That the events a year ago had a profound impact…

Don Sleeper of Logan says the death of the pope, a man he always had admired, was the catalyst in his conversion.
   A scrub tech at a surgical hospital, 58-year-old Sleeper had flirted with a half-dozen Protestant sects, the Anglican and Catholic churches as well as Buddhism as he moved around the world over the years.
   After arising in the wee hours to watch John Paul II’s funeral, Sleeper called St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Logan to learn more about Catholicism. A new class for adults was starting that evening, and he joined in.
   "It brought everything together for me – everything I’ve been looking for," says Sleeper, who will be baptized and receive the sacraments at Easter at St. Thomas Aquinas.
   Diane Seiler of Brigham City says the pope’s death brought to the surface her long-held, vague feeling that she should be Catholic, the faith in which her husband and mother were raised.
   "I was just sad, very sad," she says. "I felt cheated."
   A year later, she is completing the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults class at St. Henry’s Catholic Church in Brigham City, and will be baptized at the Easter Vigil Mass.
   Her husband is active again in his faith, and their 14-year-old daughter, Haley, will join her mother in receiving the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confirmation at Easter. Haley was baptized as an infant.

Yes, it’s anecdotal, but really – as the article states – for a month, Catholicism was on the air 24/7, and in a totally, thoroughly positive way: dealing honestly and forthrightly with matters of life and death; offering meaning to both, especially the latter in an age which would prefer simply not to think about the inevitable; investing suffering, which is something we all know something about, with purpose, and placing it, every day, in the context of the Cross and Resurrection.

The ceremonies, from the funeral to the conclave to Benedict’s inaugural Mass were all dignified and evocative, all clearly focused on Christ, all drawing from a clearly ancient well that still, after centuries, still lived and obviously had a life-changing impact.

To watch all of this, but finally, to watch and hear the stories of the millions who flocked to Rome during that month. To see the lines of people waiting to pay their respects, the constant background shots of the posters of John Paul around Rome, the witness of the priests, simply standing around the city, hearing Confessions, watching, on that amazing day of the election, the people of Rome rushing, racing to St. Peter’s Square at the call of the bell.

In a way, all of those millions – those who came to Rome to pray in thanksgiving for the witness of John Paul II, to join themselves to the story of suffering, death and resurrection through prayer, ritual and deeply felt community, who rushed to the Square, who fell to their knees, who stood quietly waiting, who shared what they had with each other, who broke into cheers when the new Pope appeared on the balcony, grateful for the solidity of the fishermen, still saying yes after 2000 years so we can keep listening and brought more deeply into the loving embrace of Christ by our own "yes"…those people were evangelizers, too. Perhaps they didn’t know it, but it wasn’t just the signs and the symbols and the words. It was that Mystical Body, vibrant and alive and joyful, even through suffering, gathered in Rome that showed the rest of us who were watching, what discipleship, what Church is all about.