Understanding the Spirit of John Paul II
Observers Try to Assess His Inner Life

ROME, APRIL 16, 2005 (Zenit.org).- In recent weeks innumerable commentaries and interviews have tried to analyze what John Paul II did for the Church and the world during his pontificate. Many pieces concentrated on his external actions, though some did try to understand the Pope's inner life.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor touched on this in an article published April 3 by the London Telegraph. The cardinal described the Holy Father as a "man of deep prayer" who "had a conviction of God's providence running through his life."

This prayer not only inspired and sustained John Paul II during the years of his pontificate, but when he was afflicted with the infirmities of recent years it gave him the strength to continue, according to the British cardinal. This intense inner life was also evident in his relationship with the crowds of pilgrims. While he often preached before a large mass of enthusiastic pilgrims "he also led them into silence and contemplation," noted Cardinal Murphy O'Connor. "He was always the still center, who radiated the serenity that comes from a life of prayer."

This aspect was examined in an interview with German philosopher and Protestant Rüdiger Safranski, published in the April 11 issue of the magazine Der Spiegel. Safranski observed: "The special thing about this pope, this media genius, is that he managed to create a connection between mysticism and the media, between a spiritual approach to life and the media's social packaging and globalization of this phenomenon. This is something new, even in the age of television."

An acknowledgment of the spiritual role of John Paul II also came from Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. In an April 5 column Dionne observed that "If John Paul stood for one large thing, it was primacy of the spiritual over the material." Commentators on the Pope, Dionne noted, "will inevitably debate the meaning of his legacy in the secular terms that so dominate our times. We should try to remember that these were not the terms on which he lived his life."

Henryk Wozniakowski, president of a Polish publishing company Znak, reflected on what motives underpinned John Paul II. Writing in the Financial Times on April 7, he noted that the genius of the Pope lay in "his ability to bring out people's virtues, their desire for goodness and truth -- sometimes deeply buried." This ability was accompanied by a tireless effort in journeys, writings and public appearances, which, by demonstrating the Pope's interest in others, gave credibility to his message.

Cardinal Francis George, writing in the Chicago Tribune of April 4, commented: "Karol Wojtyla was a person who held the office of the papacy in a way that transformed it." In trying to account for the impact that John Paul II had on so many people, Cardinal George explained: "He was a man steeped in the tradition that unites us to Christ; he was also a man of his own time, our time, who understood contemporary experience even as he subjected it to criticisms that echoed Jesus' own criticisms of his society 2,000 years ago."

Beyond labels

Understanding the Pope from within was also important to keep in mind when reading the contributions by those commentators who termed John Paul II as a "conservative." And conservative was just the mildest of adjectives used by those who were critical of his pontificate.

However, Christopher Caldwell, writing in the April 2 edition of the Financial Times, argued that the Pope defied this sort of ideological classification. While he upheld doctrine on matters of sexual morality, John Paul II was also active in opposing war. And, as well as recognizing the positive aspects of capitalism, he was also critical of its failings and called for greater attention to the needs of the poor. Instead of applying labels to John Paul II, Caldwell recommended trying to understand the philosophical and theological ideas that he proposed.

In this sense George Weigel, writing in the Wall Street Journal on April 4, said John Paul II was different from other "conservative critics" of contemporary culture. The Pope, Weigel observed, proposed "a truer, nobler humanism, built on the foundation of the biblical conviction that God had made the human creature in His image and likeness, with intelligence and free will, a creature capable of knowing the good and freely choosing it." The true measure of man, according to the Pope, is "the human capacity, in cooperation with God's grace, for heroic virtue."

Ecumenism and religious dialogue

A major concern of John Paul II, noted by many in their reflections on his pontificate, was the effort made to improve relations between the Catholic Church and other Christian churches. In an article published by the London-based Times on April 11, Rowan Williams, Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, explained that even though there continue to be differences between the two faiths, "there had been an irreversible reconciliation between Anglicans and Catholics during the reign of John Paul II for his successor to build on."

To which, Bishop John Flack, the archbishop of Canterbury's representative in Rome, added that the Pope had been "a figurehead for all Christians, a parish priest to the whole world."

Mark Noll, a historian at Wheaton College in Illinois, pondered the Pope's role in improving relations between Catholic and evangelicals, in an article published April 10 by the Boston Globe. In the 1960 presidential campaign evangelical leaders in the United States warned people of the danger in electing a Catholic president who would carry out orders from Rome.

Today the situation is radically different. Noll cited evangelical Gary Bauer, who last year commented that "today evangelicals and Southern Baptists are hoping that the Vatican will tell Catholic politicians what to do."

But politics is only a part of the reconciliation. Under John Paul II, contacts between the Catholic Church and evangelical groups multiplied. Noll cited the case of a 2003 meeting in the Vatican, when the Pope hosted a reception for leaders of the Alpha Course, established by Anglican evangelicals in Britain. The purpose of the meeting, Noll explained, was to spur cooperation between Alpha leaders and Vatican personnel to enable use of Alpha materials for Catholics.

John Paul II was also noted for improving relations between the Church and Jews. Silvan Shalom, Israeli minister of foreign affairs, observed that John Paul II guided the Catholic Church into a closer relationship with the Jewish people. Interviewed in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera of April 4, the minister noted that not only did the Pope call the Jews "our elder brothers during the first visit by a Pope to a synagogue, but it was also in his pontificate that the Holy See and Israel established diplomatic relations."

Shalom also reflected on how John Paul II also asked forgiveness for the errors committed by the Church and its members in its relations with Jews and in his historic visit to Israel left a manuscript in the Western Wall of the Temple of Jerusalem to that effect. "He dared to do what no other Pope before him had done," said Shalom.

A number of commentators pointed out that the Church had started the process of reconciliation with Jews some time before John Paul II arrived as Pope, especially with the Second Vatican Council declaration "Nostra Aetate." But, Dow Marmur, rabbi emeritus of Toronto's Holy Blossom Temple, writing in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper on April 5, noted that "What the Church had decreed on paper, however, Pope John Paul II translated into action."

And regarding relations with the Islamic world, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, commented that John Paul II was notable for his patience and ability to comprehend problems. In an interview published April 4 by Avvenire, Tantawi, considered the most authoritative figure in the Sunni school of Islam, added that the legacy left by John Paul II was one of constructive dialogue. Tantawi expressed the hope that both Christians and Muslims would continue to make a serious effort to know each other better and to overcome the prejudices that are only too common.
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Pope's Legacy as a World Leader
"Angel of the New Evangelization"

ROME, APRIL 16, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II's enormous influence on the world stage was a common feature of many commentaries. "The greatest evangelist in recent times," was how Cardinal Cipriano Calderón, former vice president of the Pontifical Council for Latin America, described John Paul II. In the Spanish daily ABC on April 7 the cardinal wrote that the Pope, through his writings, speeches and "an infinity of documents," along with his 104 international trips, gave an indefatigable testimony.

Right up until his death John Paul II was carrying out this mission of evangelization as a herald of the Gospels, of peace, and of the message of Jesus Christ, explained Cardinal Calderón. Never before has the Gospel message been preached with such amplitude and intensity, he affirmed. And the fruits of this effort in terms of faith, of Christian life and ecclesial dynamism have been immense. Cardinal Calderón termed John Paul II the "angel of the new evangelization, of the planetary evangelization."

This missionary aspect was also commented on by John O'Sullivan in the April 2 issue of Canada's National Post. The immense gatherings of believers that surrounded the Holy Father on his journeys was evidence that faith "was not a relic of the past," O'Sullivan noted. It was also evidence of "the vibrant faith of millions of young people." He also noted that the Pope's visits to Third World countries coincided with an upsurge of Christianity in general in these countries, to the extent that now European countries are looking to priests and religious from these zones to fill the gaps in vocations due to the "post-Christian materialism" in Europe.

Political influence

John Paul II's influence on world politics has been noted by many. In an April 4 interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Cardinal Stanislaw Nagy, who was once a seminary companion of Karol Wojtyla's, affirmed that the Pope played an important part in bringing about the current regime of peace and justice in Europe. He played an important part in the development of the Polish movement Solidarity and also in the subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall.

The cardinal's affirmations were supported in an article published the same day by the daily ABC by ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. John Paul II played an "enormous role" in ending the Cold War, he stated.

John Paul II's role in bringing down the Berlin Wall was also acknowledged by Hans-Dietrich Genscher, foreign minister and vice chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1974 to 1992. Writing in the April 11 issue of the German magazine Der Spiegel, Genscher stated: "I think we can safely say that the Solidarnosc movement, strengthened by the Pope and protected as a result of his responsible and clear stance, had a major impact on the entire Soviet sphere of influence."

French writer and philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy also reflected on the Pope's contribution to European unity. In the April 5 edition of the Wall Street Journal he wrote that the Pope "was one political and spiritual leader who immediately recognized that the idea that one half of Europe had to be abandoned to servitude was monstrous." The European continent owes its rediscovered unity to John Paul II, he affirmed.

Timothy Garton Ash, writing in British newspaper Guardian on April 4, drew attention to the Pope's impact at a global level. "Pope John Paul II was the first world leader," as opposed to national leaders who have a world impact, he contended.

Pope John Paul II combined three elements, Garton Ash noted; he was the head of the world's largest supranational organization of individual human beings; he believed with unshakeable conviction that his message was universal; and he seized the technological opportunity of bringing that message personally to almost every country on earth.

The Pope's contributions, continued Garton Ash, ranged from his role in ending Europe's divisions to defending the poor in the Third World. And, far from being out of touch in his last years, no one else did more to avert a clash of civilizations than John Paul II. From his own position as "an agnostic liberal," Garton Ash stated: "John Paul II was, quite simply, the greatest political actor of the last quarter-century."

Human rights

John Paul II's contribution to the subject of human rights was examined by theologian Gino Concetti in an article published by L'Osservatore Romano on April 11. Concetti highlighted the contribution made by the Pope in his 1991 encyclical "Centesimus Annus." In this document John Paul II explained that an authentic democracy is only possible when it is based on a correct concept of the human person.

One of the consequences of this is that a democracy, the encyclical explains, should be underpinned by recognition of fundamental human rights. These rights encompass diverse categories: individual, social, political, cultural and economic. The first of these rights is the right to life. And a few years later, in 1995, John Paul II took up this subject in greater detail, in the encyclical "Evangelium Vitae."

Concetti also argued that John Paul II was responsible for formulating a new human right in the international area: the right of humanitarian intervention in a nation where an ethnic community or a part of the population is threatened with genocide. John Paul II, concluded Concetti, was a veritable champion of human rights.

According to Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman, John Paul II was a "messenger of liberty." In an article published April 7 in Avvenire, a Catholic Italian daily newspaper, Bauman explained that the Pope never tired of saying to the groups he encountered that they should not be afraid and that they should strive to live in a liberty that allows them to love, free from fears.

Defending women and the unborn

The Pope's concept of women was examined in an interview with Wanda Poltawska, a former professor at Warsaw's Academy of Medicine and a friend of John Paul II for more than 50 years. In the interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa on April 7, Poltawska explained that from his first years as a priest the future Pope in his work with youth was concerned with preserving the sanctity of love, especially among women, who are more vulnerable.

One of the phrases used by the Pope in his writings on women is the idea of the "female genius." Poltawska commented that the Pope was convinced that a fundamental characteristic of women is the capacity to be mothers. For John Paul II this maternal capacity made women deserving both of respect and love.

The Pope's determined defense of human life was highlighted by Paul Johnson, writing in the Wall Street Journal on April 4. "Humans, albeit fallible and often foolish, were made in God's image, and to take a life, without the strongest possible justification, was an assault on God," said Johnson regarding the Pope's views.

This, Johnson continued, led John Paul II to defend life, whether threatened by abortion, the death penalty, war or euthanasia. Regarding abortion Johnson noted that "It was a sharp sword in his heart which filled him with righteous indignation that, after the world had been scourged for more than 50 years by the mass killings of totalitarianism, anti-life politicians, above all in the democracies, should have set up a holocaust of the unborn."
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Even in Death, a Media Superstar
Popular Reaction Reveals Upsurge in Religion

ROME, APRIL 16, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- John Paul II's death attracted an unprecedented level of interest from the media and the population in general. The Global Language Monitor organization has the data to prove the great media interest.

As of the day of the Pope's funeral, there had been 12 million Internet citations, and 100,000 stories around the world in the media. In comparison, for the entire preceding year there were only 28,000 news stories and 1.5 million Internet citations about John Paul II.

The coverage, noted Global Language Monitor, far exceeded attention given to other events such as the South Asian Tsunami, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the deaths of Ronald Reagan and Princess Diana. Within the first 72 hours of the Pope's death there were about 10 times more news stores on John Paul II than were published in the same period on U.S. President George Bush following his re-election last November.

An analysis of the coverage shows that the word "historic" was associated with the Pope nearly 3 million times, while "conservative" is associated some 1.75 million times, and "loved" or "beloved" some 600,000 times.

Meanwhile, Catholic Internet sites saw a boom in use. Catholic sites recorded a 118% jump in market share of online visits for the week ending April 9, versus the randomly selected week ending Nov. 6 last year, according to the monitoring company Hitwise USA Incorporated. A report on the data was published Thursday by DM News.

The Pope's death also triggered an avalanche of Internet searches. For the week ending April 2, searches of the keywords "pope john paul" were up 3,161%, "pope" 2,801%, and "pope john paul ii" 2,307%.

The biggest beneficiary of the searches on the word “pope," at 11% of all searches, was the Vatican Web site (www.vatican.va). Followers-up, with 10% each, were www.catholic.net and the Google News page (www.news.google.com).

Newspapers and television

Newspaper coverage was also abundant. The British newspaper Independent noted some data regarding the press in the United Kingdom. According to an April 10 article, on the Monday following the Pope's death the Daily Mirror dedicated 19 pages to the issue, the Independent 13 pages, and the Times 11 pages. Other papers had similar levels of coverage, with exception of the Sun, which limited its coverage to just two pages.

The attention was notable, according to the Independent's analysis of the media coverage. Britain is not only a very secularized country, with little space given in the media to religion, but the traditional religion is Anglican.

In fact, Guardian journalist Martin Kettle commented in an April 5 article: "The funeral of a pope, let us be clear, has never until now been the sort of event deemed to require the attendance of the British prime minister -- or even of the Archbishop of Canterbury."

Television coverage was also ample. The Associated Press on April 12 reported that more than 9 million people in the United States either wakened early or stayed up late to watch the Pope's funeral (it started at 4 a.m. on the East Coast and 1 a.m. on the West Coast).

Television channels in the Arab world also gave large amounts of air-time to the Pope. An Agence France-Presse report on April 3 noted that Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, famous for screening videotapes by Osama bin Laden, was among the first to announce the death of John Paul II.

In Lebanon, the Al-Manar satellite television of the Shiite fundamentalist movement Hezbollah interrupted its programs after the announcement of the Pope's death to broadcast live from the Vatican. Four other private Lebanese stations and the public Tele-Liban did the same.

On the Sunday following the Holy Father's death, Al-Jazeera continued providing widespread coverage, as did Dubai-based Al-Arabiya. These two stations, along with many others throughout the Arab world, also aired several documentaries about John Paul II.

Book sales up

Book sales were also affected by the Pope's death. An April 10 report by the Associated Press noted that in the subsequent days several titles quickly reached the top 20 of online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Leading titles include five by John Paul: "The Way to Christ"; "Memory and Identity"; "Pope John Paul: In My Own Words"; "Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way"; and "Crossing the Threshold of Hope."

Another popular book has been "Witness to Hope," a biography by George Weigel. Only hours after the Pope's death, HarperCollins announced that a new book by Weigel, not yet titled, would come out by year-end and "examine the death of the pope and the Catholic Church he left behind, while also offering an unparalleled inside account of the election of the next pope."

On Thursday the Associated Press reported from Italy that sales of John Paul II's last book, "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums," have increased by 50%, to about 12,000 copies a day, since his death. The data came from the book's publisher, Rizzoli.

People power

A number of commentators have tried to account for John Paul II's popularity, especially among young people. Gerard Baker, writing in London's Times on April 8, noted that John Paul II offered the multitudes of youth "a personality and leadership that many young people especially admire and crave, even if they find his exhortations hard to follow." Moreover, he continued, "it is the young who idealistically seek the truth and are sometimes ridiculed for it by more cynical elders."

Analyzing the causes behind the multitude of pilgrims who came to Rome to pay homage to John Paul II, an article by Matthew Schofield in the Philadelphia Inquirer last Tuesday commented that even though many disagree with some Church teachings, the cultural roots of religion still go deep.

As well, the article cited Johannes Christian Koecke, of Germany's Konrad Adenauer Stiftung research center, who, commenting on John Paul II, said, "I think, in the end, he was feeding a latent desire in Europeans for the church and for belief." Europe has lacked orientation in recent years, added Koecke, and the Pope had given the continent what was lacking.

Schofield also cited Grace Davie, the director of the Center for European Studies at Exeter University in England. She said the reaction to the Pope's death "exposes the fragility of European secularism."

Davie doubted that the young people who flocked to see the Pope overlooked his religious message. "The most popular religious leaders in the world right now use the means of modernity to question the values of modernity," she said. "It's a very successful approach around the world, and he was very good at it."

And even the New York Times, in an article Thursday, had to admit the Pope's success with young people. "No matter who is chosen as the next pope, John Paul II has left behind a generation of committed young Roman Catholics who are already shaping the church in a more conservative mold than did their parents," the article observed.

The New York Times noted the increase in seminarians who are faithful to papal teachings, the youth groups that promote Eucharistic adoration and pray the rosary, and the interest by many in the theology of the body developed by John Paul II.

Youth evangelization, the article commented, was a priority of John Paul II, and this, combined with the growth of lay movements, has provided the Church with a new generation of enthusiastic believers. A gift left by John Paul II to whoever may be his successor.
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