Mary Henry (Independent)

I thank the Leader for having given us the opportunity to speak to this motion and express our sympathy on the death of the Pope. We must remember, however, that there is also an element of celebration involved. Pope John Paul II was an elderly man who obviously believed in the life everlasting and, therefore, I would have thought that, for him, death represented a moment of moving on to a higher plane, rather than just leaving this life.

Pope John Paul II was an extraordinary man in that he was improved by adversity. He had experienced a tragic life both in childhood and as a young man, losing his mother and brother before his 12th birthday and then his father, whom he deeply loved and admired, before his 20th birthday. His courage seemed to have been increased by the terrible times he experienced under the Nazi occupation of Poland and later under communism.

I was in Poland when the late Pope was Archbishop of Krakow. On that occasion I attended mass and went to the Lutheran Church on the same morning. Both services were packed. I said to my guide afterwards that I believed 95% of people in Poland went to church. He replied, "It's a lie, 100% go".