• Remembering Pope John Paul II Remembering Pope John Paul II From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch April 3, , 2005 Pope John Paul II saw the worst that hate can do, then spent a lifetime shepherding people toward a God
• Remembering Pope John Paul II
Remembering Pope John Paul II
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch April 3, , 2005
Pope John Paul II saw the worst that hate can do, then spent a lifetime shepherding people toward a God of love.
He urged charity for the poor. He spoke against war. He advocated human freedom, and urged people to use that freedom for the good of their neighbors and to seek salvation.
“He was one of the clearest moral voices in the world,” says Gregory Beabout, a professor of philosophy who lectures on John Paul at St. Louis University.
Historians may look back on John Paul, who died Saturday in the Vatican after months of declining health, as the most important world figure of the last part of the 20th century, more constant and enduring than the political leaders of the time. He stood as an unflinching symbol of freedom’s assault on the Iron Curtain and as a voice of moral certainty in an age of doubt.
John Paul was humble and all-inclusive. He apologized for his own sins and the mistakes of the Roman Catholic church, from forcing Galileo to recant to the role of Christians in the Holocaust and the Crusades.
He prayed in a Jewish synagogue and spoke of Jews as “elder brothers” to Catholics, in an attempt to finally cleanse the church’s ancient stain of anti-Semitism. He spoke with Hindus and Muslims, accepting them as fellow seekers. He forgave and visited Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill him in 1981.
In 1939, John Paul, then known as Karol Wojtyla, was a student in Krakow when the Nazis rounded up his college teachers and the priests at his church and shipped them off to concentration camps. When the Nazis were driven out, they were replaced by a communist regime that denied human freedom and the very existence of God.
That crucible helped forge the philosophy of the man who, in 1978, became spiritual leader of 1 billion Catholics across the world. He taught that people should look beyond materialism to find spiritual truth and goodness. In his first major teaching as pope, he urged people to understand the life of Jesus. In doing that, he said, they would come to understand themselves.
“His message was about the dignity of the human person – that every human being is created in God’s image,” said Professor Beabout.
John Paul took that message home. Soon after ascending to the throne of St. Peter, the pope returned in triumph to Poland and told its people, “Do not be afraid.” The church would support them in resistance to oppression, he said.
The symbol of a Polish pope preaching freedom inspired millions to join the Polish Solidarity movement. Solidarity was John Paul’s peaceful answer to Joseph Stalin’s famously dismissive question, “How many divisions has the pope?” It was the first hard tug on the Iron Curtain, which toppled a decade later.
John Paul staunchly upheld the Catholic belief that human life is sacred to God. That principle leads the church to oppose both abortion and the death penalty, a morally consistent view.
He expressed that belief when, during a visit to St. Louis, he leaned into the ear of former Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan at the New Cathedral in 1999 and asked him to spare the life of a soon-to-be-executed murderer. Mr. Carnahan consented; the killer, Darrell Mease, lives in prison.
While preaching a liberal philosophy of mercy through-out the world, John Paul also upheld the conservative nature of the institutional church. It remains a top-down organization where one man ultimately calls the shots, and women are excluded from the priesthood. Such things grate against Western notions of democracy and equality.
That essential conservatism also led to criticism that John Paul was inconsistent. He supported liberation for Poland while opposing “liberation theology” in Latin America. He believed in the sacred nature of life, but opposed the use of condoms to prevent the spread of the deadly AIDS virus.
The church historically has granted much discretion to individual bishops. That practice made John Paul slow to respond to the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the American church. Only a small percentage of priests ever abused children, but misguided bishops spent decades covering up the scandal, reassigning pedophile priests rather than sacking them. A more vigilant Vatican could have limited the exposure of children and their subsequent suffering. John Paul opened the Vatican to the world, appointing more cardinals from Africa and Asia. The Vatican today is less of an Italian court and more reflective of the global face of the faithful.
John Paul was a voice for moral clarity. He urged his flock to pull away from the selfish concerns of daily life and focus on humanity’s broader purpose. He traveled the world teaching the lessons of mercy, charity, inclusiveness and forgiveness that form the message of Jesus.
After awakening from surgery in February, the pope turned to those around him and said, “I am still totus tuus.” Totus tuus was the pope’s Latin motto; It means “totally yours.” When spoken to God in a prayer, it affirmed his devotion. When he spoke it that day, he affirmed his devotion to his followers.
The world has lost a good shepherd.
