Coppermine (Apr 11/05) - When Pope John Paul II died last week at age 84, Beatrice Bernhardt of Kugluktuk felt a deep sadness, knowing that someone who touched her life greatly was gone.

"I've never met anyone with the same energy, love of life, and respect for humanity," said Bernhardt, who represented the Inuit during the Pope's visit to Fort Simpson, NWT, in September of 1987.

Beatrice Bernhardt of Kugluktuk will never forget meeting the Pope during his visit to Fort Simpson, NWT, in September 1987. - Lisa Scott/NNSL photo

Bernhardt performed a reading in her native language that day.

But before the special service began, Bernhardt was one of just a few people selected to have a private audience with the Pope inside a teepee set up on the grounds.

"He told me to sit across from him in a chair," recalled Bernhardt. "He had two Italian bodyguards with him, but he told them to leave us alone. 'This little girl can't hurt me,'" she remembers the Pope telling them.

"He asked me about the Inuit, our church, what I thought as a Catholic woman, and as an Inuit woman. He wanted to practise some Inuinnaqtun. He speaks many languages, so I gave him a passage to read. I told him he picked it up very well."

They also talked about controversial topics, including abortion and the pill, she said.

"I told him I was brought up old fashioned in the Catholic faith," she recalled. "I told him I believe in the pill. But I'm old fashioned. I told him I did not believe women should be priests."

Bernhardt also opened up to the Pope about her residential school experience.

She was never sexually abused, like so many others were at residential schools, but she was hit and verbally abused. She also lost much of her language and culture. She says she worked hard with her parents to re-learn them once she got home.

"I told him I don't regret it," she said.

Today Bernhardt thinks the apology the Pope made to Catholic residential school survivors and victims of abuse back in 2002 during a visit to Toronto made a difference for Northern Catholics.

"I know my friends cried. We all cried when he apologized," she said.

Bernhardt feels like she was at the right place at the right time as a woman of the church. She couldn't have asked for a more uplifting experience.

"After speaking with him I felt very peaceful, like he really cared about me. I felt very comfortable. I liked his sense of humour. That feeling stayed with me. Over the years, whenever things got tough, I would just think about that. I feel I could conquer anything."

That strength is needed in Kugluktuk where parishioners lost their beloved Catholic church to a fire last year.

The church is being rebuilt.

A special service in memory of the Pope was held in Kugluktuk on April 8 in the Pentecostal Mission. Mission.