Rustic retreat gets ready for papal visit

As the Pope's visit nears, Catholics prepare for his island retreat and huge urban gatherings

By SHAWNA RICHER, The Globe and Mail
Monday, June 24, 2002

That is the effect World Youth Day organizers hope Strawberry Island will have on Pope John Paul II, who will make this haven in the middle of Lake Simcoe his home for four days next month before joining the festival in Toronto.

The island, about 10 kilometres from the shore near Orillia, has been owned by the Congregation of St. Basil since 1922. It was named for its prodigious crop of strawberries, and was chosen as the site of the papal vacation.

Last weekend, Rev. Tom Rosica, WYD's top executive, and Rev. Dennis Kauffman, both Basilian priests, allowed a small group of journalists to tour the island. This was the only time people without links to the Basilian congregation or the papal visit could see where the pontiff will eat and sleep, pray and relax.

In preparation for the Pope's arrival by helicopter from Toronto's Pearson Airport July 23, the RCMP will be taking over security of the 19-hectare island and its surrounding waterway.

There are six buildings on the island, including an austere chapel, and they stand in a spacious clearing girded by pine, red maple and black-oak trees. At the clearing's edge, a budding vegetable garden produces lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions, squash, cabbage and rhubarb. Past the garden is the Way of the Cross, a grassy path featuring 14 stations that represent the last moments of Jesus's life.

The path eventually leads to the island's highest point, where an impressive Marian shrine stands, surrounded by red and white impatiens.

On Saturday, the Vatican flag was raised over Forester Hall, a two-storey building with white siding and green trim. The slanted wooden porch, crooked steps and rickety screen door make the building where John Paul II will nosh more like a mess hall than a decorative dining room.

An Eastern European woman, whom Father Rosica would not name, will handle the cooking, and the Pope will sit down to breakfasts of bacon and eggs, and lunches and dinners of chicken, pasta, perogies and apple pie. The Basilians aren't preparing any special fare.

"The menu is simple," Father Rosica said. "The Pope is a very ordinary eater."

The Basilians, a tiny Roman Catholic order of priests, numbering only 350 worldwide with 175 in Toronto, open the island retreat each summer to those with connections to the congregation.

Birds and raccoons inhabit the woods; bats lurk in the attics of the buildings and the forest is thick with mosquitoes. It's a tidy, though unsophisticated, setup.

"It is rustic," Father Rosica admits. "But the Pope won't be sleeping in a tent outside in a field." He will be sleeping in one of the three two-storey cottages, but the fathers won't reveal which one.

"There's a lot of peace and quiet here," said Father Kauffman, the island's superior. "He'll be very comfortable here."