The man called "papa" by his loving masses affected each of them, profoundly and personally. Each remembers their encounter as if it happened moments ago.

Ask Judy Giacobello of Kane'ohe, who can see her decade-old experience like a home movie playing in her mind.

She was waiting at the airport in Rome with her husband and their granddaughter, Lindsey Mau, who was 10 at the time. Their flight home to Hawai'i from a two-week European vacation had been delayed.

A commotion in the airport caught their attention. Barricades were going up and attracting lines of eager people, craning their necks to see someone coming through the airport.

It was the pope, still vibrant.

"They were crying, they were so overwhelmed," Giacobello said.

Giacobello fumbled for her camera, and a nearby woman motioned to Lindsey to take a spot saved at the front of the barricade.

Giacobello caught sight of the pope and followed his gaze right to her granddaughter.

" 'He's looking at you!' " she told Lindsey.

A Vatican official noticed it, too. Suddenly, little Lindsey was meeting the pope.

"I couldn't remember clicking the picture, that's how excited I was," Giacobello said. "All the way, I'm doing the 'Hail Marys,' saying 'Please let my pictures come out.' "

They did.

"It was the experience of a lifetime," Giacobello said. "I remember after that, when (Lindsey) got on the plane, she fell asleep like a baby."

'Another Jesuit'

Ask the Rev. Donald Merrifield about his meeting with the pope. Or better still, ask Merrifield if he's "just another Jesuit."

Merrifield, the former director of Hispanic ministries for the Catholic diocese here in Hawai'i, met the pope on a trip to Phoenix.

"He was just marvelous," he said. "He has a spontaneity about him."

Merrifield was one of several guests celebrating an observatory opening in Phoenix.

He recalled seeing the pope get up from a siesta and ask an assistant for a quick briefing on the coming event, which involved a group of Jesuits and university astronomers.

The pope gave "this little impromptu discussion" on how the church had helped astronomy, then went around the circle and met many of those gathered.

"I introduced myself and he said, 'Another Jesuit,' " Merrifield said with a chuckle. "That's how I'll be known."

Help in Hawaiian

Ask Eugene Sabado, who attended the beatification ceremony for Father Damien in Belgium in 1995.

Sabado, a lector for the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace at the time, remembered tight security measures and a church official asking that he follow him to a building.

Sabado thought he was in trouble, but instead found himself standing before the pope, who was attempting to read words in Hawaiian. The pontiff wanted to say them correctly and wanted Sabado's help.

Sabado listened as the pope read the passage. Was it all right? Sabado told him it was close enough.

He can laugh at it all now. He wasn't much linguistic help.

"I was so nervous," Sabado said.

But he had met the pope.

'Radiant and dynamic'

Ask the Rev. Hal Weidner about the pope and he'll share the anguish he has felt at seeing photographs of the pontiff's final weeks. The "terrible suffering" conflicts so much with the pope he met years ago at an audience in the piazza at St. Peter's, packed with 5,000 people.

"I first saw him in 1982, after his assassination attempt," said Weidner, pastor of Holy Trinity Church. "He was radiant and dynamic."

Afterward, as people dispersed, Weidner stayed behind because he thought the pope might join the crowd. He was right.

"He plunged into us, shaking hands as much as possible," Weidner said. "He came down to us. There was a mob."

The pope came within three feet of Weidner and looked right at him.

Weidner had other audiences with the pope through the years.

The priest has a picture of him shaking hands with the pope at the anniversary of Saint Philip Neri's death. Neri was the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, the religious order that Weidner heads here, and actually celebrated Mass — one of a huge group — with the pope.

"Back then, he could still walk but had a rosary in his hands," he said. "He was absolutely wrapped in prayer. He walked slow, slow, slow, but touched people's hands."

A special message given that day would become the mission statement for Weidner, then the new pastor at Holy Trinity: "To be one with each other and with Christ in the Father, so the Holy Spirit may make Christ known to the world through us, in word and spirit."

That means, "If we are united with each other, the unity we have will speak to the world of Christ," he said.

'Courageous' eyes

The Rev. Marc Alexander, the Honolulu Diocese's theologian, was studying in Europe in 1992 when he found himself face to face with the pope.

He was showing his sister, Leona Owen, who was visiting from North Carolina, around the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City when they met John Paul II.

Owen and Alexander, whose mother is Japanese, nervously introduced themselves. "I greeted him in Italian and he greeted me in Japanese," Alexander said.

They exchanged pleasantries, and there's even a picture of the pair bowing to the pope.

Yes, he was charismatic, warm and engaging, Alexander said. But it was the pope's eyes that caught his attention. "Not just holy, but courageous," he said. "You can't help but pick that up."

A big blessing

Ask Connie Smith about the pope and she'll recall a trip she won to Europe in April 1993. She took her family, including her son Greg, who has Down syndrome.

She had written ahead to get tickets for a large public audience with the pope, and when they arrived, picked them up at an office near the Trevi Fountain.

"The next morning, the audience was at 11 a.m. We got there at about 7 in the morning, and just kept walking down the street, past all these churches doing services. We went to like four Masses," she said. "We must have received communion about four times that morning."

By the time they reached St. Peter's at 9 a.m., they were already feeling blessed, but the biggest blessing was about to come for her son.

"All of a sudden this little nun came out of nowhere, grabbed my son by the hand, motioned for me to follow," she said. "We went up to this area about five feet from the road. She sat (Greg) down and got him crackers and bottled water. She didn't speak English. I said, 'Thank you,' and I hope she knew 'thank you' was 'thank you.' "

After the audience was finished, the pope started to go into the crowd, but spotted Greg.

"He came right over to him," Smith said. "We had practiced with him kissing the ring. But that went right out the window. When the pope blessed him, Greg blessed him right back."