Pope John Paul II sits with his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, in Rome's Rebibbia prison in 1983. The pope suffered serious intestinal wounds after the gunman fired shots at him in St. Peter's Square May 13, 1981. The pope publicly forgave Agca and later said he did so "because that's what Jesus teaches. Jesus teaches us to forgive.' (CNS photo/Arturo Mari, L'Osservatore Romano)
Next year, 2020, will see the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the most remarkable men of our times.
In today’s West, it is almost standard to assume that anyone whose life has been marked by difficulty, loss, or tragedy should be viewed primarily through the lens of that victim status. For young Karol Wojtyla, born in middle Europe in 1920, the lens was missing: he never saw himself as a victim. His mother died when he was a small child, his older brother a short while later. He lived in a two-room apartment with his father on the latter’s small Army pension. When, as a young man, he went to study at Krakow he lost, within 12 months, his university (closed by the Nazis), his country (invaded), and his father (who died of natural causes in the first winter of the War). By the end of his teens, he had lost all his immediate family and was working in a stone quarry under the forced-labour laws of the Nazi regime.
But his lens was that of the Church—trusting in God, devoted to Mary with a specific form of knightly chivalry which he would later seek to share with the world, encircled with friends, and intellectually stimulated and challenged by each new turning-point.
During his pontificate, a number of films were made of his life: it was irresistible with that mix of wartime underground theatre, secret training as a priest, post-war work in Communist Poland, participation in Vatican II, and then election to the papacy. There were also of course a great many books, of which only a few really caught the spirit of the man, while some missed his message entirely and lamented his orthodoxy on sexual ethics, his “old-fashioned” Marian devotion, his insistence on doctrinal truth, and his Eucharistic focus.
He redrew the map of Europe: his triumphant return to Poland in 1979 began a series of events that culminated in the collapse of the Iron Curtain. He gave us World Youth Day, the Theology of the Body, and a revival of devotion to the Rosary, to which he added a new set of Mysteries to round out the commemoration of our redemption. He travelled the world on missionary journeys that drew millions, breaking records for attendance at crowd events (seven million at one Mass in the Philippines). In his pontificate, we got the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a fully updated Canon Law, a vast array of new saints—more than had ever been canonised before in history—and devotion to the Divine Mercy. He oversaw restoration of the Sistine Chapel, and led a profound systematic penitence and renewal for the Church leading up to the millennium. He skied, he swam, he went on mountain hikes. He came to Britain and had tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, cementing a new relationship with Britain after a 400-year-old break.
He survived two assassination attempts, the first of which nearly succeeded when he was shot at point-blank range in St Peter’s Square by a trained gunman, the second an unsuccessful stabbing in Fatima by a priest of an extreme traditionalist group.
He had innumerable critics. To this day, there are angry websites denouncing him for wearing a feathered Native American headdress, for hugging women, for showing undue respect for the Koran, for bringing world religious leaders together to pray for peace.
He was an innovator soaked in the rich traditions of the Church, a man of physical courage who found his strength in spiritual truth, and a mystic with a robust and cheerful style that endeared him to non-believers and even to cynics.
It is the mysticism that needs exploring: his devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and the fact of both assassination attempts being on her feast day; the depth of his concentration in prayer, such that assistants often had gently to nudge him at Mass as he became rapt in devotion following the Consecration. There were stories during his life of people being healed after he prayed with them. After his death, people began asking his intercession and miracles abounded.
We lived through a colossal adventure with St John Paul II—or, more accurately, a series of adventures. We need his prayers now. Let’s celebrate today, his feast day, beg his intercession, and look ahead, as he always did, with trust in God and with hope.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
It is interesting to observe that in the Catholic New Agency (CNA) report of June 20, 2019 on Archbishop Charles Thompson rescinding recognition of Brebeuf Jesuit as a Catholic institution of secondary education, the words […]
Archbishop Zbigņevs Stankevičs of Riga, Latvia (left), speaking during a Catholic conference in Warsaw in May 2022 on the natural law legacy of John Paul II (right.) / Photos by Lisa Johnston and L’Osservatore Romano
Warsaw, Poland, Jun 9, 2022 / 09:17 am (CNA).
Constant cooperation and dialogue among Catholic, Lutherans, Orthodox, and other Christian denominations have been crucial to protect life and family in the Baltic nation of Latvia, Archbishop Zbigņevs Stankevičs of Riga, Latvia, said during a recent Catholic conference in Warsaw.
In his speech, Stankevičs shared his personal ecumenical experience in Latvia as an example of how the concept of natural law proposed by St. John Paul II can serve as the basis for ecumenical cooperation in defending human values.
The metropolitan archbishop, based in Latvia’s capital, is no stranger to ecumenical work and thought. In 2001, he became the first bishop consecrated in a Lutheran church since the split from Protestantism in the 1500s. The unusual move, which occurred in the church of Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral in Riga, formerly the Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary, signaled the beginning of Stankevičs’ cooperation with the Lutheran church in Latvia, a cooperation that would ultimately become a partnership in the cause of life and the family. Since 2012, the archbishop has served on the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
“I would like to present this ecumenical cooperation in three experiences in my country: the abortion debate, the civil unions discussion, and the so-called Istanbul convention,” Stankevičs began.
Entering the abortion debate
Ordained as a priest in 1996, Stankevičs struggled to find proper consultation for Catholic couples on natural family planning. It was then that he decided to create a small center that provided natural family planning under the motto “let us protect the miracle [of fertility].”
This involvement in the world of natural family planning would lead him into the heart of the abortion debate in Latvian society, and, ultimately, to the conclusion that moral discussions in the public square benefit from a basis in natural law, something emphasized in the teachings of John Paul II.
“I knew that theological arguments would not work for a secular audience, so I wanted to show that Catholic arguments are not opposed to legal, scientific, and universal arguments, but rather are in harmony with them,” Stankevičs said.
“[A] few years later our parliament introduced the discussion to legalize abortion. No one was doing anything so I decided to do something. I consulted some experts and presented a proposal that was published in the most important secular newspaper in Latvia,” the archbishop said.
Stankevičs’ article, “Why I was Lucky,” used both biological and theological arguments to defend human life. He noted that his own mother, when pregnant with him, was under pressure to get an abortion; “but she was a believer, a Catholic, so she refused the pressure.”
After the Latvian parliament legalized abortion in 2002, the different Christian confessions decided to start working together to protect the right to life and the family.
In Latvia, Catholics comprise 25% of the population, Lutherans 34.2%, and Russian Orthodox 17%, with other smaller, mostly Christian denominations making up the remainder.
“We started to work together by the initiative of a businessman in Riga, a non-believer who wanted to promote awareness about the humanity of the unborn,” the archbishop recalled.
“Bringing all Christians together in a truly ecumenical effort ended up bearing good fruits because we worked together in promoting a culture of life: From more than 7,000 abortions per year in 2002, we were able to bring it down to 2,000 by 2020,” he said.
Map of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Shutterstock
Ecumenical defense of marriage, family
Regarding the legislation on civil unions, another area where Stankevičs has rallied ecumenical groups around natural law defense of marriage, the archbishop said that he has seen the tension surrounding LGBT issues mount in Latvian society as increased pressure is brought to bear to legalize same-sex unions.
Invited to a debate on a popular Latvian television show called “One vs. One” after Pope Francis’ remark “who am I to judge?” was widely interpreted in Latvian society as approving homosexual unions, Stankevičs “had the opportunity to explain the teachings of the Catholic Church and what was the real meaning of the Holy Father’s words.”
After that episode, in dialogue with other Christian leaders, Stankevičs proposed a law aimed at reducing political tensions in the country without jeopardizing the traditional concept of the family.
The legislation proposed by the ecumenical group of Christians would have created binding regulations aimed at protecting any kind of common household; “for example, two old persons living together to help one another, or one old and one young person who decide to live together.”
“The law would benefit any household, including homosexual couples, but would not affect the concept of [the] natural family,” Stankevičs explained. “Unfortunately the media manipulated my proposal, and the Agency France Presse presented me internationally as if I was in favor of gay marriage.”
In 2020, the Constitutional Court in Latvia decided a case in favor of legalizing homosexual couples and ordered the parliament to pass legislation according to this decision.
In response, the Latvian Men’s Association started a campaign to introduce an amendment to the Latvian constitution, to clarify the concept of family. The Latvian constitution in 2005 proclaimed that marriage is only between a man and a woman, but left a legal void regarding the definition of family, which the court wanted to interpret to include homosexual unions.
The Latvian bishops’ conference supported the amendment presented by the Men’s Association, “but most importantly,” Stankevičs explained, “we put together an ecumenical statement signed by the leaders of 10 different Christian denominations supporting the idea that the family should be based on the marriage between a man and a woman. The president of the Latvian Jewish community, a good friend, also joined the statement.”
The Freedom Monument in Riga, Latvia, honors soldiers who died during the Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920). Shutterstock
According to Stankevičs, something strange happened next. “The Minister of Justice created a committee to discuss the demand of the constitutional court, and it included several Christian representatives, including three from the Catholic Church, which worked for a year.” But ignoring all the discussions and proposals, the Minister of Justice ended up sending a proposal to parliament that was a full recognition of homosexual couples as marriage.
The response was also ecumenical: Christian leaders sent a letter encouraging the parliament to ignore the government’s proposal.
According to Stankevičs, the proposal has already passed one round of votes “and it is very likely that it will be approved in a second round of votes, with the support of the New Conservative party. But we Christians continue to work together.”
Preventing gender ideology
The third field of ecumenical cooperation mentioned by Stankevičs concerned the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty which the Latvian government signed but ultimately did not ratify.
The treaty was introduced as an international legal instrument that recognizes violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women.
The convention claims to cover various forms of gender-based violence against women, but Christian communities in Latvia have criticized the heavy use of gender ideology in both the framing and the language of the document.
The word “gender,” for instance, is defined as “the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men,” a definition that allows gender to be defined independent of biological sex and therefore opens the document to the question of whether it really is aimed at the protection of women.
Christian communities also question the biased nature of the committee designated to enforce the convention.
The governments of Slovakia and Bulgaria refused to ratify the convention, while Poland, Lithuania, and Croatia expressed reservations about the convention though it was ultimately ratified in those countries, a move the government of Poland is attempting to reverse.
“When we found out that the Latvian parliament was going to ratify it, I went to the parliament and presented the common Christian position,” Stankevičs explained. As a consequence of that visit, the Latvian parliament decided not to ratify the convention, Stankevičs said, crediting the appeal to the unity provided by the common Christian position argued via natural law.
“In conclusion,” the archbishop said, “I can say that in Latvia we continue to defend the true nature of life and family. But if we Catholics would act alone, we would not have the impact that we have as one Christian majority. That unity is the reason why the government takes us seriously.”
I didn’t say they were. But I’m tired of seeing the traditional way of saying the Rosary denigrated as somehow defective, and reading about how Pope St. John Paul II “ordered” that more mysteries be added. (Joanna Bogle didn’t use that word, but I’ve seen it elsewhere).
Again as said a great man and great pontiff mindlessly demeaned by ‘far right’ traditional Catholics. As not Pius X as not perfect. Perfection has facets some of which are overlooked. When I heard the name on my crackling car radio driving across the Colorado Rockies Karol Wojtyla a Polish pope unexpected exciting after centuries of Italians. There’s too much to cover regarding the greatness of his legacy covered well by Ms Bogle. He was providential the Church needing charisma to draw youth and they got it with Wojtyla. And holiness. And a mysterious nexus with Nazi Germany. “FEBRUARY 29, 1944: Karol is struck by a German truck, but a German officer stops a car and orders its driver to drive to Pole to hospital. He is treated for a brain concussion and lacerations to the head” (Pol Am Journal Foundation). Was it providential? Yes. A young German Wehrmacht soldier [he hated Nazism] Josef Ratzinger was then manning an anti aircraft battery later to become John Paul II’s indispensable most trusted theologian as prefect of the CDF. When the CDF was a functioning body rather than the present Vatican eviscerated sham. Suppressed left a meaningless corpse somewhat like the John Paul II Institute except now that Institute is a revisionist Vatican arm reinventing the family and the revealed nature of human sexuality. Soldier Ratzinger beseeched John Paul to be allowed to retire as prefect refused time and again the Polish pope knowing Ratzinger’s value. His Doctrinal Commentary to Ad Tuendam Fides stands alongside the Pontiff’s great legacy Veritatis Splendor. Ratzinger as Benedict XVI wrote the magnificent Jesus of Nazareth in which he demonstrates Sacred Scripture cannot be divested of its literal spiritual dimension by any form of scriptural historiography. In tandem with Truth as revealed and exemplified by his predecessor. Most of all John Paul II gave the common presbyter an example of heroic courage manning his post despite the awful handicap of advanced Parkinson’s. A meaningless affront to a group of German Hierarchy who impatiently sought the election of their ‘man’. Although in the vision of God an act of supreme love emulating his divine Master.
Fr., our concerns and reservations about Pope John Paul II are not mindless by any means, but are grounded in the truth of Catholic Tradition and the facts that suffused us from 1978 to 2005.
The pope took extensive liberties with certain classical Church teachings, sowed confusion with regard to Church teaching in key areas, and was part of a sequence of popes who presided over the greatest eroding crisis the Church has ever witnessed. One that is far from over, if the presence of Pachamama in the Holy See is any reasonable indicator.
His 1988 liturgical statement alone, that the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council was a great, visible fruit of the council, that somehow the 1970-1988 period was a rousing success in Latin rite reformed worship is simply mind-boggling craziness.
What positive traits he had, and what positive things he did as pope cannot make up for the serious lapses that he was responsible for. And I am not even addressing the scandalous sexual abuse crisis that festered in the Church during this time period.
Yes, as well as the debasement of the liturgy. And those concerns are not simply phantoms in the fevered imaginations of “far right” traditionalists, either.
St. Pope John Paul The Great
To me that pretty much says it all.
“to which he added a new set of Mysteries”
He proposed a new set; he did not “add” them in the sense of making them obligatory. Proposals can be declined.
The original 3 mysteries aren’t obligitory either.
I didn’t say they were. But I’m tired of seeing the traditional way of saying the Rosary denigrated as somehow defective, and reading about how Pope St. John Paul II “ordered” that more mysteries be added. (Joanna Bogle didn’t use that word, but I’ve seen it elsewhere).
Again as said a great man and great pontiff mindlessly demeaned by ‘far right’ traditional Catholics. As not Pius X as not perfect. Perfection has facets some of which are overlooked. When I heard the name on my crackling car radio driving across the Colorado Rockies Karol Wojtyla a Polish pope unexpected exciting after centuries of Italians. There’s too much to cover regarding the greatness of his legacy covered well by Ms Bogle. He was providential the Church needing charisma to draw youth and they got it with Wojtyla. And holiness. And a mysterious nexus with Nazi Germany. “FEBRUARY 29, 1944: Karol is struck by a German truck, but a German officer stops a car and orders its driver to drive to Pole to hospital. He is treated for a brain concussion and lacerations to the head” (Pol Am Journal Foundation). Was it providential? Yes. A young German Wehrmacht soldier [he hated Nazism] Josef Ratzinger was then manning an anti aircraft battery later to become John Paul II’s indispensable most trusted theologian as prefect of the CDF. When the CDF was a functioning body rather than the present Vatican eviscerated sham. Suppressed left a meaningless corpse somewhat like the John Paul II Institute except now that Institute is a revisionist Vatican arm reinventing the family and the revealed nature of human sexuality. Soldier Ratzinger beseeched John Paul to be allowed to retire as prefect refused time and again the Polish pope knowing Ratzinger’s value. His Doctrinal Commentary to Ad Tuendam Fides stands alongside the Pontiff’s great legacy Veritatis Splendor. Ratzinger as Benedict XVI wrote the magnificent Jesus of Nazareth in which he demonstrates Sacred Scripture cannot be divested of its literal spiritual dimension by any form of scriptural historiography. In tandem with Truth as revealed and exemplified by his predecessor. Most of all John Paul II gave the common presbyter an example of heroic courage manning his post despite the awful handicap of advanced Parkinson’s. A meaningless affront to a group of German Hierarchy who impatiently sought the election of their ‘man’. Although in the vision of God an act of supreme love emulating his divine Master.
Fr., our concerns and reservations about Pope John Paul II are not mindless by any means, but are grounded in the truth of Catholic Tradition and the facts that suffused us from 1978 to 2005.
The pope took extensive liberties with certain classical Church teachings, sowed confusion with regard to Church teaching in key areas, and was part of a sequence of popes who presided over the greatest eroding crisis the Church has ever witnessed. One that is far from over, if the presence of Pachamama in the Holy See is any reasonable indicator.
His 1988 liturgical statement alone, that the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council was a great, visible fruit of the council, that somehow the 1970-1988 period was a rousing success in Latin rite reformed worship is simply mind-boggling craziness.
What positive traits he had, and what positive things he did as pope cannot make up for the serious lapses that he was responsible for. And I am not even addressing the scandalous sexual abuse crisis that festered in the Church during this time period.
But his appointments and weak governance must also be mentioned.
Yes, as well as the debasement of the liturgy. And those concerns are not simply phantoms in the fevered imaginations of “far right” traditionalists, either.
The veneration of JPII gets a bit much at times, but this was a terrific read. Thank you.