"PART OF THE FAMILY"
 
Bend down and kiss his ring?
He'd prefer you give him a hug  instead.
"He was a very unassuming, down-to-earth guy," said Dave Cole,  remembering 
the day he and his wife, Henny, entertained Cardinal Karol Wojtyla,  the future 
Pope John Paul II.
"He didn't want anyone to kiss his ring,  nothing formal like that. He wanted 
to hug us. You know how some people come  into your house for five minutes 
and they feel like they're part of the family?  That's how he was."
The circumstances that brought Wojtyla from Poland to the  Coles' house in 
Trooper that day in July 1976 were the result of a happy  "accident," according 
to Cole.
It all began with Henny Cole's aunt, Sister  Bernice, who was a Felician nun 
working at the Vatican at the time.
"When she  knew of people in Rome who were coming over here for some reason, 
she would tell  them if they needed a place to stay that they could use our 
house," he  said.
Wojtyla and his assistant, Father Ambroziak, had traveled from Poland  to 
attend the Catholic Eucharistic Congress, which coincided with the U.S.  
bicentennial celebration.
"I arrive at St. Charles Seminary to pick up the  priest, and it turns out 
the cardinal had no driver to take him around," Cole  recalled.
Even priests are not immune to scoring a few points with the boss,  he said. 
Sympathetic to the cardinal's dilemma, Ambroziak volunteered Cole's  services, 
and both men rode to Trooper with Cole behind the wheel.
"When he  got in my car the first thing I thought of is, 'What do you say to 
a cardinal?'"  Cole said, laughing.
"My wife didn't even know he was coming with us, but we  spent the whole day 
with him. We took him to a Polish shrine in Doylestown,  where he said Mass, 
and then he came back to the house. We invited all the  neighbors over, and 
their kids."
As they neared the house, Wojtyla, who was  archbishop of Krakow at the time, 
asked if it was the family's summer  home.
"I said, 'Yeah ... also winter, fall and spring.'"
The cardinal had  a good chuckle over that, Cole said.
What Cole remembers most about the  unexpected visitor was the way he came 
across like a "lovable  grandfather."
"He was very robust then, very strong. He picked up my daughter  Alison, who 
was 2 years old then. He was very warm. You just wanted to be around  the guy. 
Over the years so many people have asked me what he was like. And  that's 
exactly how he was."
Wojtyla had tickets to a Polish composer's  concert at the Academy of Music 
in Philadelphia that evening. As a way of  thanking the Coles for their 
hospitality, he insisted they attend the concert  with him.
"My wife was planning on having a big dinner at the house, but we  were 
running late."
Not a problem with this preeminent guest, who was happy  to grab a bite to 
eat anywhere, the Coles said.
"He was not fussy at all,"  Cole said. "He told us this was the only time he 
had spent with an American  family."
Not surprisingly, the talk turned to the subject of  religion.
"Father Ambroziak had said the cardinal was one of the great  philosophers of 
the Catholic Church, and he really was an interesting guy to  talk to," Cole 
said. "He said 'You Americans don't know what freedoms you have.  Until the 
government takes away your religious freedom, you'll never see your  churches 
full. That's the way it was in Poland. The government was so  anti-religion that 
it bonded the people together and made the church stronger  than ever.'" 
"He said, 'Over here in the United States it doesn't matter if  you go to 
church or not, that's your right, your freedom. You just don't  appreciate it 
until someone takes it away.'"
When the Coles, who now live in  Blue Bell, and the cardinal parted ways late 
that night, Wojtyla extended an  invitation to the couple to stop by the 
Vatican if they were ever in  Europe.
During a vacation to Rome many years later, they took him up on his  offer.
By then, of course, Wojtyla had become Pope John Paul II.
"When he  got elected in '78 it really blew our minds to think it was the guy 
who spent  the day at our house," Cole said. "When we visited him at the 
Vatican, he  actually remembered us."
In 1982, Cole had written to the pope, asking him to  pray for his father, 
who was dying of cancer.
"About two weeks later we  received a letter from the apostolic delegate in 
Washington, D.C., that the pope  had gotten my letter and that he was 
forwarding to me a handwritten blessing and  rosaries for my father. We never really 
expected that, but it shows you how  caring and thoughtful this man was." 
Cole admitted he never had an inkling  that the man he opened his home to 
would one day be made head of the Catholic  Church.
But Ambroziak's parting words to him following the ride back to St.  Charles 
Seminary that night were eerily prophetic: "He told me, 'You may have  hosted 
the next pope.' "
Gary Puleo can be reached at 610-272-2500, ext. 205,  or at 
gpuleo@timesherald.com.