Chaplain Maj. Patrick Fletcher, who helped teach English to Pope John Paul II in the 1970s, has been counseling personnel about the pope’s death while himself dealing with the loss of a close friend, according to a news release from the Air Force 3rd Wing in Alaska.

Fletcher was studying clinical psychology at the University of Krakow in Poland when a friend asked him to help teach seminary students English, according to the release. Among his students was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who would become pope.

“He never had to be corrected twice,” Fletcher told public affairs officials, calling the pope-to-be an amazing student. “If he said something incorrectly, I would correct him, and he never made the same mistake again.”

Fletcher said the cardinal predicted he would one day ordain Fletcher into the priesthood, even though he had intended to start a family. According to the release, years later Fletcher was called to enter the seminary, and in 1985, the pope oversaw his ordination.

Pope John Paul II, who had spoken out publicly against the war in Iraq, was himself the son of a Polish Army officer.

In the release, Fletcher said he remembers the pope as “a big supporter of the troops. Wherever he spoke, he always had a special audience for the military.”

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