John Paul II He had known and admired Pier Giorgio since he was a young priest in Poland. When, now bishop of Krakow, he visited an exhibition dedicated to him in 1977, he coined a phrase that has remained famous: "Here is the man of the eight beatitudes!", intending to underline the fullness of life and evangelical testimony of the young man from Turin. He had found in the figure of this young athlete, lover of the mountains and skiing, a great believer and witness of faith, an extraordinary model for young Christians. He is responsible for the decisive acceleration towards beatification, which he himself celebrated on 20 May 1990 in St. Peter's Square.
Il December 10, 2001 addressed the youth of the Italian Catholic Action in this way:
"To be lay Christians today involves the commitment to be Saints every day, with joy and enthusiasm. Before you, Giorgio Frassati, Alberto Marvelli and with them many other young people like you have traveled this spiritual path. It is a commitment that you must take on first of all for yourselves and for your friends, but also for your families, for your Communities and, indeed, for the entire world."
While atmeeting with the youth of the diocese of Rome, a few months earlier, the 5 April 2001, He said:
"I would like to remember Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, whose birth centenary will be celebrated tomorrow. Try to get to know him! His existence as a "normal" young man shows that one can be a saint by intensely living friendship, study, sports, service to the poor, in a constant relationship with God. I entrust your missionary commitment to him."
Since the 1980s, Saint John Paul II remembered Pier Giorgio, asmeeting with the young people of Turin on 13 April 1980:
«Pier Giorgio Frassati, who is a figure closest to our age (he died in 1925) and shows us live what it really means, for a young layman, to give a concrete answer to the “come and follow me”. It is enough to take a quick look at his life, which spanned just twenty-four years, to understand what was the answer that Pier Giorgio was able to give to Jesus Christ: it was that of a “modern” young man, open to the problems of culture, of sport (a skilled mountaineer), of social questions, of the true values of life, and at the same time of a man of profound faith, nourished by the evangelical message, very solid in his consistent character, passionate in serving his brothers and consumed in an ardour of charity that led him to approach, according to an order of absolute precedence, the poor and the sick».
So, then, three years later he turned to the delegates of FUCI and MEIC (3 December 1983):
«…we must remember in particular some outstanding models of sanctity and integral
Christian life, such as the blessed Moscati and Pampuri, the servant of God Vico Necchi, Itala Mela, Piergiorgio Frassati».
Finally, John Paul II was the pontiff under whose pontificate Pier Giorgio became Blessed: theHomily given on the occasion of the beatification, May 20, 1990.