At St. Patrick’s Church, perched 200 feet above a canyon floor as a symbol of the steely determination of the copper miners who built this rugged town, Jim McEntee, 43, said he had been considering leaving his lifelong Roman Catholic faith.
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But as he watched last week’s television coverage of how Pope John Paul II fought anti-Semitism at as early as age 10, McEntee found inspiration once again. He said he will even put a picture of the pope over his coffeemaker to help him through the tough days of raising four children while his wife works full time as a physician.
“I was amazed that as such a young person, he had a good grip on how people should interact with one another,” McEntee said.
Facing mountain peaks, St. Patrick Church was built from 1915 to 1917 by donations from copper miners, largely of Welsh and Irish descent, and the Gothic Revival-style church is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Parishioner Jim Miller, 68, carrying his 2-year-old granddaughter after Sunday morning mass, said he recalled how the selection of a Polish priest as pope was considered extraordinary after centuries of Italian prelates.
Miller said that a Polish pope even changed what he admitted were his own ethnic biases. “I’ll tell you something, there were some Polish people I didn’t like,” said Miller, a native of Boston and a retired federal marine biologist.
During a service attended by 100 people, Rev. Larry Kasper cited the timing of the pope’s death, the week after Easter when Jesus proved his resurrection to his disciples and said “Peace be with you” to ease their fears.
“What a day for John Paul II to leave the world and be with the Father!” Kasper said during his sermon. “The Lord is in our midst, and we have nothing to fear. Our pope said the same thing.”