Relic of Pope John Paul II to be taken on tour in Mumbai

A relic of Pope John Paul II, a portion of a wooden cross, is on a five-day tour in Mumbai, visiting various churches in the city. The tour aims to venerate the Pope's love for young people and promote prayer and positive change in their lives. Pope John Paul II was the head of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 and was the first non-Italian Pope in over 400 years.

Mumbai: A relic of the late Pope John Paul II is to be taken on a five-day tour in Mumbai. Starting Wednesday, it will chart its way through various churches in the city, and cover the expanse from Airoli to Colaba to Thane to Virar.

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The relic is a 3x1-cm portion of a wooden cross held by the late Pope, who served as the head of the Catholic church from 1978 to 2005, on the last Good Friday of his life. “Traditionally, the Pope celebrates Good Friday at the Colosseum with thousands of people. But on this Good Friday in 2005, a few days before the end of his life, he was so weak that he watched the ceremony on television from his chapel, holding this wooden cross,” said Father Tomy Philip of the Pallottine Animation Centre. He is also the chaplain of the Jesus Youth India, the organisers of the tour.

The relic came to the country first in Kerala, brought from Rome for private devotional purposes by a priest known to Father Tomy. As news about it spread, parishes around the country sent in requests to hold the relic. Till now, the tour, called JaaGo Yatra, which started on April 15, 2023, has gone to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar.

The tour hopes to venerate the Pope’s love for young people. “It’s an opportunity to pray with young people in Mumbai. The hope is they’ll pray together, bring about change in their lives, become good people, good citizens and good Catholics,” said Father Tomy.

Johnson Pillai, assistant coordinator of Jesus Youth India, said that for people from the outside, the relic might look like just a cross. “But those faithful to the Church have a reverence for it, and will come to behold it even on weekdays,” he said.

Who was Pope John Paul II?

Saint Paul John II was the pope (head) of the Catholic Church from 1978 to his death in 2005. Born in Poland in 1920, he studied the Polish language, literature, theatre and poetry in University. He lived through the Nazi invasion and Communist occupation. He was the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years and the first from a Slavic country. His pontificate of more than 26 years was the third-longest in history. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in the 1990s, which was eventually the cause of his death. In 2011, he was beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, and in 2013, declared a saint by Pope Francis.