Letter written as tribute to Pope John Paul II after his death

The women who make up the California Catholic Women's Forum live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and our post office box number is in Los Altos, CA. Our local newspaper is the San Jose Mercury News. 

On April 5, 2005, the Mercury News ran this letter to the editor from the Executive Director of the CCWF, Michele Coldiron. It was mere weeks after we hosted our first event, but we had thought deeply as to what we wanted to do, and we were aware even at that early stage that  JP II would be a major influence through his life and his work.

We are republishing the letter as this eventful day closes. The inspiration we derive from his witness continues to help us in our efforts in many ways.

Here is the letter:

Dear Editor,

The California Catholic Women's Forum was formed in January of 2005, in order to promulgate the teachings of Pope John Paul II regarding women, the family, and society.
Our first conference occurred this past February.
We recognize the pope's unquenchable desire to teach - about Catholic faith, about the authentic role of women and family in society, about human existence, about what binds people of all faiths together. He was actor, poet, philosopher, mystic, cleric whose adherence to the truths of the Catholic faith touched anyone who met him, from all backgrounds.
We will miss his firm yet gentle hand on the tiller of the ship of Catholic faith. The springtime of evangelization he advocated results from his dedication to spreading the truth of Catholicism. The fruit will be visible for many years to come.

 Sincerely, 

Please visit our  website, www.totapulchra.net, to see how we honor Mary through the eyes of this great man. The details are laid out in the post of early this morning on this blog. The posting is entitled "CCWF, Blessed John Paul and Mary - Our Musical Tribute 'Tota Pulchra'".

It is extraordinary that his beatification is announced just as we gear up for advertising our new CD, Tota Pulchra.

It is particularly providential as it happens that his Theology of the Body is dedicated to Mary as the Tota Pulchra. 

Pope Benedict XVI said it best in 2006, 

"I entrust you to the intercession of the One whom we invoke as the Tota Pulchra, the 'All Fair', an ideal of beauty that artists have always sought to reproduce in their works, the 'Woman clothed with the sun' (Rv 12: 1) in whom human beauty encounters the beauty of God. "

Proceeds from donations received will go towards educating on authentic personhood, especially the new feminism. Mary is the symbolic foundation of this work.

Truth meets beauty.

Pope Benedict XVI also said of Blessed John Paul,

"He who lost his own mother at an early age loved his divine mother all the more. He heard the words of the crucified Lord as addressed to him personally: 'Behold Your Mother'. And so he did: he took her into his own home. Totus Tuus."