St Josemaría Escrivá and his love and veneration for the Pope

I am always touched when I read of the love and devotion that St Josemaría Escrivá had for the Holy Father. Here is a particularly touching extract from a book on the founder of Opus Dei, by the current Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarria:

When Saint Josemaría Escrivá was very young he used to dream of getting close to the Pope even for only a few moments, to have the chance of showing him his love and readiness to serve him. Msgr Javier Echevarría says: “His joy when he was actually in the Pope’s presence was immense. I could see that whenever I went with him to an audience with the Pope.” Msgr Echevarría, now the prelate of Opus Dei himself, witnessed Saint Josemaría’s love for the Pope back in the summer of 1950, at Castel Gandolfo, when they were staying near the Holy Father’s summer residence.

From that period I remember how affectionately he used to talk to us about the Pope. He used to get up enthusiastically to go to the roadside to see Pope Pius XII going past, on his way back from Rome to Castel Gandolfo after the Holy Year audiences. Msgr. Escrivá used to ask us to pray very hard for the Pope and love him very much, and show him our affection, because we ought always to see the Pope as the successor of Saint Peter, the dolce Cristo in terra, the “sweet Christ on earth”. And I saw how devoutly he would receive the blessing which the Holy Father gave from his car as he went by.

Before I went back to Spain Msgr. Escrivá asked me to spend two days in Rome to gain the Jubilee and visit the four Basilicas. He asked me to pray with great faith, especially in Saint Peter’s, feeling very united with the Pope, for the holiness of everyone in the Church to increase, and for more conversions everywhere. He recommended me not to forget my family, and to add my parents’ devotion to my own, since in a way I could represent them, because they would have loved to have the chance to pray in the Eternal City close to the See of Peter.

I very soon saw how continually Saint Josemaría renewed the offering of his life for the Pope, in readiness to give his life at any moment, with the grace of God. And he repeated that offering on the morning of 26 June 1975.

He would repeat, with absolute conviction, the words of Psalm 35:10, Apud Te est fons vitae et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen! (In you is the source of life and in your light we see light). He used this to increase his unity with Christ’s Vicar on earth. He always firmly believed that his union with the Blessed Trinity would grow still closer, the closer he was united in mind and will to the Pope and his intentions.

On countless occasions I heard him use expressions like “the common Father” or “the house of the common Father”, referring to the Pope or the Apostolic See. These expressions helped him experience the catholicity of the Church. He was made deeply happy by whatever made the Pope happy, and he likewise suffered when the Pope was suffering.

While on this subject, I remember how in October 1958, as soon as he heard that Pope Pius XII was gravely ill, he followed all the official communiqués closely. (…) It was the same when Pope John XXIII was seriously ill. I saw in his face how much he was suffering as he told us what Msgr. Dell’Acqua had said to him. Msgr Escrivá’s heart poured out words and expressions, even sighs, that showed how he was accompanying the common Father, how affected he was by the Pope’s sufferings.

I should make it clear that Msgr Escrivá never got edgy. But when he was in the presence of the Holy Father he was genuinely moved, and he never tried to hide or to overcome that sensation. And he was also delighted when he got permission for me, as secretary, to go and greet the Pope, the Successor of Peter. He always told me the same thing: “Fall on your knees, and make the most of those moments to show your love and veneration, and to increase your prayer for and union with the Pope, the Vicar of Christ.”


Extracts from: Echevarría, Javier y Bernal, Salvador, Memoria del Beato Josemaría Escrivá, Madrid, Rialp, 2000 (1st edition).