Seven Things I Learned from Pope John Paul II on being a Catholic Business Person | Andreas Widmer

Thank you. You know, it was— I'll take you back a few years. On December 24th, 2009, On that day, it was— I was ordered to guard one of the exits of the papal apartment. Now that was right after I finished my recruit school in the Swiss Guards, and it was one of my very first assignments. I was 20 years old and I came to Rome, as your president here said, from a small village in Switzerland. I grew up in a village of 400 people up in the mountains of Switzerland. And as the youngest of 6 kids, I was never away from my family before then. For any period of time, not to mention being away for Christmas. Now you have to see, in Switzerland, the biggest event of the year is Christmas, and especially in our family. And culturally, it's not Christmas Day, it's Christmas Eve that's so special. It's our family's favorite holiday. And so you can imagine how when I called back that afternoon, that by the way, there was one telephone for 115 guys down in the cafeteria. So it wasn't that they couldn't call you, you had to call them. But I was standing there in line, there were about 20 guys or so, one standing behind the other that afternoon, and I, you know, as I stood there waiting, one guy after the other gets through and I was very, very, very unhappy that I had to work on that Christmas Eve. And as I waited, I could envision how my family was at home and preparing the big event, how my mother would cook and my sisters would help and my brothers would set the table and my father would decorate the Christmas tree. So it was with a very hard, very heavy heart eventually that when I reached the phone and my father picked up, that I wished him a Merry Christmas that afternoon. And he was very nice, and I sort of kept a stoic demeanor to the whole thing. And then he put my mother on the phone. She was a little bit emotional that her baby Was not with her for Christmas Eve. And then she started to cry. Now, I don't know about you, but you see, when my mother cries, I just have to cry with her. Except in this case, there were 30 guys standing behind me, and it's not recommended in an army setting to start crying on the phone because it's Christmas. So I quickly said, I love you, Mom, and I hung up. And I pried myself away from the phone, and I went up to my room, and I got dressed, I put on my uniform, and off I went to the Pope's apartment to report for my duty. Now let me tell you about the setting up there. There's a little room between his door And the door to the loggia. And in that little room, there is a Swiss guard. And you have the key to that room and to the loggia. So nobody gets in, nobody gets out without you, because you have the key. It's very dark up there. There's no window. There's a light. But I didn't mind, because that was like my mood. And I was up there and was just totally wallowing in myself, Pity. And then my radio went off and my commander said, listen, John Paul is going to leave for Christmas Mass and he's using your exit. And I had exactly enough time to straighten up my uniform, to dab a bit my eyes, turn the key, And then the door opened. It was dark, as I said, in my little room, but this warm yellow light shone in from when the door opened, and in the frame of the room— in the frame of the door stood John Paul II. He stopped about 20 feet in front of me, and he paused, and he looked up And he said, you're new. What's your name? And as I told him what my name is, he started to walk closer. And he tilted his head slightly and looked at me. And he noticed my red eyes. He reached out his hand. And I gave him my hand. And he pulled me closer. And he held one of my— he held my hand and with one hand my elbow. And he was a tall guy, but I'm six nine, so he was a little close smaller. He held my hand and my elbow, and he said, "Is this your first Christmas away from home?" Man, that was the wrong thing to ask me. So I sort of said, "Yeah." And he looked at me with these gray, with these light gray eyes. He looked into my eyes and he says, Andreas, I want to thank you for the sacrifice you're making tonight for the church. I will pray to you tonight during Mass. Now you cannot imagine the comfort that this encounter gave me, but it was the comfort in the moment. The only thing that counted that I felt is someone is paying attention to me. Someone is noticing my pain, is acknowledging me. It's only now in retrospect that I'm telling the story, that I'm thinking of it, that I recognize this deep pastoral symbolism of John Paul's pontificate. Now remember, this is in 1986. It's at the height of his struggle with communism, and it's at the height of his struggle with some of the factions within the church. And here is the leader of a billion Catholics who is sensitive enough to perceive the emotions of a 20-year-old guard that's supposed to blend into the background as he passes by. This was just one of many encounters that I was very privileged and blessed to have with him during my 2 years of service with him. You see, the Swiss Guard service is a bit of a peculiar service in the Vatican because in that job, if you do your job well, in any other job in the Vatican, I want to say, If you do your job well, you get noticed. As a Swiss Guard, of course, if you do your job well, you blend into the background and nobody notices you're there. But you're always there. And after a while, people don't even really see you anymore or notice you anymore. We are what you call the proverbial fly on the wall. We see what goes on. We see who comes and goes and what People do. And I can assure you that all of these conspiracy theories and stories of machinations that so many authors make so much money with, of things that go on behind the Vatican City walls, they're unfounded. I've lived there for 2 years and seen everything that went on, and I didn't see anything like that. But you do get to know the various personalities within the church, and there you have the whole spectrum that you would expect of society in general. So many a guard found or lost their faith in this service depending on what they focused on. I, for one, found my faith there, and that is in no small part due to my interactions with John Paul II. Now, you already know my story of how I met the Pope that Christmas Eve. Again, this was one of many meetings over the time I worked with him, and there are many lessons I learned from observing John Paul. I sort of feel like I met him twice in 2 stages, once as a man in person, in a personal way when I worked for him, and once as a theologian, a philosopher, a writer after I left Rome and I was slowly discovering his through his various books and writings over the years. What I am left with though is the overall impact he has had on my life. There hasn't been a stage in my life that he did not have a profound impact on as an example or an inspiration. A little bit of my background, after I left the Vatican I went back to Switzerland for about a a year and then came here to America where I studied international business and I providentially became involved with a startup company that turned out to be very crucial in the spread of the internet. I started to work there as a non-paid intern. I think I was employee number 50 or 51 or something when I joined them in 1991. That company, you know, I feel, I really feel old when I have to explain what that company did because this is so, it's internet plumbing. The internet is an old, the internet was invented in the '60s and it's a Unix system. It works on supercomputers, on big servers, big computers at universities and facilities like that. But personal computers don't speak the language of the Unix system. So it took a company to say, hmm, wouldn't it be nice for personal computers to be on the internet? Maybe what we could do is teach personal computers to speak the language of Unix. Then they could go on the internet too. I think it was a good idea, do you? When I left that company, I was the vice president of their international subsidiary. Having seen the company go public, This was before Netscape. It was one of the biggest, first biggest IPOs, and the company grew way over 1,000 people. And so during the '90s, I was involved in several of these kind of high-tech startups that then either went public or sold. And I was very fortunate and very blessed to have participated in this technology boom of the '90s, and I'm very, very grateful to God and to this country in particular that has given me so many opportunities. During this time in business, however, I compartmentalized for a long time my faith and my work. I was uneasy about not being able to reconcile them. John Paul's words and my experience with him during those years, they loomed large And they did eventually lead to the answer. The answer has a lot to do with his presentation of Catholic social doctrine and capitalism, but that's not specifically in theory what I would like to talk about tonight. Tonight I would like to talk just about a few specific thoughts on how John Paul has influenced my thinking about my role as a businessman in general. Many of these are not so much lessons I received from his writings, but more lessons I learned from observing him. So I call this talk the 7 Lessons I Learned from John Paul II on Being a Catholic CEO. If you think about it, we— it's so common in our culture for business people to read the latest CEO book, and then you read the book of some guy who led a company with a few hundred people in it. John Paul just, aside from the religious side of it, John Paul as the head of the church ran an organization successfully, ran an organization much larger than any Fortune 100, actually any Fortune 10 company ever. So his actions are not just interesting from a religious perspective. Maybe his advice can compete very well with all these Fortune 100 CEOs that are writing business advice books. In any case, my first lesson is to live a life based on faith and prayer. This lesson really has 2 parts. So it's about who he was at the core and where he got his strength from. and how that then shone through and how he inspired others. I'm often asked what my key impression was of Pope John Paul II, and I have always said without hesitation that it is his amazing ability to focus and concentrate on prayer. It was one of the first things that I noticed about him. Early on in my service, I was assigned to work during an evening prayer service led by him. It was a relatively small gathering, maybe 50, maybe 100 people to pray the rosary with him. Just enough people to make a strong enough response so that— so to his leading the prayer that it could be broadcast live For Vatican Radio around the world. So the way I was positioned in the room in protecting him, I actually had him in my vision. So if this was where he prayed on the kneeler, I was standing back there having this angle to observe. Of course, the idea was to observe the people behind him and not him, but that's another thing. I had no appreciation for this prayer. I had no appreciation for the rosary. I had not prayed that until probably my First Communion class. So I observed him curiously, suspiciously, and I couldn't help but to notice how he eventually radiated peacefulness And a calm that I had never seen before. He got totally absorbed in his prayer, completely taken up. Standing there, I was perplexed. I sensed that it wasn't fake, though my mind, you know how the mind plays, kept going back to that assertion of saying, He's just pretending. He's just faking it. But you see, I reasoned, him praying next to me made me feel different. I could feel his peace. He was present, but I could tell that he was also in a spiritual place. I felt that the silence, that the sound took on an otherworldliness. The silence and the sound took on an otherworldliness. How he— how that— how can that be faking it on his part if I perceive something different? I thought, he's not even saying anything. How can he fake something to me if he's actually not saying anything, yet I perceive something different? He's just there praying, being total peace. I remember clearly that in the end, all I knew Is that whatever he has, I want that. Later I overheard him say that this prayer is a learned ability and that anyone, anyone can pray. See, I always thought prayer as some fantasy life or fiction, purely imaginary, but during that evening, John Paul showed me That this is not so. To him, prayer is an encounter with a person, an exchange, listening, talking. It's emotional, gentle, loving, and consequential. So one day, the Holy Father gave me a rosary. One of his famous rosaries with this Salvador Dalí cross on it, and he encouraged me to pray. Pray this prayer, it's my favorite prayer, he would say. And the priest who worked in the Vatican noticed my curiosity and started to instruct me on how to meditatively pray the rosary. It would take some time to practice, But he pointed out, you know, in your line of work, you have plenty of time to practice this. All you do is stand around. So I started to pray, first once a day, working my way up to a few times a day. And on one occasion, I started to pray and the words started to form a whole. The rhythm of the verses went back and forth like rhythmic waves of the ocean. And eventually, as I went along with that rhythm, these waves came clashing over my head and engulfed me. It was like I was like being underwater, entering a complete, quiet, calming peace. And I felt a presence there, a presence that I understood to be God. Amen. I was so shocked and afraid, the rosaries fell out of my hand, and I quickly came out of my meditation. I couldn't believe it. God really exists. I just experienced him. No room for doubt. No room for doubt. Wow, God really exists. I was happy and scared at the same time, but I was hooked. The draw of that great feeling I experienced, the intrigue of it all, was greater than my fear. I wanted to spend more time in that place, but I could not get to that place at will. But once in a while, with a lot of practice, it happened. The waves crashed over me and I was Submerged in this quiet. This time I stayed longer. It was wonderful, peaceful, nourishing. You see, John Paul gave me the biggest treasure you can give to a person, prayer, an experience of God. Thinking back over the many hours I spent with him, that is one behavior that most dominates his actions, prayer. He's a He's the Pope of Prayer. And out of this prayer, he gained this other great ability to present our faith in a very optimistic and in a very appealing way. He presented faith in a way previously unknown to me. I'm a cradle Catholic. I grew up Catholic. I was always— of course, I grew up in Switzerland, which is a little Germanic, as we were a little influenced there by Calvin. But I was always presented with the Christian message as this high, stern, and unattainable goal. John Paul, on the other hand, presented faith in a positive way, as a tool that I could use to achieve peace and fulfillment, a guide to fully become who I was meant to be. He believed in me. He believed in my potential, and he told me so. He behaved like a coach to a great athlete, not like a stern authoritarian that made you feel inadequate. But don't get me wrong, he had high expectations, but he absolutely had the faith and trust in me that I could do it. And that is what made all the difference. The faith he presented to me, I knew it was achievable. It was something I wanted to have. You see, one aspect of these beatifications and canonizations he made, he beatified 1,345 people. He declared 483 saints. He did that because he wanted to show to the world that being a saint is not something that belongs to the early church or the Middle Ages. John Paul wanted to show us that being a saint is absolutely achievable, and we are blessed with many saints, even and especially today. So the bottom line of this first lesson of living a faith— living a life based on faith and prayer is to have your basis in prayer. Go to daily Mass. To gain strength and inner peace. Make prayer the center of your life and then evangelize others in an appealing way. Benedict recently gave an interview on the German TV. It's really cool that he has a couple of journalists who pepper him with questions on German TV and it's actually unedited, like they just go online. It's brilliant on this. Anyway, he said, He calls on all Christians to present the faith in a positive way. He says, focus on the good news. Let's not forget that we have the good news. Say what you can first, not what you can't first. The second lesson is to plan on the future, but live fully in the present. Focus your full attention on the moment. You see, John Paul's vision for his pontificate is very apparent. Implement Vatican II, oppose communism, or yeah, this absolute absolutism, and promote human dignity and the culture of life. If you read his first encyclical that came out about 3 months after he became Pope, in hindsight you can read his entire pontificate in that first encyclical. You can go through point by point by point and everything is in there. He had an exact vision 3 months after he started his pontificate of what he was going to do. what he's going to achieve in almost 30 years. Yet he focused his attention on the moment. The best I can explain it, that is, is that when you're with John Paul II, you feel like you are the reason he got up in the morning. Even me, just standing, you know, just standing outside, when I met him, I always felt like he He got up to say hello to me. He's fully present, not only in talking to you, but also in listening to you. He's there. One day I was assigned to serve as an honor guard during the Mass held for the sick and the disabled. It was the first time, I think, that he held that. It was after 2 long days of service. I had been looking forward to the day off. I really needed it after working nights and days, but nevertheless, I was called to serve at that Mass. And as I took my place in front of St. Peter's next to the open-air altar, I just didn't want to be there. I just spent the entire 1.5-hour Mass absorbed in resentment and anger. Finally, the Mass ended. A few more minutes, I thought, and he'll leave and I can enjoy the rest of my day off, go back to bed. But then on his way out, he sort of looks down to the crowds and then walked down the stairs into the square to the first row of pilgrims. I wanted to scream like, hey, stop that! That's not in the plan. You are supposed to take a right here. We've talked about this 1,000 Go back to the car and get out of here. But the Holy Father began to greet and bless the first, and then the second, and then the third pilgrim, and he took his sweet time doing it. My patience boiled over. Imagine I'm standing there with probably about a 4-pound helmet And just the heat is just beating down on me. My feet hurt, my leg hurt, my back ached. I was sweating. You know, you don't move and the sweat starts to come down. I was just uncomfortable standing there. And I don't know what triggered it, but my eyes came into focus on where the Pope was interacting with one of the handicapped people that was present there. This person was really disabled. He had no arms and no legs. The body was severely malformed, and as an interpreter communicated with him by touching his hands in a certain way or sequence, I realized that this person was also blind and deaf. All of this aside, the guy was beaming with happiness. He was pure joy as he interacted with the Holy Father, and the Holy Father was pure joy interacting with him. I was dumbstruck. Here I am, angry, involved in my petty little complaints. I'm healthy. I'm I was suddenly happy to have legs to hurt, and I was suddenly recognizing that it is my privilege to be a part of this ministry that he's carrying out. Because as I looked over the square, I saw hundreds and hundreds of wheelchairs, hospital beds, entire hospital beds with pilgrims that were waiting to see the Pope. And John Paul went row after row blessing them and talking with them. You see, they had then the opportunity to experience what I did on that Christmas Eve in the palace. It made me proud from then on. It changed the way I did my service. It made me proud to be a part of his ministry. The bottom line of this lesson, to plan for the future but to be present, living in the moment, is to develop a well-based, reasoned— a well-reasoned and verbalized vision for your future, but focus exclusively on the moment. Live in the moment, especially when you meet with other people. The third lesson I'd like to propose is to give yourself completely to your vocation. You see, self-sacrifice for the vocation is the embodiment of John Paul II. You know, he loved the word radical. When you read his writings, he always— he loved the word radical, a radical conversion to Christ or radical decision for Christ. He went all the way for his vocation. Once he recognized God's call, he goes for it. I knew that he'd be running full speed until the day he died. He was not a guy to go into retirement or take it easy. In one of his encyclicals on work, he said that work should be less understood as some kind of constraint and be more understood as an expression of our freedom. He said, through work we don't simply make more, we become more. So he says that work has a spiritual dimension to it because when we identify our work, even the work and the hardship that goes along with it, With the passion and the death of Christ, then our work participates in the development of the kingdom of God. I think this is one of the most deep and fruitful reflections anybody who goes into the workforce can take with them from this talk, that what you do at work, what I do in building companies and bringing new products to market, is the privilege to participate in the development of the Kingdom of God, and it also brings that responsibility with it. When we think of vocation, often we think that that's something only for priests or religious to think about, but John Paul pointed out that thinking about vocation is relevant to everyone, because if you want to find God's will for your life, You want to know what your vocation is. Whatever our work, the work we do, that can be specifically in a lay state our secondary vocation. No matter what we do, no matter what aspect of our work we consider, doing it is a direct participation in God's creative power. John Paul always had a packed day. He would start at about 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning and go full speed until 11 o'clock in the evening, even in his later years when he was infirm. He would often have meals, guests for meals, even for breakfast, starting with breakfast. He'd invite someone to come to Mass at 7 o'clock in the morning and then have breakfast with him afterwards. At lunch, I noticed him inviting staff members from countries that he later visited. This was probably a good way for him to learn more about the country, its culture, and the issues that he could then address in some of his speeches. For dinner, he'd often have guests again serving whole meat meals like we had, even though he himself ate very little for dinner. If my memory serves me correctly, he would just eat like an apple for dinner and have a glass of that nice Italian white wine, the table wine. So as the Pope of the Universal Church, the Holy Father usually sees other bishops for what is called ad liminat visits. There are about almost 3,000 dioceses in the world, and every 5 years each one of these come to the Vatican. But that wasn't enough for him. He wanted to go out and meet the people in their own environment, visit them. And so he started his famous pilgrim trips, 104 trips, 129 countries. 775,000 miles. That's like flying 32 times around the world. And then he's also not just a Pope, but he's also the Bishop of Rome. He made regular pastoral visits, like any bishop, to the parishes. He also did that when he was back in Poland, when he was a cardinal or bishop back in Poland. In fact, when he was in Poland, He would visit, you know how your bishop comes to your church once in a while to come and check things out and meet? And usually here, at least where I'm at in Boston, the bishop comes on a Sunday and they say Mass and then afterwards there's coffee and donuts and then he leaves again. John Paul, he would visit some parishes for 2 months at a time, move in, like he would go live in the parish And say, I want to— give me the list of who's meeting and I'll be there. And he would go to all the meetings. And as a pope, as the Bishop of Rome, he visited over 300 Roman parishes personally until 2002 when he became too infirm to do it, to go out like that on a Sunday, and then he received the rest of them in the Vatican in the audience hall. Every Wednesday in preparation for that, for the visit on Sunday to the parish, the priests from that parish and their bishop and their vicar and all that would be at the Wednesday audience and then have lunch with him afterwards to talk about their parish. He took that very seriously. This wasn't just a photo op. Thank you. How am I doing with time? You're good. The bottom line— I'm going to skip a couple of things here, but the bottom line of this lesson, to give yourself completely to your vocation, is to recognize your work as a vocation, your mission from God. If your work does not build you up, if you go out into the workforce and at some point you look, you take stock, and your work is not building you up, Your work is not making you be more, then stop and reevaluate and pray to find out what it is really that God wants you to do or have a— or grow in a different attitude towards your work. The 4th lesson I'd like to share with you is to use your position to be a public moral compass. Visibly help the needy. Do what is Christian. Stand up. See, he stressed time and time again that we as Christians ought to lead by example. He always told us not to be afraid to witness our faith through our action and our life. And he led the way. He led the way on this. Let me give you a few examples on this of where he just through his own actions Daily actions just let the line on this. Most of you have been to Rome. Can I see a show of hands? Who has been to Rome? That's my kind of crowd. You know, have you seen the gypsies there? Yes. Romans love to hate gypsies. You all know why. And they also hate the homeless. Italy doesn't have any mental institutions. I can say as a Swiss, otherwise you'd have to put the whole city away. And so there's a lot of homeless, a lot of gypsies. Now the Vatican is staffed by Romans. Can you make the connection of how welcome they are in the Vatican? John Paul knew that. So he started to have specific audiences just for gypsies and specific audiences just for the homeless. He started a soup kitchen with Mother Teresa in the Vatican. And I'm telling you, it changed my way of how I saw the gypsies after they were at an audience with Just them and the Pope. It changed my way of looking at the homeless crazy guy coming to say he's the Archangel Gabriel wanting to go see the Pope. It changed my way of seeing them and dealing with them and seeing him be my example. Many of his actions were countercultural. He always made a point even with the smallest and simplest actions. And then of course he wrote a lot, more than any Pope before him to to this confused world in relativism, consumerism, self-centeredness. He preached the truth as something that is outside of us, something that is revealed by God and can be understood by man through faith and reason, just like it says in your library. One area that does not receive enough focus by Catholics in general is this writing he did on social justice. It's often misunderstood or misinterpreted, if you ask my humble opinion. If you're interested in learning more about that, I think somebody on your board, George Weigel, wrote a really brilliant brief summary on this. It's called The Free and Virtuous Society: Catholic Social Doctrine in the 21st Century. I have never seen A better summary, just like all in one place of the leading thought on this, and I recommend that very much. The bottom line on this lesson, to use your position to be a public moral compass, is to verbalize and state your values publicly and act on them. Act on them. Thank you. Maybe we should turn it around and say act on them first and then state them because the actions are much more powerful. Take responsibility for your actions and see yourself as a representative of Christ in all your interactions with others. As a CEO in running a secular company, it is very hard, it's not very popular and therefore in a sense hard to feel that I represent in my actions with employees, with suppliers, with vendors, with customers, that I think of myself as representing Christ in my interactions with others. It's a very good practice in giving you answers of how to do business. successfully. The 5th lesson is to enjoy life. You see, being Pope is such a lonely position. The Pope, you know, one of the reasons why the Pope gives up their name, so why Karol Wojtyła became John Paul II or why Joseph Ratzinger becomes Benedict XVI, is because Joseph Ratzinger doesn't exist anymore. He gave up his life. He's going to leave there as Benedict XVI. He has just finished it. Ratzinger has finished his life. It's Benedict now. He changed your life. He's surrounded by all this protocol and all these expectations, many of them making it very, very difficult for a person to have any kind of personal life. During the conclave and the whole Interregnum, I would always shake my head and laugh when I read in the newspaper speculations about that such and such a cardinal was vying for the throne of people, the throne of Peter. Let me tell you something. They're all looking on the floor. They're all looking on the floor and trying not to make eye contact when they're walking in there because none of them want to give up their life like this. It's a job with bone-crushing responsibilities and no respite. Respite? Respite. You're Pope until you're dead. John Paul, though, didn't just roll over. John Paul didn't stop his personal life just because he became Pope. His attitude was that if the Pope couldn't go to the theater, the theater would come to the Pope. So he acted out both of a deep conviction that work and relaxation are two sides of the same coin. A sincere— he had a sincere joy of life. He was a joyful person. He made sure consciously to enjoy himself. He didn't wait until the problems were solved, To be joyful, he rejoiced along the way. Based on my experience of seeing him, I always see him in my mind with a genuine smile and a spark in his eyes. He exuded joy to me in all he did. He had a wide variety of interests that he maintained as Pope. Ever since his youth, he was a very avid sportsman. He loved skiing, hiking, canoeing, swimming, and often took his students on long camping trips with their canoes. All this physical activity, by the way, left its mark. When I saw him for the first time in simple pants and shirt rather than his— in his cassock, I was very impressed by this strong guy he was. He was a well-built strong man. And even while Pope, he continued his physical activities. He swam regularly at the papal pool at Castel Gandolfo, and noticing that the pool, by the way, noticing that the pool was not used by anyone else, he told one of his aides once that the guards and other staff should use the pool also. He couldn't understand why there would be a pool for one guy, and said, just, you know, have them join. And then they objected saying that this would disrupt Your Holiness's own swimming schedule. And he basically replied, okay, look, I know how to fend for myself. I lived in a university with university students for half of my life, so don't worry about me. I know how to handle that. And also, of course, it's now a well-known secret that he snuck out of the Vatican in disguise to go skiing with Monsignor Ciewicz at the time. In essence, he was committed to continue his life even as Pope. He also changed a lot of protocol and habits to make the office more bearable. He invited musicians of various backgrounds to come perform concerts in the Vatican. He started a Christmas concert series in the Vatican. That's right. And at all of these events, he would always take the opportunity and make sure to meet and talk with the artists, to be present. Once a year, he invited— I'll skip through that. So he also maintained a friendship from his youth, a lot of friendships from his life back in Poland. He was particularly fond of his schoolmates in Wadowice, his primary schoolmates. The village he grew up in. And when it came time for their high school reunion, I don't know what number, but the high school reunion, they of course invited the Pope, but with little hope that he could attend because that high school reunion is of course in Poland. He turned around and he invited his classmates to come to the Vatican and have the reunion at his dining room. We all have a tendency to worry about the future, to put off enjoyment, to put off real joy until we accomplished everything on our goal or to-do list. That is not how John Paul lived. He planned his time for relaxation and enjoyment. He took the time to notice and live moments of genuine joy into his schedule. In this, you know, in a world we have to remind ourselves where sensationalist focus on bad news dominate our culture and the news, small, these small and beautiful moments of joy need to be rediscovered and learned, to be appreciated for what they truly are. They are God's invitation to us to rejoice with him right here and right now. Amen. God— because God rejoices not because the problems of the world have all been solved, but because one lost lamb was found, one coin was found, one son has been found, not all of them. Or said in another way, God doesn't wait for all the problems to be solved until he rejoices. God invites us to rejoice with him now. Amen. A prayer life woven into our everyday life gives us a disposition to accept that invitation to be joyful ever more readily. This joy of God is this source of peace, this good news, food for my hungry soul. And we are called to live this joy at all times because that is true happiness. This joy of the moment is the real connection to the joy that will be, that is our— in a sense, that joy of the moment, in a sense, is our window into eternity, because God being joyful in the moment with us is, of course, God being joyful in eternity, and through that moment, we can enter into eternity. It's that idea, and my trying to practice that, has become my best weapon against my own anxiety and insecurity. It's become my ticket to freedom. It repeatedly helps me to choose the light even when there is much darkness to frighten me in my life. The bottom line of this 5th lesson is to find a healthy work-life balance, to focus, to find the joys in your life, to, and Because work and life, the two feed off each other and neither one of them is full without the other side. The 6th lesson is simply to be humble. Easier said than done. I once read that people with humility don't think less of themselves, it's just that they think of themselves less. That's right. John Paul once commented on humility to say that it is the proper attitude towards all true greatness, including one's own greatness as a human being, but above all towards the greatness which is not oneself, which is beyond oneself. He practiced this in many, many, many ways. I want to focus on some simple ways that I've seen him practicing this in just making himself more accessible, and I was the beneficiary of that. When in previous papacies when a Swiss Guard meets the Pope, the Swiss Guard would go to one knee and basically be down and it would be very hard to talk or to meet the Pope if you're on one knee as the Pope walks by. An encounter that I had with him on that Christmas Eve would not be possible if John Paul, one of the first changes he made when he became Pope is he went to our commander and he said, tell your men that I want them to kneel in front of the Eucharist, and so keep that, but I don't want to kneel them— have them kneel in front of me. What I want them to do is I want them to look me in my eyes and to give me their hand and to talk with me when I meet them. And praise God for that because that was so, you know, I was a great beneficiary of that and everybody in the guards under John Paul. He also started to baptize babies. The popes didn't really do that before. Most of, you know, some of the Swiss Guards get married and they, a friend told me they had They gave birth to the baby and they brought the baby home. And then there was a call and it was Monsignor Ciewicz who says, the Pope heard that you have a new baby. Would you like to baptize it? And they're like, yeah. He says, well, and you know, it was November and they said, well, he's going to do the baptism in early January or something like that if you'd like to. you know, he'd be happy to do this. Another thing that he did is, you see, as a card— being a cardinal over 80 years old in Rome is a very strange— that's like the Twilight Zone, because you're too old to vote for the papacy. You're not going into the conclave, or maybe you can, but you don't vote. I don't exactly know how this works, but somewhat you're sort of— you're a cardinal, but at the same time, You're like over 80. And so they sort of, you know, they're there and they get all the ceremonial impact, but nobody really pays attention to them anymore. John Paul took his birthday, on his birthday he invited all cardinals in Rome who were over 80 years old to his apartment for lunch. And then he would listen to them and see what they had to say. This is how he gave them access and say, let me celebrate my aging with the over 80 cardinals and at the same time listen, you know, listen to their wisdom. The bottom line of this lesson of being humble is to be sincere. Don't make others feel like they're less. Show everyone the same amount of respect. Serve others, but don't be afraid to be yourself. Bring yourself, your personality, your creativity into defining the task at hand. Don't let your position define you. The last lesson is to have dignity. You know, John Paul wrote a lot about what human dignity means, and he made a great case for it, but writing about dignity is one thing. It's hollow without living it yourself. But his teaching would have come through to an attentive observer without reading ever anything he wrote, because he lived it himself. Not just how he treated others, but first and foremost, how he lived his own life, how he treated himself. The last and best example of that is his illness and death. How much, think about it, how much did he teach the world about end-of-life dignity, about carrying one's cross, about the value of life and the value of suffering? Even after he lost his voice and appeared on that window on that Sunday. It is as St. Francis said, preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words. Thank you, and God bless you. Thank you, Andreas. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I'd love to ask— I'd love to answer a few questions. I know my talk sometimes doesn't— I hope you saw, you feel the— I hope you feel the love and admiration that I have for John Paul. And so my talk always focuses a lot on what he— on me giving witness to how I found Christ through the help of John Paul, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about this or any other aspect of the Swiss Guards. And if I can just plug one more thing before— if you're getting ready— Are there any hands for the question? Please. Could you tell us please about your 7th fund and how that operates? Thank you. That was— if you would have asked me, do you want to plant a question, I would have said that one. Thank you. So you see, through my whole work, to me it is so clear what John Paul is teaching us about Starting all efforts with the individual person and their human dignity in mind and letting that shine through, building up to bigger solutions and to, you know, society and all of that. How this all starts with the human dignity and sanctity of one single life. That I apply to business. when I do just normal business work, but then I also got involved in this whole idea of economic development where we're going out as America or Europe and say, oh, you know, aren't Africans all poor and let's go there and help them, and then we go in with a kind of attitude of saying, hey, if you would just cease to exist, the problem would go away. And that is actually how John Paul says If you try to stop suffering, make sure you don't kill the sufferer. And in a way, we're doing this both with suffering and we're doing it with poverty so that we go around the world and put in plans of how many children people can have or much rather have no children because you're poor and we don't want many more of you and that's our economic development plan. Whereas what we propose with our foundation is to say, let's start with human dignity at the core. Work predates the fall and let's look at our economic development and our work in creating companies and creating prosperity in a country. Let's start with that as our basis. This should be the base. The normal state of humanity is actually a state of working and prosperous and being prosperous like that. So let's work with development efforts that lead to that. And we— and it's— Very involved and complicated to explain, but I brought 4 of these books and I'd love to put them into your library. So instead of just giving it to somebody individual, if this is— if you've ever thought of working in the field of helping economically impoverished areas in the United States and inner cities and Africa, anywhere, if you've ever thought of going in that direction, please give this book a read. and check out some of the ideas that we have put in here. I put in 2 chapters, many of my colleagues put in chapters as well, which are really a great read, which talk about how to do person-centered economic development. Thank you for that question. Please. I'm wondering, You emphasized how we must not lose sight of the joy of the moment, and you also mentioned that we should think of the future and even verbalize plans for the future. So what would be a good way to tell if you're focusing too much or too little on the future? And from what you know of John Paul's writings, what do you think? What would you say about that? How much do I know whether I focus too much or too little on the future? I— this is a personal— this is my personal opinion based on— look, inspired by how he did this, have a plan for your life. Write it down. And I mean write it down. I usually, my wife and I, we have a 1-year and a 5-year plan of how we intend to live. It has all aspects of our lives in there. These are long-term. This has to do spiritual, economic, professional, all the topics of our life and we do 1-year and 5-year plans and we review that. His practice was that he actually took, on top of having the the plan for the church, he had a plan for himself, which was actually his last will and testament, which was published after he died. Very good. He read and wrote on it every birthday. It's a good— this way you never forget. On your birthday, you should work on your last will. So, it's a good practice. My wife and I, we do this on New Year's Day, where we take a little time and go through that, sort of planning beforehand, but Yes. We could go through that. That plan, however, once you've done it and you pay attention, you put some time aside and you focus on this, then afterwards pray about it and bring it to the Lord in prayer and everything, but don't— I don't have this with me at all times because it's sort of, you know it and you absorb it. Then when you actually live, focus on the person in front of you And try to both understand how can I be Christ to them and how are they Christ to me. That's when you know you live in the moment. Yeah, I thought there was a The person with the microphone. Yeah, go ahead. Besides celebrating Mass, what do you think is the most incredible thing you ever saw Pope John Paul II do? What is the most incredible thing I've ever seen John Paul do? Pray. I would have to say pray. This— seeing somebody make seeing somebody be in prayer and affecting me, who doesn't even— who didn't even believe in prayer, that was amazing. There are talks about miracles and things like that. I was not— that never happened when I was there, so I couldn't speak to that, like that he performed a miracle. I've read in the news and things about this. But I have never witnessed, I was never privy to witness something like that. But at the same time, this is a saint. I don't need to see a miracle for that. I know that man is a saint. Father. Could you tell us something about the criteria for being a Swiss Guard? Criteria for being a Swiss Guard, you have to be extremely good-looking. There you go. Well, you have to be Swiss, which, I don't know, that sort of kills the other one. So you have to be Swiss, a certain height. They fluctuate with the height a bit. The height is supposed to do the crowd control, that the taller they like you, the taller the better. If there's a lot of supply, they go up, and if there's little supply, they go down a bit, but they usually don't go below 170, 175 in centimeters. You can see here that this guy's a bit shorter than I am over there, but it's within— you have to be Catholic, meaning you have to be baptized and confirmed. Faith? Faith is not a prerequisite because if it was, if I could only go into the Swiss Guard by having a personal relationship with Christ, I would have not been able to go into the Swiss Guard. Therefore, I'm glad that they don't make that as a litmus test because I wouldn't have experienced this conversion if they would have— if you could only get in if you've already had that. But you have to be Catholic, and then they care a lot. A lot of the requirements have to do with your physical fitness while you, you know, when you first get in. Please. I was wondering, can you suggest some way Catholic ladies, agnostic ladies, can organize themselves To better influence all the corporate world, have entrepreneurial forums for how to, how to draw the business idea and how to nurture this idea, particularly for the local and urban markets. Let me understand that you're asking me to find a forum for entrepreneurs? No, how the capital may access each other and organize to influence, because most venture capitals are Most entrepreneurs are not interested in God. I would challenge that a little bit. I don't know what you mean. Being Catholic has never prevented me from raising money. My arguments for raising money for a company totally fly with a venture capital firm because I'm not Because in essence, my whole argument is my ethics. If you have business ethics and you're a relativist, you can justify anything. I could justify cheating you any day because if nothing is true, then it's a little here, a little there, then you should— how can you ever do business with me as a relativist? You as a venture capitalist, you want me to be a Catholic because then I say this is right and this is wrong and you know it. And that gives them a lot of confidence. Now, there are a lot of VCs, a lot of venture capitalists, and a lot of angel investors who are specific, who are very Christian and very Catholic. And if you'd love to come up to me afterwards, I can give you some hints on that. But it is not— when I run a business, I don't make being Catholic one of the advertise. I just am. I don't— you don't see it in the— in saying, well, I'm Catholic and therefore this or that. No, I just do this. And then sometimes people ask me, why do you do this? And then I tell them. It's— I act, I don't say. I act, and then when somebody asks, I say. Maybe one more. Is there a specific age that men How old do you have to be to serve in the Swiss Guard and then how long is the limit? You have to be at least 20 years old, so because at 19 you go into the Swiss military and so at 20 you finish and you could join. And you can do it, the rule is you can do it for 20 years, so when you're 40 years old you have to leave. But they bend that rule a little bit depending on how far you went with the career. So when you make the ranks, sometimes they let you stay up to like an additional 5 years or so if you're an officer. But for the foot soldier, you're not going to be there beyond 40. Please. Many people in the business world, at least in America, would say that liberal arts students don't have anything to offer in the professional environment. And so from all you know about Kristendom and about liberal arts education, what do you think What kind of incentives do we actually have? You know, I talked— we talked about this whole idea that the— I think this is a great and very fertile ground for entrepreneurs and for business entrepreneurs. I know, you know, U.S.— well, you guys know U.S. Inspect, their company. They, you know, before I ever knew anything about you, I know Bill Baumann. And he would tell me, you know where I recruit my best employees? Christendom College. Before I ever knew this place. And this is a guy who's a really good, strong businessman with a track record that can stand the test of time. I think what you bring from this school to a business that I would look for, look, any industry knowledge I can teach. Any specific Topic knowledge of how to do this or that, I can teach. What I cannot teach you is your character. And what they're forming here is your character. And what they're forming here is they're teaching you how does one think, how does one approach a problem. It doesn't matter what the problem is. These are just— the problems end up being all the same. If you learn a certain pattern, I would call it a pattern recognition of how to get to the truth, then I'd love to hire you. Thank you.