WASHINGTON — At Midnight Mass last Christmas, Pope John Paul II prayed spontaneously to the Christ Child: “May the gift of your life make us understand ever more clearly the worth of the life of each human being.”

The Pope recognizes that the best Christmas gifts aren't what the advertisers are selling. Some well known Catholics recalled their most memorable gifts in recent interviews with the Register.

Catholic Brownies in Chantilly, Va., got to meet the president this month (see above). Actor Jim Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus in The Passion of the Christ did them one better. “The best gift I ever received,” he says, “was meeting the Pope last year during Christmas.”

The Pope figures into the 2001 Christmas gift Jerry Coniker remembers. He's the co-founder of Apostolate for Family Consecration and Catholic Familyland with his late wife Gwen, and a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

“The greatest Christmas gift I gave and received was being together with Gwen and the whole family on that special day, knowing that Gwen would definitely be going home to the Lord within the next number of months,” he said. The Conikers have 12 living children and 49 living grandchildren. She died the following June 15.

“Our Christmas was a very deeply moving one for everyone. And it was a joyful one, as Gwen always would want things joyful. On Jan 8, we received a beautiful blessed medal from the Pope with a letter from the Holy See saying the Holy Father was praying for her. She treasured that medal, pinned it on her gown and wore it when she died. It was a great gift God gave her — to know and to prepare, and prepare the family.”

“The best gift I received,” said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning and information for the Secretariat for Pro-Life activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “was a string of pearls from my husband-to-be, Austin, the Christmas before our wedding. We were married the following year. Those were the pearls I wore on our wedding day. This was one of those gifts that keep on giving. I had four pearls removed from it and made into earrings for my bridesmaids. So we all had jewelry from the necklace for the bridal procession.” (See the Ruses’ column on page 9.)

Karl Keating, president of Catholic Answers, sees his best Christmas gift every day. “It's my wife Teruko,” he said. “We were married eight days before Christmas. And we've been married 27 years this month.”

For Camille De Blasi, president of Healing the Culture, “The best Christmas gift I ever received — after Jesus, of course — was when I was stranded at the last minute and couldn't make it home for Christmas,” she recalled. “I was so sad, until a friend decided to fly out on Christmas Eve, just so that I wouldn't have to spend the holiday alone. It was like Jesus coming to me all over again, except that he was in a Boeing 747.”

Janet Smith, chairwoman of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, “really liked the pair of cross country skis I got in my mid-20s,” she said. “It was a new sport for me, and a sport that allows me to enjoy the winter. I spend Christmas with my family in Pennsylvania, and I can go right out the front door and have some great runs.”

As far as the best gifts given, those go to her mother. “She has a great squeal of delight when she receives a gift that really pleases her. I strive to get that squeal whether through something funny, something beautiful, something really apt. One great success was a sequined vest and cap made to resemble the flag. She loves to wear them to parades and civic events and always causes a stir. I gave her a bright red woolen cape from Ireland; she wears it with a red hat, red gloves and red boots. My dad stays home when she does.”

For Karen Santorum, wife of Senator Rick Santorum, the gifts of two different years stand out. One was 1990.

“The best gift of that year was a beautiful and sacred marriage, and the fact that we were expecting a baby,” said the mother of six living children and author of Letters to Gabriel and Everyday Graces.

“The best Christmas present I ever gave my husband was my little Sarah Maria — she was our Christmas baby, born two days after Christmas,” Santorum adds. “It was the best Christmas gift we ever got. She was the baby who came after Gabriel, the baby we lost. It was just the most tender, emotional birth to have a baby after you just lost a baby. We were weeping tears of joy. It was a great healing moment for us. God gave us so much peace during that pregnancy. Only by the grace of God could that happen. Sarah Maria turns 7 this year. We call her our Christmas baby.”

Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Father Stan Fortuna put together two pairs of gifts. “On the one hand the best that I ever received was the gift of Christ being born into this world,” he said. “On the other hand, the best gift was a guitar my father got me when I was in the second grade.”

“The greatest Christmas gift I ever gave, on the one hand, is the gift of giving of myself every day of my life. And on the other hand, the greatest gift I ever gave was something to a child who had nothing.”

For Peter McFadden, founder of Love & Responsibility Foundation, there's “no contest what my favorite Christmas present ever was,” he says. “A red bicycle, which I got when I was 7 years old. I'll never forget how the lights of the Christmas tree reflected off chrome.”

The best gift he gave is better than an O. Henry story. “I had run a nonprofit in Eastern Europe and had come back to the United States penniless. I had no money to buy presents for family or friends. I wrote a very personal Christmas story instead and gave that to my family and friends. (It's reprinted at www.petermcfadden.com.)

“I often meditated on the theme that Christ was born homeless, and why Christ went out of his way to be born homeless. The story was about how one Christmas I had the opportunity to help a homeless man. I finished writing it on Christmas Eve and then printed it. My brother said it was the best Christmas present he received. I think it helped bring home the true meaning of the Christmas season.”

Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.