Local churches, residents remember John Paul II
Pope celebrated as a man of peace
BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer

Dominika Martyniuk, Toms River, gave Pope John Paul II a bouquet of daisies when she and other Polish refugees visited Vatican City in 1988.

News that Pope John Paul II had passed away on Saturday led people all over the world to mourn for the Catholic Church’s loss. And here in Brick, the sentiments were the same.

“I was praying for him to go peacefully to God,” said the Rev. Jay Bowden of Epiphany Roman Catholic Church, Thiele Road.

During Masses on Sunday, Bowden said he expressed how impressed he was with the pope’s ability to reach out to young people.

“For the church, the fact that he was so bold and so strong in his orthodoxy … I do think he was speaking the word of God,” Bowden said. “What he said wasn’t always very popular, but it was the word of God.”

Mayor Joseph Scarpelli, a Catholic, said he was once in the presence of Pope John Paul II as he and then President Bill Clinton descended their airplanes at Newark International Airport.

“It was quite an occasion,” the mayor said. “It was quite an impressionable and touching scene for me.”

Dominika Martyniuk, 26, now lives off Church Road in Dover Township but lived in Zielona Gora, Poland, until she and her family left as refugees when Poland was a communist country. After leaving Poland, her family lived in a hotel with other refugees in Rome, where she was fortunate enough to meet the pope.

Martyniuk was 9 years old when other children in her catechism class made their First Holy Communion. She went along with the other children to meet the pope in Vatican City.

“Because we were refugees, they wanted to make it special for all the kids making their First Communion — and because we were Polish,” Martyniuk recalled Monday.

“It was scary; they wouldn’t let all our parents go,” she said. “At first I was scared because I wasn’t sure how I should act around him, but he made everyone feel comfortable.

“When he came up to me, my mom had told me that it was a good blessing to touch his robes. I gave him my flowers and he touched my head.

“All us kids, we were all mesmerized by him,” Martyniuk continued. “He just had this presence that made you feel like something amazing was happening.”

There was a larger than usual presence at Visitation Roman Catholic Church, Lynnwood Avenue, on Sunday, the Rev. William Dunlap said.

“It was a great testament to John Paul II,” Dunlap said. He said he told his parishioners that we’re not meant to stay on this Earth forever.

“John Paul was probably happy to pass on. ... He earned a great reputation,” Dunlap said.

Bowden said that a special Mass was scheduled for April 6 at Epiphany at 7 p.m. A Mass will also be celebrated at the cathedral in Trenton at 12:10 p.m. that day, Bowden said.

Scarpelli said he was in Long Beach Island this weekend and attended Mass there.

“It was an outpouring of love and devotion and respect,” the mayor said. “He was a man of peace and humility, and he tried to bring people together.”

For Martyniuk, the pope’s death was especially meaningful; she and her family credit many of the special events in their life to John Paul II.

“I was really sad, really upset; I cried,” she said about her reaction to the news. She added that she and her grandmother lit a candle in his memory.

“He did bring down communism and he brought the people [of Poland] strength to keep fighting it,” Martyniuk said. “His presence and his strength made us feel that we could overcome it.”