I mean, he reached out,
he came to us and he loved us. I mean, that was completely new. Pope John Paul II was one of
the most influential popes that we've had
in the modern era. He shaped the course of
the Catholic Church in ways that will be around
for generations. FERRUGIA: John Paul II represents what saints, I think, really are, they're people
who do absolutely their best. There's much hope,
there's much good, there's much love that has
come from World Youth Day. There's much to be positive,
to be hopeful, to look forward to in the future that
World Youth Day can hang on as a legacy from Pope John Paul II to the city of Denver, to the people of Colorado,
and to the world. (music)
