I hope to have communion with the people, that is the most important thing.

Taken at face value, the line expresses a pastoral priority: the pope’s desire is not primarily ceremonial or administrative, but relational—“communion” understood as a living bond of faith, prayer, and mutual recognition between shepherd and faithful. In John Paul II’s idiom, communion also echoes Vatican II’s emphasis on the Church as a “communion” (koinonia) rather than merely an institution, and it aligns with his highly public, travel-intensive pontificate that sought direct encounter with ordinary people. The statement suggests that authentic leadership in the Church is measured by closeness and shared spiritual life, not distance or protocol.