John Magee (bishop) - Service Under Pope John Paul II

Service Under Pope John Paul II

He remained for a time in the same capacity with Pope John Paul II, elected on 16 October 1978, but was in 1982 made papal Master of Ceremonies and continued in this post until on 17 February 1987 when he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne, in Ireland. He was consecrated bishop on 17 March 1987, St. Patrick's Day, by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

On April 28, 1981 Magee travelled to Long Kesh Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland on behalf of Pope John Paul II to meet with IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. Magee sought to convince Sands to end his hunger strike; Magee's attempt was unsuccessful and Sands died one week later.

In January 2007, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, Archbishop of Kraków and former private secretary of Pope John Paul II for forty years, published a book of reminiscences of his life with the Pope entitled Una Vita con Karol (Rizzoli, Milan). Although Dziwisz mentions other colleagues such as Archbishop Kabongo and Monsignor Thu, who also acted as private secretaries to the Pope, he does not mention John Magee at any point in the 250-page book. However, in May 2008, Cardinal Dziwisz was "surprised" when it was put to him that Bishop Magee was the only papal secretary not to be mentioned by name. Indeed, at Pope John Paul II's request, Dziwisz presented to Magee as a gift the last cassock that the Pope wore before he died.