MANILA, Philippines - Just what do Boots Anson-Roa, Julius Babao, CheChe Lazaro, and Billy Formoso have in common? All these famous media personalities covered Pope John Paul II at one time or another, on his two visits to the country in 1981 and 1995, or in Rome. We sought them out, now that the prelate will be beatified May 1 in what is the fastest record in the history of the Vatican. And each had their own unforgettable tale to tell.
Christendom’s most beloved pontiff John Paul II has been likened to a rock icon. He elicits similar screams and tears of joy. CheChe, known far and wide for her much awarded Probe Team documentaries went to Rome in August 2000 to cover the 15th year of the World Youth Day, one of Pope John Paul’s creations. The celebration started at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican and culminated in Tor Vergata, 10 kilometers from Rome with two million participants walking the distance.
She told us he was like a rock star with youngsters weeping and shouting, “JP2, we love you!” and him answering back, “I love you, too!” He had such an emotional impact on those who saw him. He was like a favorite grandfather/uncle whom everyone loved. What remains in my mind’s eye is the Tor Vergata grounds that was filled with people who brought their sleeping bags, laid them on the ground, sang in groups.“
JP2 was seated on a raised dais at the center of a pyramid-like stage. When young people ran up to hug him despite security, he welcomed them and kissed them. He spoke to the Filipinos saying, “Mahal kong kaibigan na Pilipino at mga taga Asya. Nawa’y maisapuso nyo ang kaligayahan na inyong naranasan sa mga araw na ito!” expresses CheChe.
Dyed-in-the-wool broadcast journalist for ABS-CBN Julius was a child in elementary school when Pope John Paul first came in 1981. He remembers collecting Pope John Paul souvenirs and magazines that featured his visit. We wonder why a child would collect mementos of a 61-year-old man unless even to a child he came across as some sort of idol.
As an adult news anchor for ABS-CBN, Julius has had several occasions to see Pope John Paul — the coverage of the 1995 visit, at a Vatican Mass in 2000, a Christmas and New Year Mass in Rome for Alas Singko y Medya, and 2000 to cover his wake. Julius, too, has had occasion to speak with a Vatican priest investigating the Pope’s miracles with one documented case while the Pope was still alive. A sick person, Julius says, was said to be miraculously healed after praying to the Pope for intercession.
“I knew how important the Pope was to a lot of people but I never realized how influential and loved he was until I saw thousands of people at the Pope’s wake at the Vatican. It was amazing to see these people who traveled from all over the world just to pay respect and show their love for the Pope,” declares Julius.
Boots was already a broadcaster for Radio Veritas in 1981 when her family was chosen to represent Luzon (two others represented Visayas and Mindanao) in a special audience with the Pope. Boots who is familiar with the religious lingo recalls preparing her mom, husband Pete, and four children for the important affair, rehearsing what they would call the Pope and bishops, who was Your Holiness, your Eminence, your Grace and your Excellency over and over again. “When the Pope finally arrived and greeted me, he asked me, ‘How are you?’ And I stammered, ‘I’m fine, Sir.’ I could see my family staring at me in disbelief.”
Later, Boots was sent to cover the Pope’s visit at the Araneta Coliseum by Radio Veritas. When the Pope passed by “I got goose bumps, his energy radiated and I stood open-mouthed while I could hear on my headset, ‘Boots say something, you’re on dead air.’” This disorientation would again happen years later in 2000, at a Focolare event she attended with Billy Esposo. She had begun shooting the proceedings with her video camera but when it was announced the Pope was coming out “Nataranta na naman ako” until she realized the camera was not on and corrected her mistake. There you go again, Boots was chided by son Joey and brother Nonoy while she was relating the happenings to us. “You were not starstruck, you were Popestruck,” they laughed.
There could be no one more rabid and opinionated than political analyst and The Philippine Star columnist William “Billy” Esposo of As I Wreck This Chair fame. However, this same Billy appears to have another side to him in his affiliation with Focolare which promotes unity and universal brotherhood and has faith in miracles. Billy joined a meeting with journalists in June 2000 in Rome which included a special audience with Pope John Paul at the St. Paul Sixth auditorium.
This belief in miracles seems to have rubbed off on Billy as he detailed to us through e-mail how it all happened. “I was not even supposed to be there,” he relates, stating the Focolare had invited him to join the First NetOne International Media Congress at Castelgandolfo when he was already undergoing twice a week hemodialysis for chronic kidneys. But the Focolare said if God wanted him to be in the Congress, he would be in the Congress. And indeed on his next blood tests, his doctors said his kidneys had improved and allowed him to go.
While at the Congress Billy felt he couldn’t possibly walk the distance from the drop off point to the auditorium where the Pope would be. “Not to take NO for an answer, Carlo Gentile of the Focolare produced a wheelchair so he could wheel me to the meeting with the Pope.” In addition, those on a wheelchair had the special opportunity to be on stage to meet the pontiff, another miracle courtesy of the Focolare. “When I and my wife Mey were face to face with Pope John Paul II, I told the Pope: ‘Your Holiness, I am from the Philippines.’ I knew how special the Philippines was to him. ‘Philippines!’ the Pontiff exclaimed with a notable lilt in his voice.”
In designating the Pope Man of the Year in its Dec. 26, 1994 edition, Time Magazine admits that his “appearances generate an electricity unmatched by anyone else on earth.” When he pardoned the man who tried to kill him, the would-be assassin purportedly blurted out, “Tell me why it is that I could not kill you?”
Pope John Paul had told Time, “The Pope must be a moral force.” In a world witnessing the decline in moral values, John Paul dared to speak of hope. Billy Graham called him the greatest of modern Popes, the strong conscience of the whole Christian world.
And it is for this “rectitude — or recklessness, as his detractors would have it,” that he was celebrated as Time’s Man of the Year. But for many of us he will be more than that; he will always be the Pope of all times, for all the peoples of the world, the saint they will soon revere and pray to for intercession in heaven.
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