Among the millions of people around the world who watched the canonization of two popes last Sunday was Father Thomas Forrest, C.Ss.R., a missionary priest from Brooklyn who knew Pope St. John Paul II personally.

Although he wished he could have been in St. Peter’s Square, at 86, Father Forrest was content to watch the events unfold on television inside Our Lady of Perpetual Help Rectory, Sunset Park, where he resides.

A few days earlier, the Redemptorist, considered by some to be one of the great churchmen of the 20th century, reminisced about his experiences with another great churchman – Pope John Paul, with whom he dined privately eight times and shared nearly 30 meetings.

Man of Simplicity

“He was great, and he proved his greatness by being simple,” Father Forrest said. “It was like talking to anyone else. You couldn’t believe it. He wanted to hear things from you. He wasn’t there always to teach. He was there to learn.

“Even though you were a nobody (compared to him), he felt he could learn from you, or better said, he could learn from the Body of Christ,” he said.

Posed and informal photos of Father Forrest sharing exchanges with John Paul and another friend, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, adorn the walls of his parlor and bedroom.

He smiles as he recalls his old friends, who share a common thread in that they understood “the secret to spiritual power and spiritual work is humility. They did great things humbly, with simplicity.”

Leather-bound albums on a nearby bookshelf contain personal correspondence from the newly canonized saint. Sheets of clear plastic protect a collection of Christmas cards bearing the future saint’s signature and handwritten sentiments to Father Forrest, along with notes from the papal secretary.

 

Another album holds handwritten letters from Mother Teresa, and Father Forrest is proud to point out one in particular. “That’s where she adopts me” in prayer, he tells a visitor.

“Now if you told me when I was young that I would someday know two saints, I’d tell you to go see a psychiatrist,” he said, laughing. “It was never expected.”

Born in Sunset Park, Father Forrest’s family moved to Long Island in his youth and returned so he could attend eighth grade at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School. He went on to the Redemptorists’ minor seminary and then the major seminary, leading to his priestly ordination in June, 1954.

“From my childhood, I always wanted to be what I called a missionary priest, and that’s what caused me to become a Redemptorist, the desire to be in the missions,” he said.

For the first 23 years of his priesthood, he lived that calling among the poor of the Caribbean. His first post was in Puerto Rico, where he learned to speak Spanish from children at church. “I would chat with them and they’d giggle at my mistakes and correct me,” he recalled.

He gained the respect of the people and a reputation for being “tough.”

“So they sent me to the tough place – to the frontier of Haiti and the Dominican Republic,” during an era of bloody persecutions under the rule of Rafael Trujilio.

After Trujilio’s death, he returned to Puerto Rico and embraced the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which was exploding among the faithful.

His ministry garnered attention in Rome, and Father Forrest was named director of the International Office for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. This ministry took him to 108 countries to preach about the Holy Spirit.

 

In anticipation of the Jubilee Year, he helped found Evangelization 2000 to promote a global effort aimed at evangelization and Church renewal. Father Forrest served as the initiative’s international director and, as such, frequently met with Pope John Paul II, sometimes even sharing a meal.

With the pope’s blessing, he organized two worldwide retreats for priests. The first attracted 6,000 priests to the Vatican in 1984, while the second drew 5,000 in 1990.

For his service to the Church, John Paul awarded the missionary priest an honorary medal in 2003.

Someone Extraordinary

In all the times they met, Father Forrest says that he never thought about John Paul’s potential to become a saint, but he always knew the late pontiff was someone extraordinary.

“Speaking to him, I never felt that I was looking up or that he was looking down,” Father Forrest said. “It was amazing the way I could relate to him.”