REMEMBERING JOHN PAUL II

Prelate and George Weigel Receive Honorary Degrees

BARCELONA, Spain, NOV. 15, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz said working with Pope John Paul II was a tremendous grace, because the Pontiff lived like a saint.

The cardinal, who is now archbishop of Krakow, and author George Weigel both received an honorary doctorate from the University Abat Oliba CEU in Barcelona on Wednesday.

At a press conference before the ceremony, both spoke of their relationship with John Paul II. Cardinal Dziwisz was John Paul II's personal secretary for 39 years. And Weigel wrote a well-known biography of the Polish Pope, called "Witness to Hope."

Cardinal Dziwisz said, "For me, it was a tremendous grace to work at his side. He lived like a saint, because the man became holy during all of his life."

The cardinal explained that John Paul II said he received his assassination attempt as a grace, because the Church needed it that way.

The cardinal also affirmed that even as a youth, Karol Wojtyla prayed prostrate on the floor with his arms in the form of the cross.

Regarding the Pope's social teaching, Cardinal Dziwisz recalled that John Paul II received a lot of criticism, but always tried to stay firm, independent of political conditions.

Weigel mentioned his appreciation for Cardinal Dziwisz's work as the Pope's secretary, noting the cardinal's "great spiritual life" and affirming that he "tried not to shut doors, but rather to open them."


SOURCE: www.zenit.org/article-21019?l=english

PBS covers Pope's life journey on road to sainthood

David Yonke, Religion Editor
Toledo Blade
Nov. 24, 2007

Pope John Paul II canonized more saints than all previous popes combined. Now a PBS program reviews the late Polish pope's life and legacy, and looks ahead to his own canonization.

Pope John Paul II: A Saint for Our Times, is a one-hour documentary that covers the remarkable life story of Karol Wojtyla, from his birth in Wadowice in 1920 to growing up under Nazi oppression to his 1978 election and 27-year reign as Pontiff.

Director John Biffar, of Dreamtime Entertainment, opens the program with video clips from St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on April 2, 2007, as pilgrims gathered to observe the second anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death.

Many in the crowd were holding signs or chanting, "santo subito," Italian for "sainthood immediately."

The Vatican was already working on it, as Pope Benedict XVI, John Paul's successor, waived the requirement for waiting five years before beginning the process for canonizing John Paul II.

It was in the same historic site, St. Peter's Square, that the College of Cardinals shocked the world on Oct. 16, 1978, when it elected Karol Wojtyla the first Polish Pope in history and the first non-Italian Pontiff in 455 years.

Among those on the scene that night was Bill Blakemore, whose reporting for ABC News from outside the Vatican is included in this documentary. Mr. Blakemore went on to travel with the Pope extensively and offers some interesting personal insights into John Paul II, both as a person and as a Pope.

John Paul was, for example, the only Pope ever to hold real give-and-take press conferences with the media. But for unexplained reasons, he would do so only aboard aircraft while flying on one of his many papal trips.

Mr. Blakemore said the Pontiff enjoyed the press conferences all the more when the media asked direct, challenging, and skeptical questions.

With some acting in his background, and with his era as Pope coming at a time when media coverage expanded greatly, Mr. Blakemore said he considers John Paul II to be "the first planetary superstar."

That title is accentuated by images seen in A Saint for Our Times of the handsome and athletic Pontiff in his 40s and 50s, wearing sunglasses on the ski slopes, or standing on an outdoor altar with his garments blowing majestically in the wind.

His achievements were many and far-reaching, and among the ones that will stand out in history books is his role in bringing about the end of atheistic communism in Europe.

The Pope's triumphant return to his homeland in 1979, less than a year after his election, drew about 3 million people to the streets in defiance of the communist government's efforts to discourage attendance. His visit gave rise to the Polish workers' movement of Solidarity and empowered the people to stand against the communist regime.

That shift in thinking eventually led to the demise of communist governments throughout Eastern Europe.

"He, I think, more than anybody was responsible for the collapse of communism," Archbishop John P. Foley, of the Pontifical Council on Social Communications, said in the documentary.

A Saint for Our Times shifts through various time frames, addressing different themes without regard to chronological order.

From the anniversary of his death in 2005, for example, viewers are shown his election as Pope in 1978, then his childhood in Wadowice in the 1920s and '30s, then the 1981 assassination attempt by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.

One of the most memorable moments in John Paul's pontificate was his visit to an Italian prison in 1983 to tell Agca that he forgave him.

An interesting note in the documentary is that the would-be assassin's bullet was given by the Pontiff to decorate a small crown adorning a statue of the Virgin Mary at the famous shrine in Fatima, Portugal.

The Catholic Church is moving ahead in the process of making Pope John Paul II a saint, a designation that the Rev. Michael Sliney, of the Legionaries of Christ, said is not always understood.

"A saint is an ordinary person living with extraordinary love," he said.

"Pope John Paul II: A Saint for our Times", will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Dec. 1 on local PBS stations WGTE-TV, Channel 30, and at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Dec. 2 on WBGU-TV, Channel 27.

Check your local listings.

John Paul II and the Jews
By David G. Dalin
FIRST THINGS
On the Square
Tuesday, December 4, 2007


More than any other pope, John Paul II was the twentieth century’s greatest papal friend and supporter of the Jewish people. Indeed, John Paul II’s extraordinary relationship with the Jews was an important chapter in the historic legacy of his pontificate, which has had profound implications for Catholic–Jewish relations in our time.

Growing up in the small Polish town of Wadowice, where Jews and Catholics mingled with relative ease, Karol Wojtyla, according to biographer Tad Szulc, “had Jewish playmates and classmates with whom he enjoyed easy camaraderie.” John Paul’s closest friend was Jerzy Kluger, whose father was a prominent local attorney and president of the local Jewish community and its synagogue. About fifteen hundred Jews lived in Wadowice, more than 20 percent of the town’s population, during Karol Wojtyla’s childhood. When Karol was a teenager, the town’s synagogue, which had had a full-time rabbi for many years, hired its first cantor, who was renowned for his splendid voice. On the festival of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day in the Jewish year, Karol was taken to the synagogue by his father to hear the Kol Nidre, the central prayer of the Yom Kippur worship service, chanted by the new cantor. In later years, Karol Wojtyla, as bishop and pope, would often remark on how moved and inspired he was by that memorable Yom Kippur service.

As Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi have pointed out, “since the time of the Apostle Peter, no Roman pontiff has ever spent his childhood in such close contact with Jewish life.” The Wojtylas’ landlord, Chaim Balamuth, was Jewish, as were several of the Wojtyla family’s other neighbors on Zatorska Street in Wadowice. Karol learned firsthand about many Jewish religious festivals, such as Yom Kippur, Succoth (the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles), and Chanukah. Karol and his family were invited into their neighbors’ homes to join in celebrating some of these festivals, as well. Across the courtyard from the Wojtyla home, Karol would watch the traditional Succoth booths set up by the family of his friend and classmate Regina Beer. In fact, Karol’s father had offered Regina’s family the use of his balcony for a Succoth booth.

Karol Woytyla’s friendship with Jerzy Kluger and his family was especially close. They had both been in the same class in the local high school gymnasium since they were eleven years old; Jerzy Kluger would remain one of his closest friends throughout his life. The poignant story of their lifelong friendship, vividly and movingly recounted in Darcy O’Brien’s book, The Hidden Pope: The Personal Journey of John Paul II and Jerzy Kluger, is unique in the history of papal-Jewish relations in modern times.

Karol Woytyla and Jerzy Kluger excelled at soccer and played together in the Wadowice high school, where soccer was the most popular sport. It is especially relevant that “while the Wadowice high school boys formed separate Catholic and Jewish soccer teams,” Karol Woytyla was always ready to play for the Jewish team. “In most places, this would have been insignificant,” but in the Poland of the early 1930s “it carried real meaning,” shaping and defining Woytyla’s ecumenical personality and philo-Semitic attitudes for the future.

Indeed, his lifelong friendship with Jerzy Kluger–from their childhood in Wadowice and separation at the beginning of World War II, to their reunion almost thirty years later and their much closer personal friendship throughout the years of his pontificate–helped to influence and shape his understanding of Jews and Judaism, and of contemporary issues of Jewish concern, as well as his unprecedented commitment to furthering Catholic–Jewish dialogue and cooperation throughout the world. Jerzy Kluger was the first person to be granted a private audience by the new pope following John Paul II’s election to the papacy in 1978. Kluger and his English-born wife, Renee, were John Paul II’s frequent luncheon and dinner guests at the Vatican and at the pope’s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. It was, for example, his friend and confidant Jerzy Kluger who would advise and actively encourage John Paul II to make his historic visit to the Synagogue of Rome in 1986 and to establish diplomatic relations with the State of Israel several years later.

John Paul II was also the first to stress that his youthful experience and Jewish friendships in Wadowice helped to influence and shape his understanding of Jews and Judaism, and were the source of his unprecedented commitment as pope to furthering Catholic–Jewish dialogue and cooperation throughout the world. The local priests in Wadowice, such as Fr. Leonard Prochownik, were committed to religious toleration. According to George Weigel in his biography Witness to Hope, Fr. Prochownik, “who had served in Wadowice since 1915 and who officially became the town’s pastor in 1929,” would be remembered for many decades “as someone whose promotion of interreligious tolerance was responsible for the town’s relative lack of anti-Semitism.” The Wadowice of Karol Wojtyla’s childhood was also, as Weigel has noted, “a place where the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz’s description of Jews as the ‘elder brothers’ of Christians was taken seriously by many local Catholics.” As pope, John Paul II would remember his Wadowice parish priest Fr. Prochownik preaching in church that “anti-Semitism is anti-Christian,” and his high school Polish-literature teacher quoting from Adam Mickiewicz’s 1848 Manifesto for a Future Slave State Constitution that “all citizens are equal–Israelites too.” Karol Wojtyla would later write that he “vividly [remembered] the Jews who gathered every Saturday at the synagogue behind our school. Both religious groups, Catholics and Jews were united . . . by the awareness that they prayed to the same God.”

Pope John Paul’s memory of Wadowice, and the families of his Jewish friends from Wadowice who had lost their lives during the Holocaust, was especially compelling when he visited Auschwitz in June 1979. While paying tribute to the millions of Jews and non-Jewish Poles whose lives were destroyed in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, he invoked the memory of and prayed for the mother of his childhood friend Regina Beer, and the mother, grandmother, and sister of friend Jerzy Kluger, who all died in Auschwitz’s gas chambers. After kneeling and praying at the stark Wall of Death, one of the locations at Auschwitz that Nazi leaders had selected for the murder of Polish intellectuals and priests, John Paul delivered one of the most powerful and poignant homilies of his pontificate, condemning the inhumanity and anti-Semitism that made Auschwitz possible. Calling Auschwitz a “place where human dignity was appallingly trampled underfoot,” a place “built on hatred of, and contempt for humanity,” he invoked the memory of the six million Jews who died in the crematoria of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps, solely because they were Jews, reminding his fellow Catholics that their memory must never be forgotten. As Fr. John Oesterreicher noted in his very poignant “Reflections on Pope John Paul’s Pilgrimage to Auschwitz,” published by Seton Hall University’s Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies in 1984, “Pope John Paul spoke with great feeling, like one who had experienced the torments Hitler’s victims had had to endure, who felt their pain as his own.”

On May 9, 1989, having ordered the placement of a commemorative tablet at the site of the Wadowice synagogue destroyed by the Nazis, the pope wrote Jerzy Kluger that it would honor the memory of Jews from nearby who were exterminated during the Holocaust. To Kluger he wrote that:

Many of those who perished, your co-religionists and our fellow countrymen,were our colleagues in our Elementary School and, later, in the High School where we graduated together, fifty years ago. All were citizens of Wadowice, the town to which both you and I are bound together by our memories of childhood and youth. I remember very clearly the Wadowice Synagogue, which was near our High School. I have in front of my eyes the numerous worshippers who during their Holidays passed on their way to pray there.

John Paul II and the Papal Condemnation of Anti-Semitism

Throughout his pontificate, John Paul II reached out to the Jewish community as no other pope had before him. From his election in 1978, as George Weigel has noted, John Paul II “invested enormous energy in building a new conversation between Catholics and Jews.” At his very first meeting with representatives of Rome’s Jewish community, on March 12, 1979, John Paul noted that “our two religious communities are connected and closely related at the very level of their respective religious identities.” Jewish–Catholic dialogue, from a Catholic perspective, was a religious obligation.

Later, addressing representatives of the German–Jewish community of Mainz in November 1980, John Paul II spoke of “the depth and richness of our common inheritance bringing us together in mutually trustful collaboration.” Imbued with a deep understanding of Judaism and of the Jewish people, unique among modern pontiffs, he described Judaism as a “living” legacy that must be understood by Christians and spoke of a dialogue between “today’s churches and today’s people of the covenant concluded with Moses.” In this speech to the Jews of Mainz, the pope addressed the Jewish community with full respect as “the people of God and of the Old Covenant, which has never been revoked by God” and emphasized the “permanent value” of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish community, which witnesses to those Scriptures as sacred texts.

In subsequent addresses, he deplored the terrible persecutions suffered by the Jewish people–indeed, in Australia in 1986, he was to call acts of discrimination and persecution against Jews “sinful”–and called for Christians and Jews to hold more in-depth exchanges based on their own religious identities. “Our common spiritual heritage is considerable,” he noted, “and we can find help in understanding certain aspects of the Church’s life by taking into account the faith and religious life of the Jewish people.”

No other pope of the twentieth century was as forthright and unequivocal in his condemnation of anti-Semitism generally, and the Nazi Holocaust in particular. This abhorrence, as Eugene Fisher has noted, “was not simply theoretical. John Paul II lived under Nazism in Poland and experienced personally the malignancy of the ancient evil of Jew-hatred.” In his first papal audience with Jewish leaders, following his election as pope on March 12, 1979, John Paul II reaffirmed the Second Vatican Council’s repudiation of anti-Semitism “as opposed to the very spirit of Christianity” and “which in any case the dignity of the human person alone would suffice to condemn.” The pope often repeated this message in meetings with Jewish leaders at the Vatican and in country after country throughout the world. Speaking at Auschwitz four months later, in a homily commemorating the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust, he called on Catholics to remember “in particular the memory of the people whose sons and daughters were intended for total extermination.” From the intensity of his own personal experience, the pope was able to articulate the uniqueness of the Jewish experience of the Shoah while never forgetting the memory of Nazism’s millions of non-Jewish victims. The pope would, as Eugene Fisher has noted, agree unreservedly with the formulation of Elie Wiesel: “Not every victim of the Holocaust was a Jew, but every Jew was a victim.”

Throughout his pontificate, as George Weigel has observed, John Paul “persistently, vigorously and unambiguously condemned the Shoah, the Holocaust of the European Jews during the Second World War.” Meeting with Jews in Paris, on May 31, 1980, John Paul made a point of mentioning the great suffering of the Jewish community of France “during the dark years of the occupation,” paying homage to them as victims, “whose sacrifice, we know, has not been fruitless.” Speaking as a Pole and as a Catholic on the fortieth anniversary of the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto, in April 1983, the pope termed “that horrible and tragic event” a “desperate cry for the right to life, for liberty, and for the salvation of human dignity.” On the twentieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, in October 1985, the pope stated that “anti-Semitism, in its ugly and sometimes violent manifestations, should be completely eradicated.” Speaking to the leadership of Australia’s Jewish community, in Sydney, Australia, on November 26, 1986, John Paul II intensified his condemnation of anti-Semitism and, recalling that “this is still the century of the Shoah,” declared that “no theological justification could ever be found for acts of discrimination or persecution against Jews. In fact, such acts must be held to be sinful.” Perhaps the most eloquent papal statement condemning the Holocaust came at a meeting with Jewish leaders in Warsaw, on June 14, 1987, when he described the Holocaust as a universal icon of evil:

Be sure, dear brother, that . . . this Polish Church is in a spirit of profound solidarity with you when she looks closely at the terrible realization of the extermination–the unconditional extermination–of your nation, an extermination carried out with premeditation. The threat against you was also a threat against us; this latter was not realized to the same extent, because it did not have time to be realized to the same extent. It was you who suffered this terrible sacrifice of extermination: one might say that you suffered it also on behalf of those who were in the purifying power of suffering. The more atrocious the suffering, the greater the purification. The more painful the experience, the greater the hope. . . . Because of this terrible experience . . . you have become a warning voice for all humanity, for all nations, all the powers of this world, all systems and every person. More than anyone else, it is precisely you who have become the saving warning. I think that in this sense you continue your particular vocation, showing yourselves still to be the heirs of that election to which God is faithful. This is your mission in the contemporary world before all the peoples, the nations, all of humanity, the Church.”

In the years following this dramatic statement, John Paul worked to keep the memory of the Shoah alive in the center of world Catholicism. Addressing the leaders of the Jewish community of Strasbourg in 1988, the pope said: “I repeat again with you the strongest condemnation of anti-Semitism,” which is “opposed to the principles of Christianity.” In commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, at Saint Peter’s Square on April 18, 1993, he spoke of the Shoah as “a true night of history, with unimaginable crimes against God and humanity.”

The following year, on April 7, 1994, John Paul II hosted a Holocaust Memorial Concert in the Paul VI Audience Hall of the Vatican. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Gilbert Levine, a Brooklyn-born American Jew whom John Paul had befriended after Levine became musical director of the Krakow Philharmonic in 1987. On this occasion, the pope sat in the audience hall side by side with the chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, himself a Holocaust survivor, and Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Rabbi Toaff “had brought his congregation with him, the first time that many had been inside the Vatican except as tourists. Two hundred Holocaust survivors from twelve different countries attended, along with diplomats from all over the world.”

The occasion for this Holocaust Memorial Concert was the fiftieth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The day of this concert, April 7, 1994, as John Paul’s biographers have pointed out, was a “unique and unprecedented moment” in the history of the Catholic Church and of John Paul II’s personal mission to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive in the center of world Catholicism. In addition to hosting the Holocaust Memorial Concert, the pope also arranged for the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead–the Kaddish–to be recited and for six candlesticks of the menorah to be lit in his presence at the Vatican. In so doing, as Tad Szulc has written, “the pope chose to publicly honor the memory of those Jews who died in the name of freedom” during the Holocaust–in a way that “the Catholic Church had never done before.”

Throughout the 1990s, moreover, at John Paul II’s instruction, the Vatican’s Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews was engaged in preparing an official Catholic document on the Holocaust–We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah–that was published in March 1998. An historic document, the Holy See’s first official statement on the Holocaust, We Remember describes the Shoah as an “unspeakable tragedy” and a “horrible genocide” before which “no one can remain indifferent, least of all the Church, by reason of her very close bonds with the Jewish people and her remembrances of the injustices of the past.” We Remember, which included a lengthy (and controversial) footnote defending Pope Pius XII’s actions during the war, also urged that Christians who had risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust not be forgotten.

John Paul II’s relationship to Jews, and to the Jewish community of Rome, was historic in other ways as well. In April 1986, John Paul II became the first pope in history to visit Rome’s chief synagogue, an historic event in Catholic–Jewish relations. Even John XXIII, who was revered in the Jewish community for convening the Second Vatican Council (which publicly repudiated anti-Semitism and had expunged from the Catholic liturgy the insulting reference to the Jews as “perfidious”), never actually entered Rome’s Great Synagogue. (He once stopped, in his car, to bless the Roman Jews leaving their Sabbath worship services.) In becoming the pope to go to the Great Synagogue of Rome “to meet the Roman Jewish community at their own place of worship,” John Paul II changed history.

Yet this historic event goes completely unmentioned in the books of liberal papal critics, such as Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. Goldhagen’s anti-Catholic diatribe A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair, actually attributes anti-Semitism to John Paul II. Goldhagen writes that “neither John Paul II nor any other pope has seen fit to make . . . a direct and forceful public statement about Catholics’ culpability and the need for all the members of the Church who have sinned during the Holocaust to repent for their many different kinds of offenses and sins against Jews.” In fact, however, John Paul II made just such a public statement during his visit to Rome’s synagogue. After the chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, welcomed the pope, John Paul II responded with an eloquent address in which he publicly acknowledged, and apologized for, the Church’s sins against the Jews during the Holocaust and in the centuries that preceded it. Insisting that there was no theological justification for discrimination against Jews, John Paul II declared that the Church condemned anti-Semitism “by anyone” — “I repeat: by anyone.” He did precisely what Goldhagen claims he never did: He admitted, in public, the Church’s “culpability.” Moreover, time and again, the pope cited the Thirteenth International Catholic–Jewish Liaison Committee meeting held in Prague, with its call for Christian teshuvah (repentance) for anti-Semitism over the centuries and its statement that anti-Semitism is “a sin against God and humanity.”

John Paul II and the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the Vatican and Israel

When the pope visited the Synagogue of Rome in April 1986, Rome’s chief rabbi asked him to establish diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the State of Israel. Six years later, over the objections of some of the bureaucrats in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, which was waiting for the government of Israel to first reach an accord with the Palestinians, John Paul II personally took the initiative to do so. In 1994, the Vatican established full diplomatic relations with Israel. In taking this unprecedented initiative, once again, John Paul II changed history and radically transformed the Vatican’s relationship to Zionism and the Jewish State. In 1904 Pope Pius X told the founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, that the Holy See could not “encourage” the Zionist movement in its goal of establishing a Jewish State. No previous pope had ever referred publicly to the State of Israel, as did John Paul II in his official pronouncements and correspondence. Indeed, even Pope Paul VI, during his visit to Jerusalem in 1964, had refrained from referring publicly to the “State of Israel,” managing “with pointed omission never to speak the name of Israel,” talking officially only of the Holy Land or Palestine. Nor had any of John Paul’s papal predecessors ever seriously contemplated establishing diplomatic relations with the Jewish State.

Yet, as we read in Witness to Hope, from the earliest days of his pontificate, John Paul II was aware, from conversations with his friend Jerzy Kluger and many others, “that the absence of full diplomatic relations was regarded by Israelis and by Jews throughout the world as a depreciation of the State of Israel and as a failure to fulfill the promise of a new Jewish–Catholic relationship envisioned by the Second Vatican Council,” to which John Paul II was passionately committed. According to Jerzy Kluger, as early as 1981, John Paul II had authorized his old friend “to initiate private, informal discussions with Israeli diplomats in Rome to clarify issues involved in moving toward full diplomatic relations. Kluger, an Italian citizen, was also authorized by the government of then Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to speak on its behalf.” One immediate result of these early discussions was a papal telegram of good wishes to the president of Israel on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in October 1981. This holiday telegram was historically unprecedented: No such communication had ever previously been sent by a pope to an Israeli head of state. John Paul, by Kluger’s account, “also used his old friend and Wadowice classmate as a continuing sounding board for thinking out loud about the history of relations between Catholics and Jews and the relationship of that history to the question of establishing diplomatic relations.”

As George Weigel wrote in 2000, it was John Paul’s own actions during the 1980s–including his regular meetings with Jewish groups in Rome and elsewhere on his pastoral pilgrimages, his condemnations of terrorist attacks on synagogues in Vienna and Rome, his 1982 meeting with Israeli foreign minister Yitzchak Shamir . . . his historic visit to the Synagogue of Rome in 1986,” and his 1987 Vatican statement that there were “no theological reasons in Catholic doctrine that would inhibit full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel”–that helped further lay the foundation for the actual diplomatic negotiations that would, in the early 1990s, result in the historic establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Israel.

At the culmination of the lengthy negotiations, on December 30, 1993, representatives of the Holy See and the State of Israel signed in Jerusalem the Fundamental Agreement that would lead the way to full diplomatic “normalization” of relations between the two. On August 16, 1994, in Jerusalem, Archbishop Montezemolo presented his credentials to President Chaim Herzog of the State of Israel as the first ambassador of the Holy See to the Jewish state. The following month, in Rome, Shmuel Hadas presented his credentials to Pope John Paul II as the first ambassador of the State of Israel to the Holy See.

As the Fundamental Agreement acknowledged, “this was not just a moment of international diplomacy between two tiny Mediterranean states.” It was, rather, as Eugene Fisher has noted, an historic and “theologically significant moment in the nearly two-millennia-long history of relationship between the Jewish people and the Catholic Church.” In taking the unprecedented initiative to bring this moment about, John Paul II had changed history. As George Weigel has pointed out, the Fundamental Agreement “was widely regarded as one of the diplomatic master strokes of John Paul II’s pontificate and a historic turning point in Catholic–Jewish relations.”

A Pope in the Holy Land: John Paul II’s Historic Visit to Israel

In his historic visit to Israel in March 2000, moreover, John Paul II continued to condemn anti-Semitism while continuing his personal mission of furthering and consolidating a new era in Catholic–Jewish relations. Jews and Catholics alike were profoundly moved by John Paul’s tearful meeting with Holocaust survivors from his hometown in Poland, as well as his saluting an Israeli flag, listening to the solemn playing of “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem, and being welcomed as an honored guest by the Jewish state.

These were unique and unprecedented moments in the history of Catholic–Jewish relations, as was the pope’s prayer at the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites. For nearly two millennia, Jews have prayed at the Western Wall, all that is left of the Jerusalem Temple compound after the Romans destroyed the city following the second Jewish revolt. Now came the bishop of Rome, the successor of Saint Peter, to pray at the Western Wall, as a humble pilgrim acknowledging the full validity of Jewish prayer, on its own terms, at this most holy of Jewish sites. The Western Wall is for Jews the central physical remnant of biblical Israel, “the central symbolic referent for Jews as a people and for Judaism as a four- to five-thousand-year-old faith tradition.” As Eugene Fisher has noted, in praying at the Western Wall, there was no hesitation in the pope’s religious affirmation of Judaism, no political, theological, or social caveat.

Especially moving was the pope’s impassioned and emotional talk in the Hall of Remembrance at Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem. After observing a moment of prayerful silence, John Paul began speaking at Yad Vashem by saying: “In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back. Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah. My own personal memories are of all that happened when the Nazis occupied Poland during the war. I remember my Jewish friends and neighbors, some of whom perished while others survived.” Remembrance, he continued after a moment, must be in the service of a noble cause: “We wish to remember for a purpose,” he said, “to ensure that never again will evil prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of Nazism.” And knowing that evil’s victory during the Nazi Final Solution had ensnared too many Christians, he then made what no one listening could doubt was a heartfelt statement of repentance: “As Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place.”

At the conclusion of the pope’s address, many Israelis in attendance, Holocaust survivors and politicians, religious leaders and army officers alike, cried. In his own address which followed, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, himself a former army general not given to sentimentality, movingly thanked John Paul for doing more for Jewish–Catholic relations than any pope in history. “You have done,” Barak asserted, “more than anyone else to bring about the historic change in the attitude of the Church toward the Jewish people . . . and to dress the gaping wounds that festered over many bitter centuries.”

There is much evidence to substantiate the historical accuracy of Barak’s assertion. After the pope prayed at the Western Wall and spoke as he did at Yad Vashem, Catholic–Jewish relations could and would never be the same. Both changed the history of Catholic–Jewish relations in our time, and for all time, as did the pope’s unprecedented meeting that same week in Jerusalem with the two chief rabbis of Israel. “It was,” as Eugene Fisher accurately pointed out, “a meeting of dialogue not diatribe, a meeting of Catholic–Jewish reconciliation after centuries of alienation. It was a meeting that neither the pope’s nor the chief rabbis’ parents could have dreamed to be possible in their wildest imaginations.” In initiating this historic meeting, Pope John Paul II “had seized the opportunity not just of a lifetime but of the millennium.”

A Lonely Voice in the Wilderness: John Paul II vs. the New Muslim Anti-Semitism

As Eugene Fisher has noted, throughout the 1980s, John Paul II “issued strong statements of condemnation of acts of terrorism against synagogues and Jewish communities” in Vienna and Rome, “sending messages of sympathy for their victims.” He condemned, for example, the August 29, 1981, bomb-throwing attack on a synagogue in Vienna, Austria, as “a bloody and absurd act, which assails the Jewish community in Austria and the entire world” and warned against a “new wave of that same anti-Semitism that has provoked so much mourning throughout the centuries.” During the October 1985 seizure by Muslim Palestinian terrorists of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, in which a Jewish passenger was singled out for killing, the pope condemned what he called “this grave act of violence against innocent and defenseless persons.”

John Paul II always condemned European anti-Semitism. But other European leaders have been less willing to take a stand against the resurgent Muslim anti-Semitism that is part of what has been called the Islamization of Europe. This is especially true in France, where Muslims make up about 10 percent of France’s population and outnumber French Jews ten to one.

Between 2000 and 2003, Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority were implicated in the bombing of French synagogues and other acts of anti-Semitic violence and terrorism against Jewish communal leaders and institutions in France. The year 2000 witnessed an alarming eruption of anti-Jewish violence carried out almost exclusively by Arab Muslims. During the last three months of 2000 alone, violence aimed at French Jews included forty-four fire bombings, forty-three attacks on synagogues, and thirty-nine assaults on Jews as they were leaving their places of worship. Between January and May 2001, there were more than three hundred attacks against Jews. Synagogues were destroyed, school buses stoned, and even innocent Jewish children assaulted. Yet very few of the incidents were reported in the French media, which has an evident pro-Palestinian bias.

On January 12, 2001, Palestinian journalist Raymonda Hawa-Tawil (whose daughter Souha was Yasser Arafat’s wife) spoke out on the public radio station French Culture, attacking the “racism of the Jews of France” and the “influence of the Jewish lobby.” During 2002 and 2003, violent anti-Semitic attacks against French Jews continued to increase. In December 2003, a young Jewish disc jockey was killed by his Muslim neighbor, who “slit his throat and mutilated his face.” Returning to his apartment, the murderer reportedly said: “I killed my Jew. I will go to heaven.”

In face of this resurgence of Islam-inspired French anti-Semitism, John Paul II often seemed to be a lonely voice in the wilderness, consistent and unequivocal in his condemnation of Europe’s new anti-Semitic, post-Christian left, while other European leaders and intellectuals–politicians, journalists, and leftist religious activists alike–chose to remain silent. Often alone among European leaders, Pope John Paul II issued strong statements condemning acts of Islamic terrorism against synagogues and other Jewish communal buildings and institutions in France and elsewhere, calling these incidents un-Christian and reprehensible. On April 3, 2002, moreover, Bishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, president of the French Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a forceful condemnation of French anti-Semitism. Speaking in the spirit of John Paul II’s many vocal protests against anti-Semitism, Ricard declared: “In recent days, attacks were committed against several synagogues in France, in Lyon, in Marseilles, and in Strasbourg. The Jewish communities are deeply struck in their most precious places of worship. Such acts of violence make one fear the worst. . . . To strike a community, whichever it is, in its religious sensibilities and faith, is a particularly grave act, which affects our democratic life with full force. In condemning these attacks with the greatest firmness, the Catholic Church in France expresses its profound sympathy and solidarity with the Jewish communities.”

While almost all French politicians and liberal journalists were silent or equivocating concerning the wave of arson and violence against French synagogues and other Jewish institutions, the French bishops were the only French leaders–religious or political–to condemn unequivocally the new anti-Semitism resurgent in France. As Michel Gurfinkiel pointed out, the response of France’s liberal political elite to these and other anti-Semitic incidents that occurred on a daily basis, in 2000 and 2001, was “minimal or mute.” Not so that of the Vatican, the Conference of French Bishops, and the church leadership in France. As Jewish leaders have appreciatively noted, their response has been forthright and forceful.

Conclusion

Pope Benedict XVI, like Pope John Paul II, is known to be a staunch friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel and a vocal critic of anti-Semitism. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict wrote of “the gift of Christmas” as “the heritage of Abraham” and condemned both Christian anti-Semitism and the Nazi Holocaust, which, he noted accurately, was “perpetuated in the name of anti-Christian ideology, which tried to strike the Christian faith at its Abrahamic roots in the people of Israel.” Shortly after succeeding to the papacy, in a history-making visit to the Community Synagogue of Cologne, Germany, which had been destroyed by the Nazis in 1938 and rebuilt after World War II, Pope Benedict called Nazism “an insane racist ideology” and denounced “the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism.” Pope Benedict’s visit to the Cologne Synagogue in August 2005, which took place during his first papal trip to his native Germany, “was the second ever by a pope to a Jewish house of worship,” following Pope John Paul II’s 1986 visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome. The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Paul Spiegel, welcomed the pope’s visit, describing it as an “historic event.”

Jewish leaders, including Abraham H. Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, have praised Pope Benedict, saying that “he has shown the sensitivity [to Jews and the Holocaust] countless times, in meetings with Jewish leadership and in important statements condemning anti-Semitism and expressing profound sorrow for the Holocaust.” Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee said that, as Cardinal Ratzinger, the new pope had been “supportive of the establishment of full [diplomatic] relations between the Holy See and Israel, and he cares deeply about the welfare of Israel.”

John Paul II was the heir and exemplar of a long a venerable philo-Semitic tradition within papal–Jewish relations, a tradition of papal friendship and support for the Jewish people that has continued with John Paul II’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI. John Paul II’s historic role and accomplishments as the twentieth century’s greatest papal friend of the Jewish people, which have had such profound implications for the course of Catholic–Jewish dialogue and reconciliation in our time, should be remembered and cherished by Jews and Catholics alike.

David G. Dalin, an ordained rabbi, is professor of history and politics at Ave Maria University and the Taube Research Fellow in American History at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This essay is adapted from an article in the newly released John Paul II and the Jewish People: A Christian-Jewish Dialogue (Rowan & Littlefield).

ON THE 'HERMENEUTIC OF CONTINUITY'
By PAOLO RODARI
Il Riformista
12/29/07






I started translating this on Dec. 30, the day I saw it first, and then parked it unfinished because some other priorities came up. I finally remembered about it today. I apologize for the delay.


Beyond the exegesis of Vatican-II offered by the so-called Bologna school of the late Giuseppe Alberigo - the 'clever progressivists' in the words of George Weigel, one of the principal biographers of Papa Wojtyla - and the ravings of the most traditionalist spiritual children of the late Mons. Lefebvre - "the 'bad conservatives', Weigel calls them - there is a third way. It is the conciliar hermeneutic of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, deduced from what John XXIII said in his opening address to Vatican-II and Paul VI in his closing address.

A hermeneutic which in 1972, when he was Bishop of Cracow - who had the privilege of participating in the Council as the ecclesial administrator of the Archdiocese of Cracow - he recorded in black and white in the work At the sources of renewal: Study on the actuations of the Second Vatican Council. Published in Poland in 2001, edited by the Polish Theological Association, and in Italy in the same year, through the Vatican publishing house, and reissued now in a new edition by Rubettino.

The new edition is made even more significant by the fact that it has a foreword by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who says how central to the Pontificate of Benedict XVI is the address that he gave to the Roman Curia on December 22, 2005, on the correct interpretation of Vatican II.

Ruini, who will shortly vacate his position as the Pope's Vicar in Rome, is in a way anticipating what his life will be afterwards - analyzing, behind the scenes, affairs that affect the Church from within and without, intra and extra ecclesiali, offering opportunely the correct interpretation of the Council's work, as Papa Ratzinger sees it.

Benedict XVI considers the 'hermeneutic of discontinuity' which, thanks to 'the contribution of mass media and a part of modern theology', has affirmed itself forcefully in the past decades, as an agent of confusion.

This hermeneutic of discontinuity, Ruini explains in his preface to Wojtyla's work, still echoes today "in recent positions expressed by some historians and theologians: their generic references to the 'spirit of the Council' expose it to subjective interpretations which misunderstand the authentic nature of the Council and open the door to developments which are hardly compatible with the substance of Catholicism."

On December 22, 2005, Benedict XVI proposed a hermeneutic of reform. "A hermeneutic," Ruini explains, "in which tradition is fecundly and faithfully intertwined in continuity (which is not repetition) and innovation (which is not a change in substance). But rather a commitment which derives from a vital and spiritual relationship with the word of faith and an ecclesiology that lives that faith."

What is the kernel of the Wojtylian 'third way'? What is the essence of that 'detailed and organic' vademecum of that too long forgotten text by the Polish cardinal?

To understand it is not just a mere literary exercise, if only because, if it is true that the Bologna school succeeded to cite the documents and correspondence of Vatican-II to advance their view, it is equally true that those who have studied these papers to arrive at a different conclusion (as Wojtyla did) have not always seen an adequate exposure of their ideas.

Such that, in fact, the views of a sector directly opposed to the Bologna school has seemed to have a much greater impact - that of the 'ultra-traditionalists'.

Between the two poles, then, is Wojtyla's way - "The first," according to Ruini, "and probably the most profound study" of Vatican-II in the hermeneutic of continuity.

The center of Wojtyla's interpretation lies totally in the belief that the Council was above all a religious event in which the principal player was the Holy Spirit. That is purpose was not to measure the Gospel against modernity, but rather to link in the mystery of Jesus Christ the two essential poles of theological discourse: God and man.

Therefore, it was not so much opposing the Gospel to 'the spirit of the times' nor to dilute it in an uncritical adherence with a flavor of immanence, as much as to re-propose the first way that the Church should follow to fulfill its mission: Jesus Christ.

In this sense, the more Vatican-II is rooted in Christ, the more it can emerge from self-referential discussions and partial readings. In short, the more it looks to Christ, then continuity with tradition will not be seen as mere repetition, and at the same time, innovation, while remaining such, does not mean changing the substance.

In today's issue, Osservatore Romano has three Page-1 articles related to Cardinal Wojtyla's 1972 book on Vatican-II, newly reissued in Italian, and previewed in the preceding post. I will start the translations with the Cardinal's piece.


Translated from
the 1/9/08 issue of



In 1972, the Archbishop of Cracow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, decided to illustrate to the faithful of his diocese the fruits of the Vatican II conciliar teachings, in a volume that has now been re-issued (Alle fonti del rinnovamento. Studio sull'attuazione del Concilio Vaticano Secondo [At the sources of renewal: Study on the realization of the Second Vatican Council], Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2007, 437 pp, 19 euro).

On this page, we reproduce the preface written by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar of Rome; a foreword by the Polish editors Adam Kubis and Stanislaw Nagy; and the introduction by Cardinal Wojytyla.


A debt owed to the Holy Spirit
By Cardinal Karol Wojtyla


A bishop who took part in the Second Vatican Council feels indebted to it. Indeed the Council - beyond the values which have already been attributed to it and will be attributed in the future - has a unique and irrepetible value and significance to all who took part in it and brought it to completion, especially for the bishops, the conciliar fathers.

Participating actively, over four years, in Vatican-II and elaborating its texts, they enriched themselves spiritually at the same time by virtue of living the Council.

The shared experience of universal community was of great good to each of them, and of historical weight. The story of the Council. which can only be exhaustively told in the future, was present as an extraordinary event in the spirit of all the bishops who participated, during the period from 1962 to 1965. It completely absorbed their thoughts, spurred them in their responsibilities; it was an exceptional experience and a profoundly lived reality.

It is from such experience, historically over but spiritually always actual, that the need to pay a contracted debt arises. When we ask ourselves whom did we contract it with, then we are led - even though by means of persons, pronouncements, thoughts, attitudes, prospects, all the perceptible realities of the conciliar assembly - to the invisible one, to him who has incessantly fulfilled the promise made to the Apostles in the Cenacle: "He will teach you all things and will remind you of all that I have told you" (Jn 14, 26).

Through the complex experience of the Council, we contracted a debt to the Holy Spirit, towards the Spirit of Christ. This, in fact, is the Spirit that speaks to the Church (cfr Acts 2,7). During the Council and through it, his word became particularly expressive and decisive for the Church.

The bishops, who have inherited from the Apostles the promise made by Christ in the Cenacle, are particularly called on to be aware of the debt contracted "with the word of the Holy Spirit", and it is they who must translate the word of God to human language.

This language, being human, may be imperfect and remain open to ever more precise formulations, but it is , at the same time, authentic, because it contains precisely that which the Spirit "said to the Church" at a specific historical moment.

Thus, this awareness of debt comes from faith and the Gospel, which allow us to express the word of God in the human language of our times, linking it to the authority of the supreme Magisterium of the Church.

Christ said: "I am with you to the end of the world" (Mt 28,20). These words acquired a freshness during the Council.

Awareness of a debt to the Council is coupled with the need to give a further response. The faith demands it. Faith, in fact, is essentially a response to the word of God, to what the Spirit tells the Church. Therefore, when one speaks of the realization [putting into effect] of the Council, ultimately one really means only such a response.

The correct perspective for evaluating the problem is that of the faith, its vital structure within every believer. This perspective itself gives birth to the awareness of the debt to be paid.

If this awareness must be alive in every Bhristian, it should even be more so in the bishop. It has to do with his response to the word of the Spirit, the human expression of what he himself has experienced.
As a member of the Council, he is a special witness as well as a debtor to this word. Therefore, he should feel an authentic responsibility with regard to the integral response of faith that the Church and the world will give to the word of the Lord, to the word of the Spirit. This constitutes the continuity of that testimony that began in the Cenacle.

It would be a mistake not to consider the realization of Vatican-II as a response of faith to the word of the Lord transmitted by this Council.

And it is to be hoped that the idea which guides the realization of Vatican-II will be that meant by the renewal undertaken by the council - as a historic stage in the self-realization of the Church. Indeed, the Church, through the Council, defined not only what it thinks of itself, but also the way in which it wishes to realize itself.

The doctrine of Vatican-II reveals itself as an image, appropriate for our times, of such self-realization by the Church, an image which in many ways should permeate the spirit of all the members of the People of God.

If we sometimes use the term 'conciliar initiation', we do so precisely in this sense. 'Initiation' means both 'introduction' as well as 'participation in a mystery'. The bishop, as an authentic witness of the Council, knows its 'mystery', and so the responsibility falls principally on him for this introduction and initiation into the reality of the Council itself.

Being a teacher of the faith, it falls to him to solicit this response of faith which should constitute the fruit of the Council and the basis for its realization.

This book was conceived as an essay of 'initiation'. It does not mean to be a commentary to the documents of Vatican II - something which concerns theologians, and which they, even in Poland, have been offering tirelessly.

This book should be considered instead as a handbook of introduction to the documents of Vatican-II, but always from the perspective of their being put into effect in the life and the faith of the Church.

Finally, this book should be considered not as a scientific study, but rather as an ample working study of the activities of the Church in the world, and in particular, of the Polish Church.

Indeed, the Church seeks in itself and in the world an appropriate form that corresponds to the reality of the Council, and to the breath of the Spirit which pervaded it.

I offer and dedicate this book, above all, to those in the Church of Cracow who have generously helped and worked with me, as a Bishop, to participate in Vatican II.

L'Osservatore Romano - 9 gennaio 2008)







Vatican II:
The believer as protagonist
By Adam Kubis e Stanislaw Nagy

When the Second Vatican Council started, it was expected to bring about an 'updating' of the Church and also to open the way towards Christian unity.

During the sessions, these objectives started to delineate themselves more clearly. The bishops of all the world had reflected on the pastoral implications of many essential elements of the Christian faith, particularly, the reality and mission of the Church.

The book by Cardinal Wojtyla situates itself at the center of this problem. Its very title - At the sources of renewal: Study on the realization of the Second Vatican Council - allows us to grasp the fundamental premises of the work and indicates clearly that the author considers Vatican-II as a milestone in the renewal of the Church.

It is his conviction that the Council is a sign of the times for the Church to illuminate the world with the light of Christ. According to the author, authentic Church renewal must show itself above all in the realization (putting into effect) of what the Council decreed.

This does not mean that Cardinal Wojtyla considers Vatican-II as the exclusive and only point of departure for the self-realization of the contemporary Church.

Indeed, the eternal problems of man exist as always, and the immutable message of the Gospel continues to be valid. Both the teaching of the Council as well as its pastoral orientation must be situated in the context of these problems and this message.

It must be underscored that in this study, Wojtyla has not confronted the problems regarding practical ways of realizing Vatican II.... (Instead) the author has focused his attention almost exclusively on that which should be realized. And he has done so with full awareness, starting with the principle that reflections on the way in which the Council should be put into effect should be preceded by reflections on what should be put into effect.

The study on putting Vatican-II into effect - besides the introduction and conclusion - has three parts: the first, which explains the fundamental significance of initiation into the Council, is an ample introduction to the analysis which follows in the two succeeding parts, which deal, respectively, with the formation of conscience and of attitudes.

The work, in its entirety, is a sort of synthesis of the principal aspects of Conciliar doctrine.

In the first place, the author highlights the problems of the ecclesiological documents - namely, the dogmatic Constitution of the Church and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the contemporary world. He has assigned to the other documents a role proportionate to what they play with respect to the entirety of the conciliar teaching.

But what is the nature of the synthesis which the author proposes and what does it teach us about Vatican II?

Without a doubt, the book sometimes gives the impression of re-ordering pre-selected conciliar texts in a certain sense. Moreover, the author himself defines his book as a 'working study' or a handbook of the Council, which has the purpose of systematizing the great wealth of conciliar teaching.

But that is not the most important aspect of the work, but rather, the key according to which Cardinal Wojtyla has managed this systematization and the result he has reached in doing so.

At the sources of renewal in its most profound premises, according to the author, is a search, and at the same time, an answer, to questions about the faith and the whole existence of a believer. What does it mean to be a Christian living in the contemporary church and world?

These are questions of an existential nature, because they involve not only the truth of the faith, and thus, pure doctrine, but are linked to the conscience and concrete existence of man, demanding a definition of the attitudes with which a Catholic believer must configure his life.

In other words, they concern the faith not only from the viewpoint of revealed truth, but in its fullness within the dimensions of Christian existence. The answer to these questions has led Wojtyla to reread and reorganize the Conciliar teachings in an existential perspective, while at the same time, bringing to light its pastoral orientation, using his own reflections based on Christian anthropology.

Thanks to this approach, the doctrine of the Council, rooted in both Scripture and Tradition, presents, in this book, a deeper knowledge of man. This explains the characteristic language used by the author, his original way of formulating doctrine and his particular insistence on certain truths.

Indeed, both the perspective and the results are new. The accent is on the person of the believer, not on the content of the faith. Cardinal Wojtyla's work tends to create a deeper Christian consciousness as well as mature attitudes towards the contemporary world.

Moreover, it must be emphasized that this book was written by Wojtyla with his thoughts directed to the pastoral synod of the Archdiocese of Cracow, which was inaugurating its work at the time. The synod had chosen as its goal the enrichment of awareness about living in the faith.

It intended to reach this goal, among others, by studying the teaching of Vatican II and reflecting on the more integral realization of its directives.

The synodal commissions and study groups - these last without official standing, as they were convoked by the synod - availed of the work of their bishop, which helped them to program their activities.

Karol Wojtyla's study had shown them, starting with its very premises, what should be done when one commits oneself to putting the Council into effect.

It is well-known, for instance, that the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council had a prevalently doctrinal character, for purposes of apologetics. Defending the Church from every deformation of Catholic doctrine, they saw truth as imperilled and condemned erroneous doctrines.

Whereas, as previously noted, the orientation of Vatican II was primarily pastoral. Consciously renouncing any dogmatic definitions, Vatican-II wished to present Catholic doctrine, above all, in its relation to man and to the contemporary world, and in this way, to promote readiness for dialog, collaboration and solidarity with all men of good will.

Cardinal Wojtyla's work on the realization of Vatican-II remains faithful to the Council's orientation. It does not have any polemical notes, although it was written in a situation filled with tensions and sometimes, contradictory trends, within the Church itself.

Calmly interpreting the letter and spirit of Vatican II, the book reminds us that the Council has not lost its relevance nor show any signs of aging. Its author wants to open to all the treasures of "new things and old" (Mt 13,51).

L'Osservatore Romano - 9 gennaio 2008








And here is the full text of Cardinal Ruini's Preface to the new edition:


Vatican-II and its realization:
A hermeneutic of reform rooted in Christ
By Cardinal Camillo Ruini


In his address to the Roman Curia on December 22, 2005, Benedict XVI offered a penetrating analysis of how the Second Vatican Council was received, indicating the right way to overcome the opposition of 'two contrary hermeneutics' which 'have found themselves opposed and have often quarrelled among them".

"One of them" said the Pope , "has created confusion; while the other, silently but ever more visibly, has borne fruit. On the one hand, there is an interpretation which I would like to call 'the hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture', which has not seldom availed of sympathy from the mass media, and even some part of modern theology. On the other hand, there is the 'hermeneutic of reform', of the renewal within continuity of the one subject, the Church, which the Lord has given us. It is a subject which grows in time and develops, while always remaining the same, the only subject of the People of God in pilgrimage."

Already, not long after the conclusion of Vatican II, certainly from 1968, the interpretation of the 'texts' - and the 'spirit' - of Vatican II had become the object of sharp debates, with the affirmation of divergent lines even within the Catholic world.

Opposing the rejection of some, who saw in the Council a substantial rupture with tradition, were those who considered that the novelty of the Council led to a radical opening towards the culture of our time, with varied, usually diverse ways, but decisively convergent in their interpretation.

It was a casually confident interpretation, which was often reductive and elusive, who echo has not died out, as recent positions taken by historians and theologians have shown.

The generic reference to the 'spirit of the Council' carries the risk of subjective interpretations which misunderstand the authentic nature of the conciliar events and open the way for developments which are har5dly compatible with the substance of Catholicism.

"To the hermeneutic of discontinuity", Benedict XVI went on, in his masterful address, "was opposed the hermeneutic of reform, as Pope John XIII had originally presented it in his opening address to the Council on October 11, 1962, and by Paul VI in his concluding address on December 7, 1965."

A hermeneutic, he explained, in which tradition lives in the fecund and faithful interweaving of continuity (which is not repetition) and innovation (which is not a change in substance). It is a commitment which comes, above all, from a vital and spiritual relationship with the word of faith and an ecclesiality that is 'lived'.

It is "an extremely demanding way" - still using Benedict's words - 'as indeed, the synthesis of faith and dynamics is demanding. But wherever this interpretation has been the orientation for how to receive the (teachings of) the Council, new life has grown and new fruits have matured. Forty years after the Council, we can say that the positive results are greater and more alive than it would have seemed possible in the agitated years around 1968. Today we see that the good seed, though ti may be developing slowly, continues to grow, in the same way that our profound gratitude for the work achieved by the Council continues to grow."

The work of Karol Wojtyla that we present in this new editorial dress constitutes the first and perhaps up to now the most profound study of the Council in such a hermeneutic of reform. It does not place the Gospel in opposition to modernity, nor is it diluted by non-critical adherence with an immanentistic flavor.

On the contrary, what emerges is the exigency - as well as the challenge - of an anthropological centering, in which equilibrium is achieved in a reciprocity which is not declined as a reductive or renunciatory mediation, but as a fecund and original intuition of the law of incarnation.

In fact, the two essential poles of theological discourse - god and man - find unity in the light of reality and the mystery of Jesus Christ.

In fact, this was the weight-bearing axis of John Paul II's first and programmatic encyclical Redemptor hominis, in which man "is the first way that the Church must take in the fulfillment of its mission: he is the first and fundamental way of the Church, a way traced by Christ himself, a way which immutably passes through the mystery of the Incarnation and of Redemption" (N. 14); but it is so, fundamentally, because "Jesus Christ is the principal way of the Church" (N. 13), because "Christ the Lord has shown us the way, especially since - as the Council teaches us - "with the Incarnation, the Son of God united himself in a certain way to every man" (Gaudium et spes, 231).

In the encyclical which followed immediately, Dives in misericordia, John Paul II developed, so to speak, this principle, questioning and overcoming at the root the contraposition between anthropocentrism and theocentrism: "The more the mission of the Church is centered on man, the more it is anthropocentric, that the more it should confirm and realize itself theocentrically, that is, orient itself to Jesus Christ towards the Father. While the various currents of human thought in the past and in the present have been and continue to oppose theocentrism to anthropocentrism, the Church instead, following Christ, seeks to unite them in the story of man in a profoundly organic way. This, too, is one of the fundamental principles, perhaps the most important, in the Magisterium of the last Council" (1).

In 1972, ten years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the then Cardinal Archbishop of Cracow felt the need to take up its teaching organically as the ferment and keystone for rrenewal of the Church. He intended to offer a a true and proper, detailed and organic, handbook of the Council.

As much as the Wojtylian interpretation of Vatican II is rooted in Jesus Christ, the more it is an invitation to a major and courageous way out of self-referential arguments, to get out of its own 'yard and garden', so to speak.

But it is not an adaptation to the spirit of the times - the Anglican theologian William Ralph Inge was not wrong when he wrote: "He who decides to wed the spirit of the times soon finds himself a widower" (cited by Peter Ludwig Berger, Una giorna remota: Avere fede nell'epoca del pluralismo [A far-off glory: To have faith in an era of pluralism], Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994, pp 16 and ff). Rather, it responds to the exigency and internal consistency of the Christian message itself and of the great Catholic tradition. The frequency with which references are made to Gaudium et spes in Wojtyla's study confirm this quite clearly.

The theological and spiritual ferments in the first half of the 20th century - not excluding the strong revival of the Thomist line, which has seen both weakness and rigidity, as well as strong intuitions and illuminations - made up the great motor for renewal that led to the 'aggiornamento' of Vatican II.

The ample Wojtylian reflections are based on Trinitarian references, that not only opens the study thematically but compenetrates everything as a horizon, and is concentrated on the organic development of a Christologic anthropology that allows unity between speculative study in depth, and the correct orientation of ecclesiastical action.

Wojtyla was well aware of the bitter observation by Max Scheler - whom he had studied in depth - who, in his 1928 work Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos (Man's place in the cosmos), had noted: "We have a scientific anthropology, a philosophical anthropology and a theological anthropology, which ignore each other. Thus we do not have any concrete idea of what man is. In their ever greater multiplicity, the particular disciplines applied to the study of man, instead of clarifying the concept, have obscured it instead."

This is a question which remains open and burning, and which is becoming more complex. Just think of the field of neuroscience, on the debates over the origins of the universe, the prevalence of widespread cognitive skepticism in which man, rather than recognizing his own finitude and the grandeur of the infinite, risks losing his specificity as a subject and to be reduced to any object whatsoever. On this ground, one discovers the true relevance of Vatican II and the urgency of proceeding along its way.

"Thus we wish ardently to put the Council into effect," wrote the then Archbishop of Cracow, as he prepared to conclude his study - after having discussed the salient dynamics of pastoral responsibility and ecclesial life.

It continues to be our desire, illuminated by the words of our present Pontiff and largely and deeply felt by the People of God because of the faith which has been given to them.

It is a field of action as well as the responsibility of theologians and ministers, according to their own respective missions. The reading of this essay will nourish and substantiate this intention, with the fecundity of truth and love which come from the mind and heart of Wojtyla, witness of faith and a leading player in history.

L'Osservatore Romano - 9 gennaio 2008)

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Monument to John Paul II
almost ready in Cuba


Havana, Jan 31, 2008 (CNA).- A tower, a bell, a cross and a statue of John Paul II make up the new monument dedicated to the late Pontiff who visited Cuba a decade ago and that will be inaugurated on February 23 by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State.

The monument, which will be erected in the city of Santa Clara, where the Pope celebrated his first Mass on Cuban soil, is the first one ever on public lands, that is, on land that is not the property of the Church.

The project was developed by the construction office of the Diocese of Santa Clara and was designed by architect Luis Orlando Fernandez Squitin.

Flanked by the flags of Cuba and the Holy See, it consists of a tower with a bell, crowned by a cross, with a statue of John Paul II in front. Behind the tower is a 13-panel mural with an image of Our Lady of Charity with her mantle extended as a sign of protection. On one of the panels is John Paul II’s phrase: “Be not afraid, open the doors to Christ.”

Speaking to the SIR news agency, Bishop Jose Felix Perez, executive secretary of the Cuban bishops, said that during the ten years since the papal visit, “some things have changed for Catholics.”

“The pastoral dynamism of the Church has changed positively, as well as the missionary spirit, but there is a lack of access to the media and a wider social action of the Church,” he said.

During the last decade, he added, “the number of Catholic communities has grown and the quality of the faith has improved.”

Here is a translation of an article from L'Occidentale today, which I have also posted in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT.


There is only one Church:
All else is ideology
By Raffaele Iannuzzi
L'Occidentale, Feb. 3, 2008

"In 1972, 10 years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the then Cardinal of Cracow felt the need to recover its teachings organizally as the ferment and fundamental milestone that it represented in the renewal of the Church.. He intended to offer a true and proper, detailed and organic, vademecum (handbook) of the Council".

That is what Cardinal Camillo Ruini writes in his preface to a book of extraordinarily outstanding theological and pastoral density by Karol Wojtyla, first published 16 years before he became Pope, whose very title invites interpretation: Alle fonti del rinnovamento. Studio sull’attuazione del Concilio Vaticano II (At the sources of renewal: Study on the implementation of the Second Vatican Council).

Edited by Prof. Flavio Felice, professor of economic ethics and social sciences at the Pontifical Lateran University, the book is by itself a sign of the times.

A new sign of the times, as Ruini calls it. Because at a distance of alomsot 40 years since the end of the Second Vatican Council, so many equivocations continue to thicken, leaving space almost exclusively only for the logomachia [Greek word meaning 'wrangling over petty matters'] internal to the world of 'clerical intellectuals' - the rhetoric over whether Vatican-II was a 'Copernican revolution' in the Church or the 'destruction of Tradition." Both concepts are reductive, schematic and therefore ideological.

The primary hermeneutic was first discussed by then Cardinal Ratzinger in a fundamental work, Rapporto sulla fede (published in English as The Ratzinger Report], his book-length interview with Vittorio Messori published in 1985 which is even more relevant today than it was then.

Already in those limpid pages, Ratzinger firmly maintained the idea of a continuity between the so-called 'pre-conciliar' and 'post-conciliar' Church.

There is only one Church, was his message. Everything else is pure ideology. And schematic. Whether it is of the left or of the right. Of traditionalists or progressivists.

The movement immanent in the Church is marked by the action of the Holy Spirit who connects 'before' and 'after' in a succession of events that are not always complete decipherable to human reason.

Wojtyla clearly was of this thinking so much that during the work of the Council, in which he participated actively, contributing not a little to the drafting of one of its fundamental documents, Gaudium et spes, he had the opportunity to have a profound acquaintance with theologians like Yves Congar and Henri de Lubac - both firmly classified into a mystical-theological school known as 'la nouvelle theologie' which is based on the idea of Tradition as the transmittal to the Church of a mission from the Spirit. And in turn, the Church has transmitted this mission to its apostles. This Tradition is mainly the life of Jesus in earthly history, which continues to be a Presence in our daily lives.

Wojtyla's book sought to find the nexi between the theological and pastoral substance of the Council and the actual implementation - in the pastoral sense - of all its riches.

This theological-pastoral effort lays down the premises for a new hermeneutic of Vatican-II, as Pope Benedict XVI would do with theological considerations of decisive significance.

Cardinal Ratzinger, having become Benedict XVI, in an important address to the Roman Curia on Dec. 22, 2005, 'returned' to the via maestra of Tradition, bypassing the 'contra-position of two contrary hermeneutics (that have) confronted and quarreled with each other".

"On the one hand," said the Pope, "there is an interpretation that I would call 'a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture'; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the 'hermeneutic of reform', of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God".

And that is the substance of the question at the heart of Vatican-II. Is Tradition the form of the one Church, or does the Church become the receptacle for a succession of ideologies ready to separate what should be united and to join to what should be separated?

The ideology of the clerical intellectuals, who have fed themselves on the Council as their daily bread, is in large measure substantiated by their carnival of equivocations.

Today, notwithstanding the difficulties within the Church, the common mentality has changed, and even theological mentality is no longer 'armored' and barricafed behind ideological stereotypes.

That is why a work like Wojtyla's, which deals with every aspect of Christian life, impressing the form of Christian mission on the theological as well as pastoral contents of Vatican-II, is an indispensable tool for facing the new turn that history has taken with respect to the Council.

It is a moment that seems like a kairos, an opportune time. It is a time to deal with the Coyuncil not only in grossly schematic and ideological terms. It is time for the dead to bury their dead. To allow the life of the spirit and of theological reason to be reborn. For a 'theology on its knees', that is, before God, as Hans Ur Von Balthasar liked to say, and not on its knees before the world.

---

Karol Wojtyla
Alle fonti del rinnovamento.
Studio sull’attuazione del Concilio Vaticano Secondo
Preface by Camillo Ruini
Edited by Flavio Felice
Rubbettino, 2007, 433 pp, €19,00

---

'For me, he is already a saint -
I pray to him everyday'
By Bruno Volpe
Translated from




VATICAN CITY - "The way John Paul II faced death was the most beautiful encyclical in the history of the Church", says Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

It has been three years since that April 2 when the Polish Pope returned to his Father's House, but to Cardinal Sodano, who was his Secretary of State for more than 15 years, it seems like yesterday.

His face drawn, his voice trembling, unabashed emotion in his eyes, the current Dean of the College of Cardinals, after a long period of silence, agreed to speak to PETRUS, to remember the Pontiff of whom he was the righthand man. [Ummm, Mr. Volpe, wasn't that appellation and qualification reserved for Cardinal Ratzinger?]


Eminence, when did you meet John Paul II for the last time?
Precisely on that Saturday, April 2, eve of the feast of Divine Mercy, shortly before the Angel of the Lord entered the Apostolic Palace to lead him to Heaven.


We know this may reawaken great sorrow, but could you tell us about that?
I and other priests present celebrated Mass at his bedside, then the Viaticum was administered. I remember clearly that at a certain point, with his left hand, he took off his oxygen mask and looked at me. It was as if he wanted to tell me something, but at that time, he practically could no longer speak. When his eyes met mine, I knelt beside the bed and asked him for a last blessing, and the Pope - it's impossible to forget those moments - just barely succeeded in imparting it because of his suffering.


Cardinal Sodano, let's go back farther in time: How did John Paul II come to choose you as successor to Cardinal Casaroli at State?
I asked myself that so many times and I finally succeeded in finding an answer. Or rather, it was the Pope himself who satisfied my curiosity. He said he had appreciated very much my work as Apostolic Nuncio in Chile, in particular, my gifts for mediation and achieving reconciliation in a country which at the time was notoriously divided and problematic.


On the day of John Paul II's funeral, the shouts of 'Santo subito' at St. Peter's Square were so strong that more than just an invocation, it seemed to be a true and proper popular investiture. We know that Benedict XVI acknowledged it by granting that the beatification process start immediately. Now, all we have to wait for is the Church's official decree...
For me, John Paul II is already a saint, because his whole life was an icon of sainthood. That said, I can only respect and share the caution observed by the Congregation for the Cause of Saints. Personal sentiment is one thing; official decrees are something else.


Do you think he will be beatified soon?
I hope that he will be raised 'to the honor of the altars' as soon as possible. But the rules of the Church must be respected.


Do you think of him often?
More than that. I continue to speak to him every day. I ask him to continue to bless and watch over mankind, over the faithful, over the Church of Christ - directly from heaven. You know, we really need his help from above in these times so permeated with ethical relativism.


We know of numerous miracles attributed to John Paul II while he was alive. Were you ever present at any of these supernatural events?
Personally no. But I would not dwell too much on these painstaking research into miraculous 'facts'. I have already said several times - and I said so earlier just now - and I repeat it: all of John Paul II's existence was a hymn to sanctity and totally a quest for evangelical perfection. To be a saint, one does not need amazing events.


Meanwhile, Fr. Gabriele Amorth and other exorcists have recounted that during exorcisms, the Devil suffers particularly from seeing images of John Paul II or even from just hearing his name...
Obviously, the Pope's sanctity annoys the devil!


Eminence, can you give us another personal recollection?
Sure. In 1996, we were in Tours, France. At that time, John Paul II had made a particular vow to recite the Stations of the Cross every Friday wherever he was. That night, we got back to the Nunciature around 11 p.m., and we were both very tired. Around midnight, I noted the lights on in the chapel, so I got up to turn them off.

I found the Pope, by himself, saying the Stations. He was on the Fifth, and as I looked at him, astounded because of the late hour, he told me to go back to bed and he would take care of putting the lights out. There was no physical tiredness that could get in the way of his faith.


He was also very connected to popular religiosity...
Yes, he always said that the faith, after all is said and done, belongs to the simple people, the most humble. I remember that besides the Rosary, he also recited every day even the prayer to St. Joseph, and he often remarked that in Italy, this gratifying custom was almost lost.


He put the Truth at the center of his Magisterium...
Yes, he always proclaimed the Truth. When we closed the sarcophagus that held his mortal remains, as tradition required, we placed inside it the Rogito (proclamation) that summarized his life, along with his spiritual testament. It was a life that was marked by proclaiming the Truth. At that moment of farewell, I thought even more strongly about his continuous testimonies to the Truth, and I heard his solemn voice greeting me and accompanying me. That was very emotional!


He also fought for social justice and peace...
Yes, he certainly was also the Pope of social justice and peace, preaching the values of fraternity and solidarity - what is also being done admirably today by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, whom the Holy Spirit has given us to be the invaluable steersman of Peter's Boat.


Eminence, in conclusion, allow us this question: Did you every toy with the idea of becoming Pope before or during the Conclave of 2005?
Me as Pope? Please! What madness!

by ANDREA TORNIELLI
Translated from
IL GIORNALE
Feb. 9 2008




The text has never been published before - nor was it existence known - but the postulator for the late Pope's beatification cause found it in the archives of the Archdiocese of Cracow.

The letter was sent by the future Pope to the man he would eventually canonize, a few days before he was unexpectedly named Archbishop of Cracow in 1963.



"Allow me to ask for your help for the enormous pastoral difficulties that my own poor efforts are encountering in my present situation...", Bishop Wojtyla wrote in Latin to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.

This letter adds to two earlier letters known to have been written by Wojtyla to Padre Pio. It appears it was earlier thought to be simply a copy of one of the two earlier letters, but it turned out to be a completely different letter, which adds more data to what is already known about the relationship between the two men.

The first two letters were dated November 17 and 28, 1962, and were written by the young auxiliary bishop of Cracow while he was in Rome attending the first session of the Second Vatican Council.

In the first letter, he asked Padre Pio's prayers for a Polish doctor and mother, Wanda Plotawska, who had cancer. The second letter was to thank the saint of Gargano because the lady was healed. [Which is amazing, since the second letter was dated only 11 days after the first!]

The newly discovered letter (Archive of the Curia of Cracow, K. Wojtyla file, BI 3123a), is dated Dec. 14, 1963 and is longer than the first ones. It was also written in Rome, around the end of the second session of Vatican-II.

It will be published and commented by Francesco Castelli, who is one of the postulators for the late Pope's cause - in the next issue of the magazine Servi della Sofferenza (Servants of Suffering).

From the first lines, Wojtyla refers to his preceding requests: "I certainly recall your paternal attention since I had occasion in the past to ask for your prayers for tragic cases that were worthy of your attention."

This was the first surprise. Only the case of Dr. Poltawska had been previously known. But then Wojtyla also refers to the son of a lawyer who had a serious congenital disease.

"Both persons are now well," he writes. Evidently, there must have been another letter in which Wojtyla asked prayers for the boy.

He goes on to ask Padre Pio's prayers for a paralyzed lady in his diocese. This appears to indicate that the Polish bishop had by now established a rapport with the saint of Gargano.

He then goes on to add a personal request: "At the same time, allow me to ask for your help for the enormous pastoral difficulties that my own poor efforts will encounter in this present situation".

What was Wojtyla referring to in this letter?

Since mid-1962, Mons. Wojtyla was going through a sensitive phase in his life. In June 1962, the Archbishop of Cracow died, and for months, the candidacy for the succession was open. The new archbishop would have to be acceptable both to the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and to the Communist government. Wyszynski had already submitted quite a few names to the authorities, who had rejected them all.

After two more names were turned down, a high Communist Party official, Zenon Kliszko, suggested someone be named who could be 'a man of dialog, like the young auxiliary bishop - whose name I forget - with whom we were able to resolve the problem about the Cracow seminary in just two weeks".

The bishop was Karol Wojtyla, who had firmly asserted the right of the Church to the seat of the seminary which local Communist authorities had occupied.

That was how, at age 43, Karol Wojtyla found himself Archbishop of Cracow, after having been its apostolic administrator for one and a half years amid 'great pastoral difficulties'.

Again, the dates are significant. The future letter's Pope was dated December 14. Two weeks later, on December 30, he received his surprise nomination as Archbishop of Cracow.

Wojtyla and Padre Pio, it is known, met each other just once - in 1948. But the discovery of this new letter attests that a further bond had been established between the saint with the stigmata and the man who would later beatify and canonize him.

What a cool article Teresa! Thanks for posting it. I have read in George Weigel's book Witness to Hope that Padre Pio heard Fr. Wojtyla's confession, but Weigel dates it as 1947. He also attended a Mass celebrated by Padre Pio. I wonder what has happened to Padre Pio's responses to Bishop Wojtyla? Perhaps they are in a collection of Pope John Paul's personal things?

THE DSIWISZ DIARIES
By Rocco Palmo
Whispers in the Loggia
Feb. 21, 2008


Early March will see the English-language release of the memoir of Pope John Paul II's closest aide of four decades.

First published last year in Italian and Polish, A Life with Karol recounts the late pontiff's journey through the eyes of Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who served as John Paul's private secretary from 1966 until his 2005 death, functioning in turns as his principal gatekeeper, messenger, adviser, comic relief and "backdoor" through which not a few blocked through the usual Vatican channels found their way into the papal apartment.

While the current dynamic of the Apostolic Palace sees the Secretary of State effectively functioning as this pontificate's top "deputy," few would question that John Paul's 27 year reign saw that capacity filled by the inconspicuous Pole with the booming voice who became the closest thing to family that Papa Wojtyla had. Always understood to be speaking with the pontiff's voice, "Don Stanislao," now 68, exerted unparalleled influence over matters from appointments and access to arranging John Paul's secret escapes from the Vatican's gilded cage and advancing the Pope's public support for his favored movements and causes.

Rome being Rome, a clout of this sort -- unprecedented for a papal secretary in recent times -- was bound to arouse resistance and rivalries. And when the Vatican flow-chart got in the way, John Paul revamped it in Dziwisz's favor, naming him a bishop and adjunct prefect of the Papal Household (an appointment that moved the secretary from his post's traditional assignment in the Secretariat of State). As the late Pope lay on his deathbed in his final moments, his top aide reportedly kept even his successor-to-be -- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- out of the room, only admitting the future Benedict XVI and John Paul's Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano after Wojtyla breathed his last.

While the next Pope was said to be hurt by the move, he never showed it publicly, instead naming Dziwisz to the archbishopric of Krakow two months after John Paul's death and conferring the red hat on him shortly thereafter. As head of the ancient local church -- the post from which John Paul himself rose to Peter's chair -- the longtime aide has found a new life on his own as a pastor and a force in the life of the Polish church, while unfailingly promoting the legacy and sanctity of his longtime boss with an eye to his canonization.

Totaling 260 pages of brief, vivid, anecdote-filled chapters, A Life chronicles Dziwisz's memories -- and John Paul's doings -- large and small, from the late Pope's bond with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta ("God's Sister"), the force of his mystical spirituality, his "Jewish roots" and daily routine to his 1978 election, the 1981 assassination attempt and the final years of the pontiff's battle with age and Parkinson's disease.

Despite being sought out by almost every world leader and living down the hall from some of civilization's most priceless cultural treasures, "he actually practiced poverty to a heroic degree," Dziwisz writes, "and did it effortlessly.

"He didn't have anything and he never asked for anything, either" he says, adding that while "as Pope his needs were provided for," in reality "he never had a cent to call his own."

Along the way, the author repeatedly underscores the "option for man" -- John Paul's impassioned, unstinting advocacy for life, for peace and for the dignity of the human person.

Presenting Wojtyla as a Gospel-rooted man of the center, Dziwisz even takes direct aim at the misconception, still operative in some quarters, that the Polish Pope's successful, long-waged crusade against Communism could be construed as a green light for unbridled, Western-style capitalism.

"Karol Wojtyla wasn't a party man," Dziwisz says. "Or, to put it bluntly, he was a man who didn't belong to either Moscow or Washington.

"He was a man of God who was always open to everyone," he added. "He was a free man. And he never let himself be governed by political choices."

Repeatedly declaring the independence of the "option for man" from the exploitation of politics and the confinement of secular ideologies, he concludes that, in his stewardship of the Magisterium, the late Pope "was progressive where he needed to be; and where necessary, he remained a traditionalist in the right sense of the word." In a separate reflection on the contemporary model of the papacy fleshed out through Wojtyla's landmark reign, his secretary writes that "the tradition John Paul II's pontificate changed was by [the time of his election] partly obsolete, if not actually indefensible."

He might've been one of the most traveled, most heard, most loved and admired luminaries to ever walk the earth, but the aide who knew him best emphasized that what kept John Paul going most lay far from the cameras, crowds and paperwork that came with the office.

"He got everything from prayer, from the encounter with the Lord," Dziwisz wrote, noting that the Pope's spirituality of "total abandonment" often found him prostrate on the floor of his private chapel when he thought no one was looking.

"He was in love with God. He lived on God. And every day, he would start over again."

Released by Doubleday, the Dziwisz memoir is but the latest ecclesiastical coup for the publisher, whose recent roster has included Raymond Arroyo's best-seller bio of the EWTN foundress Mother Angelica, the spiritual diaries of Bl Teresa of Calcutta and, of course, the first volume of Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth. With Papa Ratzi immersed in preparing the second volume of his Christ chronicle, which he's driven himself to completing within this year, the house will also drop Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput's election-year treatise on church and state; Render Unto Caesar is slated for a summer release.

Last week, the Vatican announced that B16 will again preside at an open-air Mass in St Peter's Square on 2 April to mark the anniversary of John Paul's death.

NOT TRUE THAT JP-II'S BODY
WILL BE TRANSFERRED
TO MAIN FLOOR OF ST. PETER'S
Translated from the
Italian service of




Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican press director, denied conclusively in a note this morning "what was reported this morning in a Turin newspaper [La Stampa] that the remains of John Paul II will be transferred from the Vatican grottoes to the main floor of St. Peter's Basilica."

He said: "I can deny definitely that there was any committee presided by Cardinal Angelo Comastri which took such a decision."

He added that it was equally "unfounded to speak of an involvement of the Vatican gendarmerie", explaining that "there will be no decision on such a transfer before beatification."

"Therefore," he said, "anything stated in the article is mere speculation, and discussion of the subject is absolutely premature."


ADNKronos, quoting TG1, the premier newscast of italian state TV's first channel, had reported this earlier:


ROME, March 29 (Translated from ADNKronos) - The remains of Pope John Paul II will be transferred to the Vatican Basilica's chapel of St. Sebastian, next to the Pieta chapel, to the right of the main entrance to the Church, TG-1 announced as an 'exclusive' today.

TG-1 said that the transfer would also involve a determination whether the remains could be exposed openly [under glass].

The Pope, who died on April 2, 2005, is entombed in the Vaticna grottoes, along with other deceased Pontiffs, under a marble slab. The remains could be transferred after he is beatified, as was the case with Blessed John XXIII, who is exposed under glass.

POSITION SUMMARY AND ALL DOCUMENTS
TO SUPPORT JP-II BEATIFICATION
NOW READY FOR SUBMISSION


VATICAN CITY - Only a few minor refinements remain before the documents in support of the beatification of Pope John Paul II can be formally submited to the Congregation for the Cause of Sainthood, according to Mons. Slawomir Oder, postulator for the late Pope's cause.



"In the past few days, " he told Vatican Radio, "I completed a near-definitive draft of the 'positio' - the statement that puts together all pertinent documents organized systematically as a basis for beatification."

"There are about 2,000 pages," he continued, "which only require minor refinements of a technical and editorial nature, but overall, I can say the 'positio' is ready. Now it is up to the our liaison at the Congregation for the Cause of Sainthood, Fr. Daniel Ols (a Dominican), to review it and approve it for official presentation. But right now, it would be premature to give a date for this submission."

Recently, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Cause of Sainthood said that the congregationw ould immediately examine the 'positio' as soon as it is submitted.


Here's how AP reported it later:

Report on John Paul II's
beatification cause ready
By MARTA FALCONI


VATICAN CITY, Mar. 31 (AP) - The church official spearheading the cause to make Pope John Paul II a saint said Monday he has finished a roughly 2,000-page draft of a report supporting the late pontiff's canonization. [No, beatification!]

Two days before the Vatican marks the third anniversary of John Paul's death, Monsignor Slawomir Oder told Vatican Radio that he has turned over the report to the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The report summarizes and analyzes all the documentation about John Paul's life and virtues that had been gathered since his 2005 death, including testimony from witnesses and his own writings.

"In the past days I have submitted a semifinal version," Oder said. "It's about 2,000 pages that need further technical and editing adjustments, but we can say that in its entirety, the report is complete."

Now, an independent Vatican official, the Rev. Daniel Ols, must review Oder's report and give it the final go-ahead for an official presentation to the Congregation, which must then gather committees of cardinals and bishops to discuss the merits of the case.

Oder declined to give a timetable for that, or say when the Vatican might decide to beatify John Paul.

The Vatican's complicated saint-making procedures — which can include the weighing of favorable and unfavorable information — require that a miracle attributed to the candidate's intercession be confirmed before beatification. A second miracle is necessary for canonization.

Pope Benedict XVI put John Paul on the fast track to possible sainthood just weeks after his death on April 2, 2005, waiving the customary five-year waiting period.

Such a waiver had only been granted once before, to Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003.

John Paul's sainthood process is progressing quickly, with milestones reached at nearly every anniversary of his death.

Last year, the investigation into John Paul's life and virtues was officially closed, and French church officials turned over to the Vatican documentation about a purported miracle attributed to his intercession.

Benedict will preside over a Mass on Wednesday marking John Paul's death.

ROME RABBI REMEMBERS
HIS FRIEND JOHN PAUL II
Interview by
Bruno Volpe and Ilona Malysz
Translated from




VATICAN CITY - We are about to mark the third anniversary of the 'return to the Father's house' of the Servant of God John Paul II.

Among the many sides of that polyhedral and very long pontificate, we must remember how the Pope took up dialog with the Jewish world. Int his respect, he was helped by the respect and great friendship towards him by the then Chief Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, who was later one of the few names mentioned in Karol Wojtyla's spiritual testament.


Rabbi Toaff with John Paul II,
on his historic visit to the Synagogue of Rome in 1979.


Rabbi Toaff, how did your friendship with John Paul II start?
By sheer chance. I was ill and confined at the Gemelli Hospital at the same time that the Pope was also a patient. I expressed to my co-workers that I wished to visit him, and they said they would have to request those who were in charge of the Pope's medical care.

Initially, I was told No, but then, inexplicably, a bishop came to tell me that the Pope would gladly see me. So I went to his room, and to my great surprise, he threw his arms around me in welcome, like a brother, and he told he wanted to pray with me. That was how a great friendship started, independent of our religions.


Then, there was his historic visit to the Synagogue of Rome...
Let me tell you now that the Pope would have wanted to visit the Synagogue shortly after his election, but the time was not ripe.

The fact is that his entrance into the Synagogue marked the icnredible and almost inexplicable end of a long chill [beyween the two religions]. Because Catholics and Jews believe in the same God and have the duty to work together for a better, more just world.

With John Paul II, we agreed clearly that it was better to work on the elements which unite our faiths rather than what divides us. Obviously, such differences cannot be denied, but with John Paul II, a great deal changed positively in the matter of dialog.


What did you think of him as a person?
He was a great man, honest, loyal and free. A man of God, whose holiness, even according to the parameters of the Catholic Church, was clar to the entire world.


Rabbi Toaff, how do you evaluate the rapport today between Judaism and Catholicism?
Excellent. We are on the right road, and the dialog is where it should be. We should always seek to understand the reasoning of our interlocutor and set aside our prejudices.


The Jews in Italy, particularly the present Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, have manifested great displeasure over Benedict XVI's new Good Friday prayer for the Jews in the old Missal...
But come on, let's be serious! Everyone is free to pray as he believes. I really don't understand the controversy!


Finally, in reference to another Pope, Pius XII, do you think he was anti-Semitic?
Absolutely not. On the contrary, thanks to so many direct testimonies, we know he saved many Jews from death. The story of an anti-Semitic Pius XII is nothing but a black legend. There should be more studies in order to know the true history of the era and the persons involved.

John Paul aide says
Pope still with him
By DANIELA PETROFF



ROME, April 1 (AP) - The longtime private secretary of Pope John Paul II said Tuesday that he still turns to the late pontiff whenever he has a problem.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was the closest aide to John Paul for nearly 40 years, grew emotional during an event in Rome on the eve of the third anniversary of the Pontiff's death.

"I can't forget his last goodbye, when he took my hand and I kissed his for the last time," Dziwisz said. "This goodbye will stay with me forever."

John Paul died on April 2, 2005, after a nearly 27-year pontificate. Shortly afterward, Pope Benedict XVI put him on the fast track for possible sainthood, waiving a customary five-year waiting period.

Benedict will hold a Mass on Wednesday marking his death.

Dziwisz said John Paul and Benedict were "true friends" and recalled anecdotes from his decades with John Paul, describing, for example, how the pontiff used to bless the city of Rome before going to sleep.

"I've accompanied him for almost 40 years, now he is accompanying me — and whenever I have a problem I turn to him," said Dziwisz, now the archbishop of Krakow, Poland — a position that John Paul held himself before being elected pope.

Dziwisz said he receives letters from couples asking for John Paul's intercession in order to have children or from cancer patients hoping to be cured. Some say that after praying to him they got better, Dziwisz said.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the church official spearheading the cause to make John Paul a saint, shared his own memory of John Paul's death: "I remember thinking that a saint had died."

Oder said that places of prayers in memory of John Paul have sprung up across the world — including in Iraq, Russia and Morocco — in a sign of how universal John Paul's message was.

John Paul "was able to enter our homes like one of us," he said in the ceremony at the Rome basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. The event was organized by the Sant'Egidio Community, a Rome-based lay Catholic organization. He "had the ability to read people's hearts."

Oder said earlier this week that he had finished a report analyzing documentation to support the canonization process.

The report summarizes and analyzes all the documentation about John Paul's life and virtues that had been gathered since his death, including testimony from witnesses and the late pontiff's own writings.

"We need to be patient and optimistic," said Oder.

The Vatican's complicated saint-making procedures — which can include the weighing of favorable and unfavorable information — require that a miracle attributed to the candidate's intercession be confirmed before beatification. A second miracle is necessary for canonization.

TRIBUTE TO A GREAT
AND BELOVED POPE


Collage taken from Beatrice's site, benoit-et-moi.fr - by her friend Gloria who designs collages for special occasions.
With gratitude to both Beatrice and Gloria.


This is the front-page editorial in the April 2, 2008, issue of L'Osservatore Romano. It was not bylined in the usual way at the top, but carries the initials 'g.m.v' at the end of the item. I decided to place the credit with the title.


THE FAITH AND COURAGE
OF A POPE
By Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from
the 4/2/08 issue of



Three years ago, John Paul II pased away, at the end of a physical decline that he lived with impressive faith and courage. Truly, the death of the Pope who had come from 'a far country' struck so many persons all over the world, which was clearly seen in the massive reactions manifested immediately after his death and multiplied in the days leading to his funeral.

Such that some historians have compared what followed - in totally different circumstances - the death of Pius IX, and in more recent times, the agony of John XXIII.

The same faith and the same courage that had characterized the entire life of Karol Wojtyla also marked out his very long Pontificate, urbi et orbi, to the city and to the world - just as, the words of the 58-year-old cardinal-archbishop of Cracow who had just been elected Pope on October 16, 1978, resounded before the city and before the world, at St. Peter's Square, as did the solemn words of the deputy Secretary of State announcing his death on April 2, 2005.

A priest of undisputed charisma, named bishop by Pius XII at age 38, and then promoted by Paul VI shortly after as the metropolitan of the historic Polish see of Cracow, therefore becoming cardinal, Wojtyla became a true protagonist in the second-half of the 20th century.

'Approaching the third millennnium', as 'universal pastor of the Church', he knew how to accompany with his mystical and political vision, not just the Catholic faithful and Christians, but more in general, believers and non-believers, through a period of time marked by rapid and unexpected changes: from the crisis and eventual collapse of European Communism to the imposition of the world phenomenon called globalization. With a new atttention towards women, to which he dedicated various documents and addresses.

Thus, the standing criticism of the materialistic and inhuman ideology of Communism from the Pope who had come from a Church of silence - which now, thanks to him, could start to speak - proceeded along with his criticism of materialism in the rich societies that were increasingly being de-Christianized, impoverished in ideas but nevertheless pervasive with their disheartening lifestyles.

In the face of new wars and the growth of religious fundamentalism particularly the Islamic kind, John Paul II's teaching reinforced the efforts for peace of the Holy See that had been uninterrupted for more than a century, and placed the Church in the vanguard of defending human rights and seeking agreement among the major religions.

In the face of the threats to human life hidden by new biotechnologies, Papa Wojtyla identified and denounced the consequent perils for the dignity of the human person.

Above all, along the lines indicated by his predecessors and Councils, passionately devoted to Christ and the Mother of God, John Paul II travelled the five continents tirelessly - undaunted by the assassination attempt against him in 1981 - to give visibility and instill courage in the universal church.

For this, the Church, starting with Benedict XVI, is grateful to Papa Wojtyla, prays for him, and through his intercession, entrusts itself to the communion of saints.

'WOJTYLA: HIS GAZE WAS FIXED ON CHRIST'



Here's an image to match the beauty of the image posted above by Monica/Pandora, from Il Giornale's front-page article by Andrea Tornielli, in which he interviews Mons. Rino Fisichella about the late great Pope, with the above title.

I will post a translation when I can.

Polish survey finds mixed response
on John Paul II's teachings


Warsaw, Apr. 3, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A Polish opinion survey has found a striking contrast between the declared acceptance of the teachings of Pope John Paul II and the personal beliefs expressed by respondents.

The survey by the OBOP research company found that 79% of Polish respondents claim to conduct their lives in accordance with the teachings of the late Pope. That figure is 5% lower than found in a similar survey in 2005.

However, the survey respondents were much less supportive of the positions that Pope John Paul II took in support of Church teaching on certain controversial issues. Just 15% of the sample rejected the use of artificial contraception, and only 26% backed the condemnation of abortion under all circumstances.

On other issues, 34% of the respondents declared their opposition to capital punishment, 61% opposed legal recognition of same-sex unions, and 69% rejected the prospect of women's ordination to the priesthood.

A substantial number of the 1,000 people surveyed - 31% - reported that they had returned to the Catholic faith thanks to Pope John Paul II. Some 63% said that they pray for his beatification. And 50% believe that April 2, the anniversary of his death, should be declared a Polish national holiday.

Gorbachev signed
KGB death warrant
for John Paul II,
a new book claims
From the English service site
of Polish Radio
April 28, 2008


The weekly Wprost, out tomorrow, shows a politburo document, signed by Mikhail Gorbachev, which appears to warrant a KGB contract killing on John Paul II.

So claims Polish journalist John O. Kohler in a book, also released tomorrow, Chodzi o papieża. Szpiedzy w watykanie - (About the Pope: Spies in the Vatican).

The Politburo document says: "Use all available possibilities to prevent a new political trend, initiated by the Polish pope…"

The document, which dates back to November 1979, - one year after Karol Wojtyla became Pope - is signed by eight top Party officials including Konstantin Rusakov, who coordinated action with the Polish communist party, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

In Rome, Pope John Paul II survived four bullets on May 13, 1981 shot by Turk Mehmet Ali Hagca.

“If this information is true, Gorbachov should be brought to account,” said Zbigniew Chlebowski, head of the ruling Civic Platform’s parliamentary party.

Pope John Paul II shot
on this day in 1981



Interesting that the one item Ihave seen today about this anniversary comes from Focus, a Bulgarian news agency. Recall that Bulgarian officials are thought to have hired Agca, in behalf of the USSR, to kill the Pope.


ROME, May 13 (FOCUS News Agency) - Pope John Paul II was shot on this day in 1981.

Near the start of his weekly general audience in Rome's St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded while passing through the square in an open car.



The assailant, 23-year-old escaped Turkish murderer Mehmet Ali Agca, fired four shots, one of which hit the Pontiff in the abdomen, narrowly missing vital organs, and another that hit the Pope's left hand.



A third bullet struck 60-year-old American Ann Odre in the chest, seriously wounding her, and the fourth hit 21-year-old Jamaican Rose Hill in the arm.

Agca's weapon was knocked out of his hand by bystanders, and he was detained until his arrest by police.

The Pope was rushed by ambulance to Rome's Gemelli Hospital, where he underwent more than five hours of surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition.



Years later, the Pope visited Agca in his jail cell in Rome and intervened with the Italian government for him to be pardoned. He also met Agca's mother after a general audience at St. Peter's Square.



[May 13 is the anniversary of the first apparition ot the Virgin in Fatima, so John Paul II always believed his life was saved by Our Lady.]

Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. The photo-archive I was able to access right away does not have the best originals, and some thumbnails do not respond to enlargement.

On the Mount of Beatitudes,
Pope's tree flourishes
while others wither


Jerusalem, Jul 22, 2008 (CNA).- In the Jubilee Year of 2000, Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land stopping at one point to bless an olive tree on the Mount of the Beatitudes.

A forester with the Jewish National Fund reports that this tree is the only one producing olives this year.

"It is a miracle," Yossi Karni from the JNF, which maintains the plot, told local media.

During a visit to northern Israel, in March of 2000, the late Pontiff blessed an olive tree that was planted on the Mount of Beatitudes, which was previously called Mt. Eremos. According to tradition, Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount on this mountain, which is located near the Sea of Galilee.

Israel is currently facing what Uri Shani, Israel’s Water Authority director, called “the worst crisis in 80 years.” “Israel's major sources of drinking water, including the Sea of Galilee and the mountain aquifer, are below their ‘red lines,’ meaning they are not recommended to draw water,” he said at a news conference last month.

Karni explained that all the trees on the plot were treated equally, but the ones that did not receive the blessing have not given fruit this year.

"They get treated the same, watered the same," he said, adding that some trees had even started to wither, which he could not explain.

When he was asked what he would do with the olives, Karni told Israel's Channel 10 he might market their "holy oil."

To leave testimony to posterity

Interview by Piotr Wosik
Gazeta.pl
2008-09-23,

An interview with Przemysław Häuser, producer of Testimony

How did you get the idea or inspiration to make a film adaptation of Cardinal Dziwisz's story?

We got the idea even before the publication of the book. When I showed friends the first proofs of the book, they said it was invaluable. The cardinal related lots of important things we either had no idea of or only sensed, at the most. There had been no first-hand testimonies that would say: "Yes, this is what I saw, this is how it was.” The book contains no interpretations or guesses, only facts. It was met with enthusiastic acclaim, but also one indicating hunger for more: "This is not enough, we'd like to hear more.” The 240-page long book is naturally only a signal, only a starting point. Cardinal Dziwisz wrote a page in his diary every day for 40 years. Certainly, it included so many important things that some kind of Testimony II could be written. I had just finished making the mini-series Tajemnice Watykanu ("Secrets of the Vatican”) - a large TV production. I decided to talk the Cardinal into making a documentary, although partly dramatised. We wanted to expand some themes from the book, but also present things totally unknown to the public. There are lots of unknown facts.

Without giving away too much, I can only say that some of them are truly sensational.

What were your impressions of the film encounter with Cardinal Dziwisz?

I've known the Cardinal for more than ten years. It took us some effort to persuade him to tell us about those events. In the Vatican he was known as "the silent Stanisław." He was rather dry and terse when talking to journalists. However, from his first words spoken in the film, and we recorded some 30 hours of footage, the Cardinal speaks as if he had rehearsed the role for many months. Each word was well-thought-out. When talking about many events, he lost his reserve. You could see very strong emotions, especially when he was talking about the attempt to assassinate the Pope and about the Pope's last moments. The crew would leave the set with tears in their eyes. And now I have a huge problem with those 30 hours of footage. The film runs to one and a half hours, and the television version will comprise three 50-minute episodes.

What about the rest of it? It would be a terrible loss just to lock the remaining material somewhere in the archives. The Cracow curia will receive the complete material and will be able to use it in the future, for posterity.

Dramatised documentary - how did you arrive at this formula?

I probably know all the archive film materials on this subject that are available in the world, but the Cardinal's story reveals many themes from Karol Wojtyła's life that have never been photographed or filmed. That's why to film the story, we had to use dramatisation.

Did your previous Vatican experience help you work on Testimony?

If I hadn't had the long-time experience working in the Vatican and with its people, I'd never have dared to make this film. I first got to know those people in the mid-90s. I made a documentary about John Paul II's friendship with Jerzy Kluger, his Jewish friend from Wadowice. That's when I started permanent cooperation with the Vatican. I've been dealing with papal and Vatican issues for many years. I think I've earned a reputation as the Vatican's reliable partner. It's difficult to get in there, but once you've got their trust, it's hard to lose it.

It was trust that helped me open all the doors. An example? We gave the role of the second narrator, one who will epically link the Cardinal's comments, to Michael York, a Hollywood actor. But filming scenes with actors in the Church State is not allowed. I can't reveal all the details, but it's enough to say that thanks to good contacts and good will, we managed to get permission to film the scenes with Michael York in the Vatican. We took the camera everywhere we wanted to go - to St. Paul's Cathedral, to the Vatican Gardens. Once, we were shooting a scene with Michael York walking around in Raphael's Loggia and Pope Benedict XVI was working behind the door of the hall where our crew was set up. In another film that we were making in the Vatican in 2005, we needed to film scenes in the Sistine Chapel. They let us in with cameras and heavy equipment.

And you aren't even allowed to take a photo in the chapel! The Vatican in some sense authorized our film. The fact that the Vatican is the film's co-producer is the formal expression of its approval and good will. Good cooperation with the Vatican is my greatest capital now - both as a producer and a man.

Why did you choose Michael York for the role of the narrator?

We wanted to cast a well-known actor in the film - a star that would help us reach Western audiences. We didn't want to follow the convention of a Polish documentary. The BBC has worked out a formula of dramatised documentary with well-known actors, such as Peter Ustinov, as the narrator. It's a conscious manoeuvre to have a recognizable face to focus the audience's attention and make it easier to absorb the film's themes. At the same time, the film gains an international flavour and will find it easier to succeed on other markets. We took several names into consideration. Apart from Michael York - Mel Gibson, Sean Connery and Bob Hoskins. I sent the list with the four names to the Vatican, explaining that I had short-listed those candidates. I soon got the list back with one name underlined. That was the answer.

Was it difficult to work with a Hollywood star in the Vatican?

I must admit that at first we were afraid of how we would get along with a Hollywood star. But it was great. Michael turned out to be a wonderful man. Professional, totally dedicated, punctual. We agreed on twelve hours on the set and he was there at our disposal for twelve hours. No breaks for lunch in luxury restaurants. He would eat meals prepared for the whole crew with us. He doesn't show off as a star, he's a warm, modest man and has a great gift for languages on top of that. During work on Jesus of Nazareth, Zeffirelli taught him Italian, which helped us in our film. He knew very well where we were shooting and that he was the first actor ever to make a film in the Vatican. Michael made an enormous contribution to this picture. York is a Hollywood actor, but a Shakespearian one too. Having read the script, he sat down with screenplay writers and the director to discuss some changes in the text - he believed that rephrasing some lines would make it easier to understand for American viewers. The crew was enchanted by him. Michael was extremely excited by the meeting with the Cardinal. Thanks to this movie, he learned a lot about Karol Wojtyła. He's written to me recently that he would be glad to participate in any of my future projects.

And who's idea was Vangelis?

The idea to ask Vangelis to compose the film score came from Marek Szpendowski - a legendary figure, the organizer of the biggest concerts in Poland, and Michael York's agent in Europe. He suggested two composers: Vangelis and Ennio Morricone. Morricone composed the score for the movie Karol: A Man Who Became The Pope, so I didn't want to go down a trodden path and from the very beginning, opted for Vangelis. There are two composers in Testimony: apart from Vangelis, we also have Robert Janson, whose contribution to the score will be quite considerable. Janson is best known for Varius Manx, but he also composes symphonic music.

Who finances the film? Will Testimony pay its bills?

The film is financed by the producer, the TBA company, of which I am a co-owner. Based on our good cooperation on previous projects, we invited two companies to co-produce the film: Agora and New Cast. So it was all among friends - from the very beginning we decided against seeking credit lines and external financing.

I must admit it's a very expensive production. We were able to finance it also thanks to the success of the book, which had a print run of over a million copies and earned for the production of the picture.

So what's the role of the film?

First of all - to leave testimony to posterity. We rarely think in terms of posterity, a legacy left to future generations. Our ancestors, whatever they did, they did it with a perspective in mind. They wrote, built, and created things with an intention of leaving something to their grandchildren. We are focused only on 'here and now,' thinking only? in terms of the next week. I'd like the film to change that a bit. I'd like to share with my children and their children as much as I can from what I or we know, as a generation, about the Great Pole, one of the greatest Popes in history. There may be many beautiful testimonies, but this one is exceptional, because it comes from a man who was there to see and hear and who served by the Pope's side for 40 years. Globally, the film aims to provide fresh insights to fill out the rather schematic memory of John Paul II prevalent in the West. As the Pope, he was very open to the media, easily communicating with crowds, a pilgrim loved by young people - this is the picture of the Holy Father present in Europe. But even that can be forgotten, if you don't fill the picture with meaning. You need to show the depth of values behind John Paul II's pontificate. We intend to show them in a way that your average viewer worldwide would find easier to grasp. So our natural choice was the pictorial form, a film. A book is a very noble thing, but somewhat loosing its popularity. A well-made film will immediately gain popularity. And that is our task number two.

German weekly highlights role
of East German Stasi in attempt
on John Paul II’s life

Rome, Oct 2, 2008 / 03:29 pm (CNA).- The German weekly Der Spiegel has published a report indicating that Communist Germany’s Ministry for State Security (Stasi) unleashed “one of the largest campaigns of misinformation in its history” in order to deflect investigations into the attempt on the life of John Paul II in 1981 towards Turkish extremists.

According to the ANSA news agency, the article features new documents discovered in German state archives that reveal that the Stasi “tried to help the Bulgarian secret service. The organization enrolled a young Turkish citizen, Ismet Erguen, who began her mission in Berlin in February of 1982.”

“The documents show Erguen was involved until 1989, although today she denies ever having been an agent of the Stasi,” the news report indicated.

“The head of the foreign information sector of the Stasi, Markus Wolf, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, received a request for help from the Bulgarians in 1981 after the arrest of Ali Agca, as they were concerned that the Western media were focusing on a supposed Soviet-Bulgarian link in the assassination attempt.”

Der Spiegel claims that “the purpose was to divert suspicion towards the Gray Wolves, an extreme right-wing Turkish group.”

Wolf was satisfied with Erguen’s work because even today, “a legend exists according to which it was the Gray Wolves that gave orders to Agca,” the newspaper reports.

Poland to celebrate ‘Pope Day 2008’

Rome, Oct 11, 2008 / 05:02 pm (CNA).- All the dioceses in Poland will celebrate “Pope Day 2008” this Sunday, October 12. An initiative with spiritual, cultural, and social character, each annual event addresses an aspect of the teachings of Pope John Paul II on the subjects of the “family of nations” and the “life of society.”

SIR reports that the Saint Nicholas Foundation and the New Millennium foundation of the Polish Bishops’ Conference are both promoting the initiative and have scheduled a series of events for the weekend.

This year’s theme is “John Paul II: educator of the young.”

The organizers explained that the theme emphasizes “the care of Pope Wojtyla for younger generations” and also communicates “the trust which the Pope placed in the young.”

An international meeting dedicated to the event’s theme is scheduled for Saturday. Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, will participate in the meeting.

The “Totus Tuus” prize will also be awarded there.

On Sunday Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz will celebrate a Mass in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Krakow.

At the close of the event, Polish television station 1 TVP will broadcast a message from Pope Benedict XVI.

More on Pope Day 2008. JPII is definitely not forgotten in Poland.


Papal Day events in Poland

Polskie Radio
12.10.2008

Pope John Paul II has made a contribution to social and political transformations in our region, which was once dominated by totalitarian ideologies – said archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, the papal nuncio in Poland, at a mass in the Warsaw Basilica. The archbishop stressed that Poles, both those responsible for the political and social life here and ordinary citizens, should follow the example of the late Pope.

‘Let’s ask how John Paul II can help us. As a teacher of the Creed, a witness to the holiness of Christ and St Mary he can help us with his wisdom and holiness, his example. We can dip into the capital of his teachings.’

The mass inaugurated the celebrations of the 8th Papal Day under the motto “John Paul II – educator of youth”. This year the celebrations have a special character as they mark the 30th anniversary of the election of the Polish Pope. Their main aim is to remember Pope John Paul II and his teachings as well as to collect money for the education of young talented people from low income families. Over 100 thousand volunteers are engaged in the fund raiser this year. Gala concerts, holy masses and prayer vigils in the intention of fast beatification of Pope John Paul II will take place throughout the country. A concert entitled “Stay with us” will be held in Warsaw tonight – in its course Pope Benedict XVI will make an appeal to all Poles.

October 16th – the day of the election of cardinal Karol Wojtyla to the Holy See is a state holiday in Poland since 2005. The Papal Day has been observed since 2001 on a Sunday preceding the election anniversary.

Cardinal Dsiwisz reveals
JP-II was wounded in 1982
stabbing by maniac priest
in Fatima
By Philip Pullella




Cardinal Dsiwisz led a news conference at the Vatican today to present the film 'Testimony', with
actor Michael York(left) and film producer Hauser.


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 15 (Reuters) - The late Pope John Paul was wounded by a knife-wielding priest in 1982, a year after he was shot in St Peter's Square, but the injury was kept secret, his former top aide says in a documentary film.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz also discloses that when John Paul was unable to pronounce words several days before his death in 2005, he told his aides that if he could not speak any more the time had come for him to die.

Dziwisz, who is now cardinal of Krakow, Poland, was John Paul's private secretary and closest aide for nearly 40 years, including all of his 27 years as pontiff.

The documentary, called "Testimony" and narrated by British actor Michael York, is a film version of a memoir published by Dziwisz last year but with some additions.

It will make its official premiere at the Vatican on Thursday night in the presence of Pope Benedict.


John Paul II in Fatima on May 12, 1982.

On May 12, 1982, the pope was visiting the shrine city of Fatima in Portugal to give thanks for surviving a first assassination attempt a year earlier on May 13, 1981, when he was shot in St Peter's Square by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.

A crazed ultra-conservative Spanish priest, Juan Fernandez Krohn, lunged at the pope with a dagger and was knocked to the ground by police and arrested. The fact that the knife actually reached the pope and cut him was not known until now.

"I can now reveal that the Holy Father was wounded. When we got back to the room (in the Fatima sanctuary complex) there was blood," Dziwisz says in the documentary.

The pope carried on with the trip without disclosing his wound.

Krohn was arrested and served several years in a Portuguese prison before being expelled from the country.

The documentary combines on-camera narration by York, interviews with Dziwisz, historical footage and re-enacted segments of the pope's life played out by actors.

It includes video of his last public appearance from his window overlooking St Peter's Square, when, debilitated by Parkinson's disease and other maladies and overcome with emotion, he did not manage to pronounce any words.

Dziwisz says that when the pope, who had undergone a tracheotomy to help him breathe, was wheeled back into his apartments, he regained some strength and managed to whisper: "If I can't speak any more, it's time for me to go."

He died several days later on April 2, 2005, aged 84.

The 66-year-old York, who acted in Cabaret, Romeo and Juliet and a dozens of other films and television productions, said he felt "awe" at being part of a production involving John Paul.

"He had an extraordinary ability to communicate with people -- I think its called star quality and as a pope he had star quality in abundance," he told Reuters in an interview.

The documentary was shot in Rome, the Vatican and the cities in Poland where the John Paul was born and worked as a priest, bishop and cardinal before his election to the papacy in 1978.


For tomorrow's issue, 10/16/08, L'Osservatore Romano is running a few stories on John Paul II on the 30th anniversary of his election as Pope. One of the stories is Cardinal Dsiwisz's recollections of that day, where he was when he got the news, what words were exchanged between him and the Archbishop-now-Pope to whom he was private secretary. I will translate when I finish translating the catechesis today, but I expect the Anglophone news agencies may file a story based on it earlier than I can get around to the translation.

This is one of several articles in the 10/16/08 issue of L'Osservatore Romano to mark the 30th anniversary of John Paul II's election as Pope.


The evening of October 16, 1798:
When the Church of silence
started to speak out




"How will the Romans react, what will they say of a Pope from a far country?"

Just before the 'cerimonieri' opened the anteroom to the St. Peter's Loggia of Benedictions, on the evening of October 16, 1978, Karol Wojtyla of Poland, who had just become John Paul II, thought of how Rome would look at "a foreign Pope after the beautiful and important Pontificates of the 20th century".

The disclosure came from Cardinal Stanislaw Dsiwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, who was Wojtyla's secretary for 39 years.

"He confided his concern about Rome," said the cardinal at a Vatican news conference Wednesday, "when I was able to get to him, while overcoming my emotion of seeing him dressed in white for the first time. But he said that, as soon as he came out, he was reassured because he saw great hope in the welcome from the people who were in St. Peter's Square."

"'I felt hope', those were his words. He added that looking out at the Piazza from the Loggia reinforced the awareness of being Pope and Bishop of Rome.

"In short, it was love at first sight between the Polish Pope and Rome. He was very happy about it, and when, with the years, he would recall his initial concern, he would do so in order to say that more than ever, he felt himself 'a Roman of Rome'."

Don Stanislao, who continues to be called this although he is now a cardinal, has clear memories of that day 30 years ago, almost as another way to maintain his link with the late Pope.

"When the white smoke first came out," he recounts, "I was in St. Peter's Square myself, near the main door to the Basilica. When Cardinal Pericle Felici said in Latin the name 'Carolum', i realized that the unthinkable was about to happen. Then he said 'Wojtyla'. I cried out with joy, and promptly became petrified until I could once again rejoin my bishop who had become Pope."

John Paul II saw him shortly after that Loggia benediction. "I told him then that the crowd had acclaimed his election with joy, and that I myself had touched first hand that hope which he referred to. I saw it in the faces, I heard it in the words of those who were around me at St. Peter's Square.

"I was a witness of how the surprise at his name - some thought the new Pope was African after hearing his last name - was quickly changed to hope, perhaps because of the novelty that he brought with him."



Don Stanislao recalls another episode during those first hours of the Pontificate: "With a mischievous smile and his usual humor, he also wanted to let me know about his first breach of protocol. Before going out to the Loggia, the papal master of ceremonies, Mons. Virgilio Noe, recommended that the new Pope simply impart his blessing in Latin and not make any speech.

"But John Paul II could not restrain himself and he started to speak in Italian. A greeting that has become historic: 'They have called me from a far country... And if I make a mistake, you will correct me.'

"When he told me about this, it was with the certainty that he had done right to make that brief speech, but at the same time, he also seemed to apologize to those who would be his co-workers, for the first of what would be a thousand improvisations."

The election of the first Slavic Pope, Dsiwisz continues, "was a novelty that made the pulses throb. As I started my new service, I started thinking of those people in Krakow who had been praying that he would not be elected, because they did not want him to leave the Archdiocese.

"And I was reminded of the Polish functionary, who, before we left for the Conclave, withdrew Cardinal Wojtyla's diplomatic passport and replaced it with a tourist passport, with the threat that there would be more accounts to settle when he returned to Poland.

"That evening of October 16, I went back to the Polish College. I could not sleep. All night I was glued to the radio to find out how the election of the Cardinal of Krakow was being greeted around the world, but especially in Poland. I realized that the 'church of silence' would now start to speak through the lips of the new Pope."

How did John Paul II live through those first moments after the blessing at the Loggia?

"He did not allow himself to be overcome by the frenzy. He wanted to dine with the cardinals, and then he retired to the room that had been assigned to him for the Conclave, on the mezzanine floor of the Secretary of State's apartment. He was sharing it with Cardinal Corrado Ursi.

"He set out to write by hand, in Latin, the programmatic address for the next day's Mass. And he started to think of the homily for the Mass that would formally mark the start of his Petrine ministry".

It would be the homily that became famous for its motto, the watchword for his Pontificate: "Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ!"

Don Stanislao says, "These words had been maturing in him for years. They were an expression of his faith. He had lived them, prayed them. He told me he thought they were appropriate to shake consciences up, and to start his new mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the entire word. He wrote that homily all by himself. I have the handwritten original."

Was the Pope aware that his words would have an explosive effect, especially in those places where freedom was denied?

"He knew very well," Don Stanislao believes, "that dictatorships rule only on the basis of fear. To bring down those regimes, he would have no armed forces. The Pope has no divisions, as Stalin once said ironically. But he has words. His objective was clear: to show the truth of Christ in order to instill in people a sense of interior freedom. It was this stimulus to freedom which gave the peoples of Eastern Europe the power to bring about change, to fight against repressive political and economic systems.

"That invitation not to be afraid triggered an extraordinary revolution without bloodshed. It contributed to bring down walls and called into question the logic of the Cold War carried on by the nuclear powers".

But all this was not part of any political strategy. To liberate men from fear was, from the first day, the strength and the novelty of his Pontificate: "It wasn't about ideology but about the Gospel. He wanted the Church to be always there, wherever man is".

Wojtyla's secret was doubtless to have shown the human face of God. Don Stanislao is sure of that: "My experience tells me that the people were not seeking him as much as they were seeking for the God of which he was the witness. And I will tell you another secret. One cannot understand John Paul II if one excludes prayer and his relationship with the Word. There was nothing bigoted about this. Nothing seemed more natural to him. And this prayerful habit never left him, not even the day he was elected"

He adds: "He never ceased to find ever new words and ways with which to announce Christ. So when he ignored that first protocol recommendation, it was not because he was looking to be popular, but because it was a way to bear witness to God's love."

There is a gesture which, in the words of his secretary, expresses the spiritual irruption of John Paul II: when, after the inaugural Mass on October 22, 1978, he walked down among the disabled and sick in front of St. Peter's and lifted his staff, waving it like a flag.

For Don Stanislao these days, there was another anniversary to mark: It was October 8, 1966, when Archbishop Wojtyla asked him to become his secretary.

"When should I begin?", he asked. "Right away", was the reply.

Today, he comments: "On that day, I learned that I must be near him all the time. I did it for 39 years, first in Krakow then in Rome. I saw my cassock stained with his blood on May 13, 1981. And I thought back to the words that he had written for St. Stanislaw, patron of Poland: 'If words do not convert, then blood will'. I have always remained close to Karol Wojtyla. I, a priest, caressed by a gift and a mystery."


Thank you, Cardinal Dsiwisz, and God bless! No one could be a better custodian of these intimate recollections of a great and saintly Pope.



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For quick reference, here is the Vatican translation of John Paul II's first words as Pope urbi et orbi on October 16, 1978:

---

Praised be Jesus Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters,

We all remain heartbroken after the death of our beloved Pope John Paul I. Yet here, the Eminent Cardinals have called forth a new bishop of Rome. They've called him from a far country... far, but always close in the communion of the faith and in the Christian tradition.

I was fearful at receiving this nomination, but I do so in the spirit of obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ and in total trust of his Mother, our Most Blessed Lady.

I don't know that I can explain myself well in your... in our Italian tongue. If I err, correct me!

And so I present myself to you, to confess our common faith, our hope, our trust in the Mother of Christ and of the Church, so to begin again along this road of history and of the Church with the help of God and the help of men.

---

From a far country
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from
the 101/6/08 issue of



On the afternoon of October 16, 1978, thirty years ago, the election of the Cardinal from Krakow signalled a real turning point in the history of the succession to the Chair of Peter.

After almost half a millennium - since Adrian VI (1522-1523) - the College of Cardinals chose to be Bishop of Rome an ecclesiastic who was not a native of the Italian peninsula. And for the first time, a Slav had been elected Pope.

From a far country, as John Paul II said right away to the city he had loved from the years he had studied here, and to the world which he would soon start to travel through as Pope.

With the passion of a mystic immersed in his time and the vigor of a relatively young age (something to which conclaves were no longer used to, since 1846, when the 53-year-old Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti was elected and became Pius IX).

Thus began a Pontificate which, among all the successors of Peter, would be the longest after the very same Pius IX. Long, and above all, of a historically incisive relevance in the events of the last quarter of the 20th century and the first ones of the the new century.

It followed the vision of history that John Paul II made evident since his first encyclical, in which he spoke of the road that Catholicism had to take towards the end of its second millennium.

Born in May 1920 and ordained a priest shortly after the tragedy of war unleashed by totalitarianisms that he knew first hand, Wojtyla was one of the last bishops named by Pius XII in 1958, and during Vatican-II, was promoted by Paul VI to be Archbishop of Krakow, later making him a cardinal at age 47.

It was in those years that the young Polish prelate became a leading player, even if not well known, in the Catholic Church.

The Pope elected in the second Conclave of 1978, after the sudden death of his predecessor, did not hesitate to confirm - by his very choice of name - his choice of continuity with John XXIII and Paul VI, who had been for some time unjustly contrasted, and soon gave voice to the so-called 'Church of silence' that had been suffocated by the Communist regimes.

That world which the first Slavic Pope had contributed to bring down to the point, where this activity of his was the most probable context for the assassination attempt against him in May 1981.

John Paul II, although undermined physically, did not die: he lived and saw 1989 [the collapse of Communism], but also September 11, 2001, living through the events of his time with a courage and determination that he testified to until the last day of his earthly life, April 2, 2005, to his very last breath.

And thus his image remains in the memory of the world - the Pope who 30 years ago presented himself as a Pope from a far country and who soon gave high visibility to the Catholic Church.

Thanks above all to the proliferation of his international trips which made him a familiar figure in every corner of the earth, but also through his impressive teaching, which was rooted in love of Christ and a defense of the human being; a teaching that was heeded by many non-believers and which will not be fruitless.