Hi, everyone. Um Welcome to uh the Catholic Information Center event with Mario Enzler. My name is Rosemary Eldridge and I'm the communications director at the Catholic Information Center. We're so excited to be here with Mario Enzler to discuss his new book about Saint John Paul. The second titled I Serve the Saint Mario is currently a professor at the Catholic University of America and you can learn more about this marvelous man, former banker and Swiss Guard by reading the event description below. So let's go ahead and get started, Mario, why don't you take the screen? Tell us what, tell us about what inspired you to make this book. And I know you have some unique stories about your relationship with Saint John Paul the second that you'd love to share as well.

Well, thank you very much, Rosemary. It's an honor and a pleasure for me to be here tonight. I have to say it's a little awkward because I love to look at people and instead, uh I'm just looking at myself right now. I have a nice tie and uh wow, I really definitely don't need to go to the hairdresser. Ok. But uh Yes, I served a saint, I served a saint is a book that uh I decided to write in celebration of Saint Pope John Paul the 2nd 100 bird today, which happened yesterday. Uh Not many of you are aware of the fact that he was born on May 1819 20 in a small village in Poland called Vice. And uh his life was early on was marked by some significant events because he had a sister Olga that was born before he was born. But he had died. So he had never met her. OK? And then he had a brother, OK? That uh passed away, unfortunately, when he was 12 years old. And then his father passed away. Also, when he was 21 his mother had passed away when he was also, I believe, eight or nine years old. So by the age of 21 rosemary, he was alone in the world. OK? And uh his passion was for literature and drama and poetry and he loved the youth. And then he was ordained priest on November 1st 1946. But tonight, I'm gonna hold your hand if I may say so to all the people that are listening to us. And I'm gonna tell you that is conversation with the Lord got thickened if I can say so in 1958 to be precise when uh he was going on a field trip on a canoeing trip, hiking and canoeing trip. With some student, with some young adults, he loved younger dolls. He called them my Hope. Ok. And uh he brought with himself a letter that uh Cardinal Wys, the Primate of Poland had given him, he kind of knew the content of that letter, but he didn't want it open and until he had fun with his young adult friends. So on the last day on the Lake Missouri where they were before, uh they decided that it was time to leave. He opened that letter and sure he was being appointed a auxiliary bishop of Krakow. So imagine his deep sadness on leaving the word of drama and theater and poetry, leaving his interaction with the young and the youth, how devastating that sounded to him. But he decided to follow the Lord. And then again, we fast forward and we arrive in 1978 when again, you know, he went down first for the conclave or pal Bino Luciani, John Paul the first and then two months later, he went back again and that month of October of 1978 he came out on the balcony and that there are a lot of um biographies out there. And the one from my dear friend George Weigel is one of the best. You can definitely learn some backstage stories of the conclave. One anecdote um that it's probably, you know, it was never confirmed, but any of the cardinals obviously attending the conclave. But uh uh credible sources said that at a certain point, you know, they were um this debating between uh Cardinal Syria and Cardinal Benelli. You know, the two of them were receiving votes but never the enough numbers to be elected. And so Cardinal Konig, that was the cardinal from Vienna. OK. And uh very powerful, extremely holy man. He went to Cardinal Wyns, which was the other Polish cardinal in the conclave and told Cardinal Wyss, what about a poor? And Cardinal Vys said, no, I am too old. I don't have what it will take. And Cardinal Konig told him, we are not thinking about you, your eminence. We are thinking about Cardinal Carol Josef Vitti. And Cardinal Wicinski swallowed and then said, but it's too young. Nobody knows him. And Cardinal Konig said, it's one of the brilliant mind that we have in this time is joyful, is a man of simplicity. He speaks many languages. He knows how to talk to the youngs. He will be great, but we are afraid that he might not say yes. And Cardinal Dinky said, I'll convince him. And in the biography, you can see that when Cardinal Dinky went into the Apostolic Palace and went to Cardinal Vitti and he told him, you remember Cuva? And when he said that Cardinal Guti knew immediately because in Cuva, there is the famous I accept, right? And so that's how um you know, he, he came to Rome in a hurry to go back to Krakow because he had a Synod going on. OK? And instead he never left and uh he ran an amazing pontificate for 27 plus years. Now. My beloved friends here at the C IC, I just want you to know first and foremost that being a Pope, OK? Is not an average job. OK. Technically, is not actually even a job because it's a vocation. And what I want to explain is that you don't decide to do it. You know, it's not that you candidate yourself, you put names on, on signs and you put them in people's yards, ok? And now you are called to do it and nor think about it being a pope is an easy position because every body in the world watches closely and analyzes every move that a pope, every word that the pope says. In other words, everybody in the entire world judges as the pope based on his or her own agenda and perspective. So tonight here, I dare to say that standing in the fisherman shoes, it's all consuming and my sense as Rosemarie said before, as my sense of having lived in the Vatican and of all the cardinals that I met is that no one of them actually wants to become a pope. Nobody buys a one way ticket to Rome for a Cola. It is certainly much easier to be a cardinal than it is to be a pope and a friend of mine explained to me that one of the reason that a pope changes his name when they are assuming their ministry is because their previous life is over. As Jesus told Peter in John 21st verses 18 and I quote, you will be taken where you do not wish to go end of the po and yes, my experience, the book that I wrote Rain Forces that inside. Now, how did I become a Swiss Guard? Well, first of all, you have to be Swiss and there is always, you know, uh Misunderstanding Switzerland is not Sweden, ok. Make sure the Swedish fish are Swedish candy, not Swiss candies. OK. And uh I was born in Italy because my dad had gone there for work. So my dad was Swiss, my mom, Italiana and I was born and raised in Bergamo, which happened to be the diocese of where John the 23rd also comes from. So imagine my joy on April 27th, 2014 when Pope Francis on the same day, he canonized the man that I protected as his bodyguard for 3.5 years. Saint Pope John Paul the second. And the man that I came from his village, Saint Pope John the 23rd, the reason why I became a Swiss Guard is because when I finished graduate school as an only child, I was constantly in trouble. And you know, and uh and my dad uh is the one that one day pulled me aside and said that I needed structure in my life. And in order to acquire this structure, I had to join a army. And I'm saying her army because at that time, I had dual citizenship, Italian being born in Italy and Swiss from a Swiss father. And when my dad introduced me to, to the two opportunity, then one of the Swiss army sounded better because it was much shorter than the one in Italy. And so I chose the Swiss Army. I went into the French speaking part, I was up into the Alps. And while I was there, I was approached by an officer that told me that, uh, he had heard that they were looking for men in Rome in the Vatican and he had looked at my file and he thought that I would uh easily qualify to go there. And when he said that he also said, you know, the Swiss guards are right. You know, they are the bodyguard of the Pope. And I looked at him and I said, well, I know that they are the bodyguard of the Pope. But all I know is that I don't want to be dressed up as a clown. And therefore, no, thank you. I don't really wanna become a Swiss guard going to Rome standing still most of the day without being able to talk or interact with anybody. And when I said that, that Lieutenant Colonel barked back at me saying that I had just described just a little bit of the job description of the Swiss Guard because he said that the moment that you join the Swiss Guards, you acquire a noble title. And that noble title are three Latin words because my study, my undergraduate is in classic when he said and um three Latin words, I said, tell me the words, defensores Libertas, ecclesia, protectors of the church's freedom. So when he said these three words, I thought, wait a sec who's trying to take the church's freedom away, but mainly why are they trying to take it away? And so I finished my uh 17 weeks in Switzerland and when I went back to uh to Bergamo and my dad was ready to give me another talk on what uh uh I should do to stay out of trouble and which career I should embark. Um uh I instead blocked him. And I said, you know what dad, I don't need you to tell me anything because I am going to work for the Pope. And my mom that was in the kitchen. She came outside and she said, you are going to work for the Pope. Are you sure? And I said, yes, why, what's wrong with it? Then? She says, what, what is the name of our current pope? Well, now you understand my beloved friends of the C IC that I arrived at the Vatican basically with a largely secular understanding of Catholicism, which was my parents fate but not really my own yet. But guess what, this outsider view was helpful and deceiving at the same time because I was able to meet and to interact with Saint Pope John Paul the second. Without any preconceived notion. In other words, his impression on me, Mario Enzler was not filtered to my perception of his office but purely based on a human level. So one day I was in the Apostolic palace and uh I was notified that uh in the Sala Bologna room on the third floor, there was a meeting going on and the only father was there. And at a certain point, he was gonna come out and he had to walk by me to get back into his apartment. And uh at the end of the meeting, sure enough, there he comes is with his secretary, Minor JVI today his Eminence Cardinal JVI and don't ask me why, but they arrived where I was and they stopped and rather than doing five more step entering into their apartment, they stopped right where I was. And another awkward thing to Polish. They were speaking in Italiano in front of the Swiss. OK? Why they were not speaking in Polish? I don't know but they were speaking in Italiano. Well, guess what in front of me, Saint Pope John Paul, the second told Monsignor Chic that during the night he had a dream and during that dream, he was inspired by God to change the way that he led the church in front of me. I'm right there in my attention. And the two of them are talking about this and he said that he had to start leading the church with suffering, with visible suffering. He said, because the Pope must suffer so that everyone in the world should know that there is a higher gospel, the gospel of suffering with which one must prepare the future. When he said the word future, he paused, he lowered his face, his chin kind of touched his chest and then he got up and then the two realized, oh, wait, we are not into our apartment. They looked at me, I am was still there in attention. And then they walked into the apartment that day when I left my service and I went back to the barracks for food and so on. And so far I started thinking what did happen? Why is the only father telling me that he has to lead to suffer? Why does the Pope has to suffer? Maybe he was just saying something metaphorically speaking. I don't really understand what this is. Well, maybe one day, I'll see it in action. I said to myself and guess what? Sure enough. A few months later, I was um in the courtyard of San Damaso where the Apostolic palace starts, let's say like that. And the pope had gone to the hospital Gelli for uh a surgery he had a benign cancer in his colon and the cancer was removed successfully. It was benign. So when he came back from the hospital, it happened because of my service that I was in the courtyard. Exactly where the car would have stopped. Ok. And I would have do my military salute. And the only father will have walked next to me up three stairs to go into the elevator to then go into his apartment on the third floor. So when he arrived with the old Mercedes, ok. So the cars arrive, I go up in my attention and the butler and Monsignor JVI, they get out of the car. All right. And they open the door and I see his Zs, he puts 1 ft another foot, he pushes himself out of the car and he looked extremely pale like anybody would after one week in the hospital after surgery. Ok. He looked pale. He was for sure weak to a point that when he pulled himself out of the car, is he kind of lost balance? And in order for him to not fall back into the car, he took a step to the back, you know, to his right to the back of the car so that his back leaned against the side of the car, you know, rather than falling back into the car. And when he did that, his left hand went down and unfortunately, the butler Angelo closed the door of the car without seeing that the pinky and the fourth finger of the only father left hand were still inside. So when he closed the door of this old heavy Mercedes, OK. The two fingers got closed in his loneliness. Didn't scream, didn't yell, didn't punch anybody Angelo or me. He just made a noise. So that Angelo realized and reopened the door immediately. Isolines picked up his hands and I saw it bleeding, messed up fingernail of fourth finger almost out. He showed to me in that moment what it meant about leading with suffering because he sucked all of the pain in. He didn't complain, he didn't swear, he didn't say a word. So what he had said what I had witnessed few months before he proved it to me. He proved to me that day that suffering is redemptive, sacrificing is redemptive. In other words, he told me that there is a deeper reward if we suffer or if we make sacrifices for the sake and for the service of others. Do you pontificate to my beloved friends? I experience and men of extraordinary capacity. A man of extraordinary human, greatness, a man that was gifted with an enormous ability to communicate and with a brilliant intellect. And those of us in service or that worked in the Vatican who had the daily or weekly contact with team. Those of us were always struck by the richness of his intuition by uh the depth of his spirituality by the example of his gratefulness and by his immense humility, which was rooted in his intimate union with Christ. And yes, it was his humility is simplicity which permitted him to continue to guide the church and to give an eloquent message, even when his physical strength or the end was failing him. Now you start to understand that uh uh the reason why I wrote this book I spat is be our youth today doesn't really knows. Jump the second is so I can write an auto biography or a biography or, or, or, or no, I wrote a very simple book, 100 and 30 pages with the purpose of deri the man with my eyes. And hopefully through that description, anybody will catch a glimpse of the greatness of these men so that they will be somehow going in pursuit of self learning. What I mean is they will go and read some of these documents and cyclicals, some of these discourses at the Elies messes or audiences, they will watch videos of him so that they will pay attention, how he moved his hands, how he's raised his voice, how he lowered it. He was an amazing oratory. OK. So that's why I wrote the book. I wrote the book because I want everybody to fall in love as I did. I want everybody to understand that saying the second is a special man. And because of that, we have to try to emulate him. Now as I said, a few minutes ago, I said that it was, it was his humility and his simplicity that permitted him to continue to guide the church. OK? Even when his physical health was failing him. But at the same time, his devotion to Mary is constantly called on Mary. OK, was another uh inspiration for me. And then one day I was in uh again into the apostolic palace. I was hot. I was tired and uh they had called me that the only father was gonna walk by where I was leaving his apartment to go into the Secretary of State. Very unusual. OK. Usually people will go to him that day. I have no idea why he went to them. OK? And so I was there when he passed, leaving his apartment to go into the Secretary of State. And then they called me about an hour later or maybe 70 minutes later that he was gonna walk back. And so, uh because it was hot, I was tired. I went up into my attention and I really, really, really, really want him to just stop and say hi to me. Just one word, you know, just acknowledge my existence, make me feel alive. You know, I'm tired, I'm right here. You know, when you are in service and you are in attention is not that you can, hey, how are you? You know, you don't do that. There is a protocol, there is an etiquette. Ok. And so I am in my attention, I hear him coming here is right in front of me and he goes, he doesn't stop, he doesn't turn absolutely nothing. And so I remained in attention and I closed my eyes maybe for, I don't know, two seconds, 2.5 seconds, feeling sorry for myself. And when I reopened my eyes, it was right in front of me. I did not hear him walking back. He certainly didn't jump back. But there he was right in front of me and he was looking at me with his blue eyes of an intensity of the blue that I still did not identify in any other human person. And Saint Pope John Paul the second had a very unique style of standing in front of somebody without talking some time, even for very long 10 seconds, which will make you feel very uncomfortable. So there I am in my attention and his loneliness is standing in front of me. And all of a sudden I noticed that he put his hand into the pocket of his cassock and then what he pulled out, he pulled out rose rosary bits, not this set but very similar to this one. And he held these rosary beads in front of me with finger, one and two and he left 34 and five straight. Exactly like this. And he kept it in front of me and then he looked at me and he said Mario, the rosary is my favorite prayer marvelous in its simplicity and in its profundity, take my beats. And when he said that I lower my hand from attention, I came down and he put it into the, in the palm of my hands like I'm doing right now, take my beats and make them your most powerful weapon. When he said that I close my wrist. I looked at him. He turned and did two steps away. He was alone. There was no secretary, nobody else. He stopped. He looked back, looked me again and I was still there like made out of wax under shocked. And he looked at me and said, welcome to adulthood and he walked away. You know, my beloved friends of C IC. We all have to call on Mary, every single person that is watching this event tonight. Make sure that you call on Mary on a daily basis. Make sure that you tell your friends to call on Mary on a daily basis. Because if you will be daring in your prayers, ok? The Lord will turn you from a pessimist into an optimist. The Lord will turn you from being timid to be daring. The Lord will turn you from being feeble spirited to being a man and a woman of fate. Call on Mary, ask her to intercede for you and ask her to constantly remind you to look for the grace to be courageous. The longer is holiness. Parade, the more absorbed in prayer he became until some time he seemed completely taken up in it as if nothing or no one in the room or around him could pull him back from the place that he had gone. And I remember clearly still today looking at pictures or just uh um, uh, rethinking and reliving those days. I still remember the intensity with which he celebrated the Eucharist, how he remained deeply recollected in prayer at the conclusion of mass and the devotion with which he spoke spontaneously of Jesus is and marry e at and uncommon to speak to people but uh privately and or to a crowd. And as I said before, with a particular magnetism toward young people, many of you declare themselves far from the church. Now, you understand why I wrote this book? I wrote this book because yes, an essential criteria for canonization. OK? Is the assurance that the candidate led a life of heroic virtue. And so that's what I intended. I want people to understand Saint Paul. John Paul the second to discover or rediscover. Ok. His greatness so that they can aspire to become like him. I witness in several occasions, the concrete fact that true joy is not a mere passing emotion, but true joy comes from having met Jesus who is true joy and true love. And it was Saint Pope John Paul witness that I was continually exhorted to try and serve others as Christ did because he who himself came not to serve but to be served. And in the book, I also talk about another saint that I have the privilege of having me more occasion. And I have also the privilege that she knew my name as well. Mother Teresa and mother Teresa, strong woman, powerful, courageous, never stopped, constantly ask a law to be correct expression that mother and his holiness said in different times. But that they were commons. That expression was to remember that we have to be more, not, we just have to do, but we have to more. And what I mean with that dear my friends here at the C IC at the Catholic Information Center is that I'm challenging you tonight to ponder about these two words as I've been doing for many, many years. Does that may be more? Well for me, Mario Enzler, a simple guy that used to be ugly, ansom with long hair like Marie has that I will wear in a ponytail and right now ugly ansom and I have no more hairs. Ok. What I took from these two words, war and still he rediscovered beauty and the power of my own career. Remembering that no gift even is meant for oneself, but it is given for the good of the church and her mission. And that that gift can be financial strength, intellectual, strength, physical strength in that matter. But we have to take up the call to a new evangelization which was a call near and dear to Saint Pope John Paul the second because we tonight, we must receive this condition of self giving as absolutely essential. So that we don't fall into the error of using the truth with which the only spirit enlivens the church. You know how many times come only spirit leave me alone, don't touch me and find like I am but still come only spirit. No, doesn't work like that. OK. So in conclusion of this uh uh you know, of an in justification, if I may say so of, of I decided to this, this simple book, I just want you to know that. Yes, Saint Pope John Paul, the second impacted my life tremendously in, in, in many profound ways and laying the groundwork for me for becoming a better father, a better oman, a better businessman, but mostly important, a practicing Catholic. And I have to say that and you will read it in the book that it was his example that inspired me. It was his words that gave me all and it was his ideas that provided direction to my life. And you know, while I was in the Vatican, I had the privilege to meet many, many people, one of whom was Alvaro Del Portillo. Don Alvaro, we will call him today. Blessed Alvaro del Portillo. And I engaged in a, in a relationship with him. He's the one that introduced me to Cuban cigar and single malt scotch. I will always be grateful for that. And uh I, one day was um uh sharing with him in a conversation uh about some frustration that I had experienced. OK. And uh I was trying to summarize few uh learning that I taught, uh uh I had uh received the, you know, from the month before and so on and so forth. And so he said, let's go on a walk and we went on the walk in Piazza Farnese, OK? Between Piazza Fan and Piazza Campo de Fiori. And while we were, we were walking, blessed, Alvaro said, you know, Jose Maria has a word for everything. And I said, oh really? What do you mean? And he said, well, you know, I want to tell you Mario blessed and Alvaro said that what you are describing to me tonight, those guiding principle that you are detecting in Saint Pope John Paul the second at that time is only, well, Jose Maria also identified them as basic for authentic leadership. And so let me share with you tonight, my dear new friends, just a couple of them because guess what? We can all be authentic leaders. Well, the first one is pay attention to the little things. Yes. How many times we have to walk and look just at the big picture, but we do not pay attention to the little things. Saint Pope John Paul, the second was focused almost mono mono mana man, I don't even how to say the word on little things because the moment that you are focusing on the little things when you become a master of the little things, ok, you become a master of yourself and then you become a guide and a leader for others. Maria, he had indicated that as a principle for authentic leadership. And without me even knowing Saint Pope John Paul, the second, almost on a daily basis, showed that to me, we have to pay attention to the little things. The second is embrace sacrifice as I described before. Let's not be afraid to suffer. Let's not be afraid to sacrifice. Come on guys. How much are we giving for granted today? I dare all of you tonight. If you didn't say your rosary, maybe instead of saying 50 mary, why don't you try to say 50 things that you are grateful for? I can bet money that after you arrive to 23 or 24 you run out of things. Why? Because we live in a society where we leave everything for granted. We never are grateful that if we turn on the water on our kitchen faucet, we have running water. You see the point, right? We need to embrace sacrifice, the vocation, the mania, but our pleasant that sacrifice, as I said before turns out to be if that self giving is complete. So pay attention to the little things. And number two embrace sacrifice and last but not least the third one that I want to give you tonight and you find all of these on the book as well is always stay ample because it doesn't matter if you are the president of the university. If you are a CEO of a company, if you are not humble, you are worth nothing. You have to ask the Lord for the grace to be courageous. God will help you and then you will be able to begin working for Christ in the lowest place in his army of apostles. Let me conclude my monologue before hopefully, some of you have few questions that I will be more than happy to answer. I want to close with you inviting all of you to become spiritual Swiss Gus. I want all of you tonight to become like this simple dude next to the men in white. OK? I want you to become spiritual Swiss guard. And because of that, I'm gonna leave you with the first book of Kings chapter second verses 1 to 4. And that's the David's charge to Solomon before he died. And I quote, I am going the way of all flesh, take courage and be a man. Keep the mandate of the Lord, your God following his ways and observing his statures, his commands his ordinance and is decrease end of quote. So please be more after you watch Netflix tonight before you kiss your husband or wife or Children or you just say good night to yourself. If you live alone, ask yourself, how can I be more? Thank you very much, rosemary. I hope that uh people enjoyed my uh 45 minutes uh monologue on trying to explain the greatness of, of a man that obviously I was aware within the first two or three days that he had something special and whatever that he had, I wanted it, but I didn't know what he was. And so that was enough for me to pay attention to what he was saying, pay attention to uh who he was looking at. And I really, really fell madly in love with the man. And still today, any chance I have when I'm discouraged, when I feel lost, I always ask him for help and for directions

Mario. Thank you so much. I have no doubt that our audience watching right now has been inspired and um related to the stories that you told. Um It's really interesting to hear your unique perspective on um on Saint John Paul the second, based off your experience as a Swiss guard. And I really loved your ending comments on um calling everyone to, you know, be a spiritual Swiss guard. Um I really love that. Um We have a lot of questions for you. Um But before we go into those, I want to go ahead and announce the winner of our Saint John Paul, the second book giveaway, which includes um your book I served a saint. Um Our winner is Beatrice Shackel. Um So thank you all for entering, entering into this giveaway. We'll be sure to um reach out to you Beatrice and get your address and make sure you get your uh book bundle on Saint John Paul the second. Ok. So let's dive into these questions. Um This is when we just got, it's a pretty lighthearted question. Um So what was Saint John Paul? Uh the, the second daily routine? Like, did you ever get the chance to see him go skiing or do anything fun like that?

Well, his daily routine, he was a man of prayer. So wake up very early, lots of time in the chapel and then from the chapel, he always had that mess with small groups from there. He took somebody uh to breakfast so that he could act and find out more sometime, a bishop, sometime uh uh and, and, and academics or whatever from there, then meetings within the Curia and then all the meetings of protocols with ambassadors, presidents and then audiences all the way until one o'clock 115. And then he will go back into his uh second floor, third floor apartment, have lunch a little rest and then he will go on top of the building, which there is a garden there. You know, you can see it if you are on top of the cupola and you look down, OK, there was a little garden on top. And so you will go up there in the afternoon and uh you will walk and pray the rosary or pray the Divine Mercy chapel or simply just walk. And I imagine listening to what God had to tell him. And then from there, you will go back into the apostolic palace and again have meeting, ok, most of the time meeting in the afternoon where we uh Vatican cardinals, you know, more of his staff people and then dinner and then work in his studies, writing and the light would go off usually around 1030 quarter to 11. So extremely full schedule. If you think how many trips he did all over the world? 100 and 40 OK, 100 and 47. So basically, he did not have a lot of time for fun, but he did have time to sneak away few times to go skiing. It's very famous the story of when he went in incognito that he didn't tell Swiss God or anybody. He went with two other Polish priests. And then there was a kid that recognized him on the ski lift. OK? And so that's when everybody realized, OK, this is not safe. And so then he was kind of asked and encouraged, ok, you wanna go ski? That's fine. But let's just prepare the trip and let's make sure that nothing is gonna happen while you were skiing. OK? And uh he accepted that he would go as I said a few times um uh to Castel Gandolfo which was the summer residence. And he will go also a few times during the year after Easter and after Christmas and when he was there, he will try not to have any public audiences or meetings. He will just be by himself, six or seven guards. One of our nuns cooking meals for him. We will go mess with him. Sometimes he will eat dinner with us. I was blessed that that happened to me three times to have dinner with him. And he was a simple man. And I dedicated into a book one chapter. He was a man of simplicity because you know, despite if he was meeting the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa, uh Ronald Reagan or uh uh uh a school kindergarten teacher, he knew how to relate to that person in that moment. So a very humble man, a man of simplicity that uh if a day instead of having 24 hours, if a day will have had 28 hours, he will have used all 28 of those hours.

Uh Wow, that perfectly transitions into one of our next questions. Um You said that Saint John Paul the second was humble and a simple man. Um This next question coming from one of our viewers is if you could describe Saint John Paul. The second in three words, that most accurately capture the essence of who he is. What would those words be so outside of being a humble man and a man of simplicity. What are, what are three words that you would use to describe

him? I would say human, persistent and creative, human because he had a deep respect for the dignity of the human person. Persistent because he never held back, never. They attacked him, he was sick, they shot the guy, OK? He never held back and creative because he tried new things all the time. He did not dare to shut down. And you know, I put this in a book. There was an interaction once that I had with him and uh he told me there were actually two of us. He told me and my colleague bet that the reason why we cannot be afraid Rosemarie is because God is one day ahead of us. That's why a yes, we are through a time of hysteria right now, right? We are all angry. We are frustrated but we cannot be afraid why? Because God is one day ahead of

us. Wow, that's beautiful. I love that. Um So you just touched a little bit on his persistence that and how that shown through when he with the assassination attempt. And you talked a little bit about the aftermath of that and seeing him come, you know, back to the residents after being in the hospital. Um Can you talk a little bit more about what it was like being a Swiss guard during that period. Like, right, like how did you feel right after you heard about the assassination attempt? Were you there? Um Do you just have

there? Do you? Uh II I went after that but I was there for instance when uh Gorbachev visited, I was there when General Schwarzkopf attacked Desert Storm. If you, you were probably not even born yet Rosemarie, but, you know, Desert Desert Storm in Kuwait and believe it or not, I was it. Hey, here it is. So we knew that there was, you know, um uh Saddam Hussein, you know, there was a lot of going on and we were in alert, you know, for as much as we can be, ok? And uh we were doing extra services because the colonel wanted maybe more guards in normal places just to be ready for whatever, ok? And it was an audience and at the end of that audience, Isolines ended up coming where I was. And when I, and, and, and Nic arrived, I had just heard that General Schwarzkopf had just attacked, you know, so desens turn had started, they had bombarded, ok? And so when they arrived, Munzer Stanislav looked at me and said any news and I said, yes, I just heard they attacked and when I said that is all that was standing next to him, ok? He put his head down his chin all the way down again. And that was not the first time for me that I saw it touching his chest. So a man of simplicity, but at the same time, he was alerted, he was focused on what was going on. And I gave him the news of the attack of Schwarzkopf and I saw it and I experienced in front of me, his sadness is pain because the respect for the human dignity was so big that for him harming other people was incomprehensible.

Wow, the love that you have for him, you're so you do such a great job at expressing that um to the audience here, like I'm not getting emotional just hearing you talk about his reaction to hearing that news. Um You talked a little bit about your the moment in which Saint John Paul the second gave you his rosary and how you were just kind of like stuck and like in shock. Um So kind of like a starstruck moment. Um So one of our questions is, you know, did you get starstruck serving the Pope? Um And could you clearly see that he was a saint? So was there another moment um in your experience working with him that really stuck with you? And, and you got that star struck moment?

Well, I can. So after I finished being a Swiss Guard, I enter into the financial industry, ok, into the banking industry and believe it or not, I was appointed by the huge Swiss bank that I was working for, as financial advisor to the Vatican. And so I ended up spending eight years as a financial advisor under Saint Pope John Paul the second Papacy. And that meant that in more than one occasion I had meetings, even one on one with him. But rather than being dressed as a Swiss guard with a uniform, I was wearing a suit and a Armani suit with a Valentino tie and my Pate Philip. Ok. Just to show off a little. All right. And yes, this is the answer. Doesn't matter if I was wearing a suit or if I was wearing a uniform, doesn't matter if I was a soldier or if I was a banker. Every time that I was in his present, I knew that it was different. It was like a glow Rosemarie. Ok? That the closest you will get to him, you will feel like pressure on your chest. Like if there was, you know, like if you're going in a merry going around so fast that all of a sudden your bones here they hurt. Ok. And I felt that uniqueness only when I was near him and a little bit when I was near Mother Teresa. So the answer is yes, I knew that it was special. I have many story where I froze, but I have many stories where I also really love with him and Ian most teased me and I'm gonna tell you one really, really shortly. Um is butler had Angelo had two daughters. Uh Flavia and Gabriella and he wanted Mario to take one of his two daughters out for a pizza. Ok. But I didn't want to go out with the boss's butler's daughter. Not smart. Ok. Not smart. All right. So there was always this little teasing between Angelo and me and one day at the end of an audience in the hour of Paolo Seo the Pope the sixth. All if you look at. So Peter is on the left side indoors audiences on Wednesday at the end, you know, the pope had to arrive where I was, it was where the car was. And so I went up into the attention and right before like, I don't know, two seconds before the pope arrived, all of a sudden, somebody elbowed me rosemary right below my sternum that caused me to go all the way forward. I had my helmet on, you know, with the black point and the red feather. So when I went down, the only father was right there and he had to take it, you know, two steps away so that I didn't basically cut him with my helmet. Ok. So when I came back up and I fixed my helmet and I saw Angelo with the in the corner of my eyes laughing and I knew that he was guilty of elbowing me. I then look, I went back in attention. I look at his holiness and his holiness looked at me and said, Mario there is no need to bow for me. So you understand, he was a funny guy and if he had a chance to show his gratitude for our pet train service, he always took it. And this is an example.

That's really funny. Um OK, so we have several more great questions, but unfortunately, we don't have time for all of that. Um So we're gonna take one more question. Um And I'm gonna go with this question here because I think it'd be a great one to end off the conversation with. And uh I think it's a great way for you to kind of sum up um this whole lecture. Um So what is the most important lesson that you learned from Saint John Paul the second?

Mhm I think my most important lessons is that we always have to be for the truth even when it hurts. And in order to do that, we have to have a renewed faith in human capacity and we have to keep hope alive by demonstrating our courage. So be in pursuit of the truth even when it hurts, have a renewed fate in human capacity. And in order to do both of those things, we have to keep hope alive because Saint Pope John Paul the second. He was a man of hope.

Wow, thank you so much Mario. I just want to take a quick second um and encourage everyone to purchase your book. Um You can do this through our C IC website. Um If you go to the event page, um there'll be a link directly there. Um There's also gonna be a link in the event description in the event description below. Um The Vatican Secretary of State. You know, I want to read, read his review of your book real quick. Mario Enzler has written a book about faith and virtue that leads us to the lives of saints and friends And indeed the life of the author who gave him himself to the church by serving Saint John Paul, the second servant of the servants of God, the the men and women he encountered over the years led this young man to a life of service as a means of growing in virtue. May readers be inspired to find fulfillment and happiness in serving others through the examples presented in Mario's book? Um and for those, um you know, everyone who's been watching this event, I mean, I'm sure you can relate to that review and the stories you shared. Mario were just remarkable. Um And thank you for giving us this, you know, glimpse into Saint John Paul, the second slide through the lens um that you provide and thank you again for being with us. Um for everyone watching, be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel and follow us on social media. So you can stay up to date on all of our upcoming events, book giveaways um and be able to watch videos like this with inspiring authors. Thank you again, Mario and I hope you

have a thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much and God bless you all. Good night. Thank you.