Mr Hodges, whose mother-in-law had met the Pontiff when he was still a parish priest in Krakow, Poland, said: ‘I think that we in the West cannot fully appreciate what the Pope achieved in his life.
‘The very reason there are so many Polish in Jersey now, and that they have the freedom to come and work in the Island, is immeasurably due to the Pope’s achievements in defeating Communism.
‘Most of the Poles over here are very young and they have never known a different Pope, and I think it is going to take a long time for it to sink in for them.
Maybe it is their parents’ generation that will feel the loss of their greatest Pole the most as they will have known what it was like to live in the shadow of the Iron Curtain.’ Mr Hodges added that he was due to contact the Polish Embassy in London later today, but did not expect anything official to come through the consulate.
‘I think it is important for people that they take the personal route of paying their respects.’
