My hands were shaky a quarter-century ago as I carried the heavy box from the front door of our house into my study. Inside were my author’s copies of Witness to Hope, the first volume of my biography of Pope John Paul II, and my mind was racing: Did the editors catch the last corrections I sent? Did that scarifying misnumbering of the endnotes in one chapter get sorted out? Are there uncaught typos that made a mess of things? 
Steadying myself to open the box without cutting into the beautiful dust covers of a work that had absorbed three years of my life, a gratitude-inducing thought occurred: a lot of what had happened over the past forty-eight years had been a preparation for this moment. So after a prayer of thanks that calmed my nerves, I managed to get the box open without damaging any of its contents.
And there it was. With the support of my family, my Ethics and Public Policy Center colleagues, a host of new friends I had met in Rome, Poland, and elsewhere, and a superb editorial team at HarperCollins, I had kept the promise I made to John Paul II in 1996: that I would finish his biography in time for the Great Jubilee of 2000.
I had a very dry Beefeater martini that night.
It now remained to give the book to its subject. Which became another adventure, capped by an unforgettable moment.
Bishop Stanislaw Ryłko, a Cracovian serving as secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, had been an immense help to me in traversing the Vatican rocks and shoals as I prepared Witness to Hope. And it was Ryłko who called me in Rome on September 23, 1999, saying that he and I were to dine with John Paul II at Castel Gandolfo the following evening at 7:30–at which point I could give the pope the book.
The good bishop and I left Ryłko’s office in the Palazzo San Callisto at 6 p.m. on the dot. Alas, the traffic out the Via Appia to the Castelli Romani crawled along at a snail’s pace, raising the embarrassing possibility of our being late to the papal board. But as we careened through the back entrance to the papal property and passed the charming papal cows (who lived in tranquility with several dozen papal chickens), a Vatican policeman stopped us as another car sped past on the road to the papal villa: it was John Paul II, returning from an evening swim in the pool he had built. (Some of the traditional managers of popes had quibbled about its cost; John Paul replied that he had to get some exercise and that a pool cost less than another conclave.)
I had three copies of Witness to Hope with me in a briefcase, one for the pope and the others for his secretaries. But as I sat down at the dinner table after John Paul’s typically rapid-fire Latin grace before meals, a previously unmeditated question occurred: What does a biographer say to his subject when giving him his life, so to speak? No elegant resolution of this dilemma presenting itself, I walked around the table, gave the book to the pope, said something anodyne, like “Well, here it is,” and then offered copies to Bishop Stanisław Dziwisz and Msgr. Mieczysław Mokrzycki. I would like to report that an intense conversation ensued, but everyone immediately turned to the book’s photo section, and there was much chaffing about pictures of the now-balding Bishop Dziwisz with a headful of curly hair.
Leaving the dining room at the end of the meal, we went through the villa’s chapel, for whose side walls Pope Pius XI (the Holy See’s representative in Poland in his pre-papal life) had commissioned frescoes of two Polish dramas: the defense of the Jasna Góra monastery of the Black Madonna against the Swedish invasion of 1655, and the defense of Warsaw against Trotsky’s Red Army in 1920. Before settling into his prie-dieu for prayer, John Paul II drew me into an embrace that lasted at least a minute and a half. No words were spoken between us, but I heard Bishop Dziwisz say quietly to Bishop Ryłko, “Un grande lavoro” […a great effort], to which Ryłko replied, “Un lavoro d’amore” [A labor of love].
A quarter-century later, the memory of that silent embrace remains. So does my gratitude that Witness to Hope continues to strengthen the faith of Catholics and lead seekers to Christ and his Church.
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Not mentioned in this brief article, but noted in the introduction to the book, is the fact that Pope John Paul II gave Weigel free rein to write the whole tome without any review or editing by himself. And, moreover, a most memorable line in the book is that the pope’s “Theology of the Body” would exercise a “radioactive power” in the coming 21st Century.
Hoping that’s true, now that the full effect of amputating sexual union from even the possibility of reproduction is now metastasized and fully on display. Gradualism on steroids:
…abortion at all stages and even infanticide, ever more births out of wedlock together with broken families, aggressive politics toward “gay marriage,” hyper-porn and sex trafficking even of children, anti-binary “gender theory” with its mandatory 57 personal pronouns, physical/chemical transgender mutilation, Auschwitz miniaturized into a pill (Mifepristone), IVF marketing by Big Med and Big Gov, drag queen hijacking of the Paris Olympics–clothed with TV blitz/political-campaign indoctrination. . . and even double-speak blessing of irregular “couples” as couples, in Fiducia Supplicans.
The individual victims of this moral/social/cultural/ spiritual/pandemic meltdown each deserve compassionate rescue and real help–including the whole “splendor of truth.” Still in our 21st Century, may the “radioactive power” of the Theology of the Body zap the cancer.
A finer end for what we say or write, communicate in any form or forum publicly than to seek the spiritual good of others cannot be met. Saint Pope John Paul II’s life, regardless of flaws found in every Saint [except our Blessed Mother] is one of those worthy of communicating to the world.
I have vivid and lasting memories of George Weigel’s book on Pope St. John II. My wife and I just welcomed our 2nd child and we’re spending a lot in time neontal waiting rooms, so began the his biographical journey there. I brought that bulky book to every appointment and savored every page (I also recall the sheer size of the book generated lively waiting room conversatio). You see, I was one of John Paul’s innumerable spiritual children. What a delight to relive the story of one of my heroes! I was paricularly moved and enthused by Weigel’s retelling of John Paul’s arrival to Denver’s Milehigh stadium in a helicopter during his WYD visit. What joy he brought to our church! A great biography and worth reading again! Thank you George Weigel, another one of my heroes!
Pope John Paul II disappointed Catholics badly in accepting Pagan rituals on visits, kissing the Koran, and organising Assisi (bouddha on the tabernacle…) These were Freemasonry’s dreamed-of “pope in our image” moments. Why was the future John Paul II able to travel the world from behind the Iron Curtain when his mentors were homebound? Mr Wiegle’s comment on this comment would be welcome – because I was unable to respond when presented this list by a sedevacantist I know…
Why on earth would you *care* what a sedevacantist says about JPII? *They’re blithering idiots.* (No, that doesn’t violate any policy; it’s true.) Only in a universe with a grossly exaggerated conception of the importance of the pope are such attacks remotely compelling.
John Paul II was the pope that God used to open my eyes to the truthfulness of the Catholic Church leading to my conversion. George Weigel’s writings, specifically, “Witness to Hope” fed my soul. Saint John Paul II set an earthy example of the kind of man I admire. Pray for us at this time of need.
http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_05051999.html
Do read this May 5, 1999 General Audience of John Paul II in which he proclaims that Islam worships the same God as Christians.
But did he know that Islam Jesus Christ, that God is Triune, that Mother Mary is the Mother of God, that Islam says that Ishmael and not Issac is the son of promise and ever sooo much more against the truth?
God bless, C-Marie
Correction .. That Islam denies Who Jesus Christ is …