Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, visited Catholic Familyland in Bloomingdale, Ohio, in July to record catechetical programs for the Familyland television network.

In a candid question-and-answer session during one of the summer family conferences, compiled here by Register correspondent Ellen Rossini, the cardinal answered attendees' questions about liturgy, concerns in the Church in America and his encounters with the Holy Father.

What personal testimony can you give about Pope John Paul II?

I want to say it is a joy to be near him. It is a joy to work with him and for him, to submit documents to him, to discuss with him. It is also a joy to have lunch with him. Sometimes I ask — like three weeks ago — I said I would like to discuss something with Holy Father. Fifteen minutes. Reply: Come for lunch. Oh, better — one hour and 15 minutes! So it is a delight.

And one day we were having lunch and then he asked me a question. I was answering. After some time he said, “But your soup is now cold. What of another plate?” So he is not always talking on dogma.

How and when did the Holy Father ask you to come to Rome?

In 1984. The Holy Father through the archbishop who was his assistant secretary said he has in mind to bring some bishops to Rome to work. Would I accept? I said I will work anywhere the Holy Father asks me to work. It is as simple as that. He asked me would I prefer to come to Rome or to remain in my own country. I said I don't prefer anything — whichever the Holy Father wants, that's the one I prefer, no problem from my side.

So the Holy Father eventually decided: “You come to Rome.” I went to Rome, and I am happy. And when I have problems I go to the chapel and I pray to Our Lord, and I say, “Your Vicar on earth called me here. Here is the problem, so you have to give me the grace, because I didn't ask you.”

What do you consider the most important and decisive thing the Holy Father has written for the universal Church?

Of all the things he has written, everybody will have his own dear document. The Holy Father has written 14 major encyclicals [and] plenty of apostolic letters — to choose only one and not the others can be problematic.

But I would recommend in particular his last encyclical on the Holy Eucharist, titled, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, “The Church Comes from the Eucharist.” All he has written are important, but this particular one is like the crown of them all.

What was the highlight of the great Jubilee Year 2000 for you?

The Eucharistic Congress, which was celebrated around the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ during that holy year, was really a high point.

And the second high point was the World Youth Day in Rome, especially when the young people went to confession from morning to night, and 1,200 priests and bishops heard confessions of young people from morning till evening — a proof that young people want religion and they are not allergic to the Catholic faith.

What was your reaction at Georgetown University, where some faculty protested your commencement speech that included a negative mention of homosexuality?

I gave my talk. Only three pages of ordinary Catholic doctrine.

What is the Vatican doing to reform seminaries with a better spiritual formation and also to increase vocations?

The offices of the Holy Father are doing what they can. Of course, the major action is in bishops and dioceses and the bishops' conferences and in seminaries around the world — most of them are regional.

The offices of the Holy Father give instructions, indications, helps. The bishops come to Rome together every five years, and they visit the various offices and also visit the Pope, and this type of thing is discussed.

But we must not expect that from the Vatican there will be instant solutions to problems all around the world because the Church is universal but also local.

In America, the Church has problems. How do we support our bishops, and what is the best way to communicate our concerns?

I have not come here with pocketed answers to the questions in the country. So, you have enough leaders; and among bishops, religious, laymen, laywomen, young people in your country, you have enough dynamism to examine the problems in the best tradition of the Church, and also in solidarity with the universal Church. There is nothing seen that was never seen before.

Ellen Rossini writes from Richardson, Texas.