On May 1, 2011, Pope John Paul II became Blessed John Paul II.
John Paul the Great has been on a fast track to sainthood since his death on April 2, 2005 when millions of Catholic mourners chanted, “Santo subito!”—“Saint now!” Pope Benedict XVI, the pope’s successor, heeded the call and waived the requisite five-year waiting period usually prescribed between the death of the candidate for sainthood and the official opening of the beatification process. Only Mother Teresa received this fast-track also, by the direction of John Paul II who recognized her obvious sanctity.
More than one million people around the globe flooded St. Peter's Square and its neighboring streets to witness the historic event of John Paul’s beatification. Beatification is the last step before becoming a saint. The inexplicable healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon Pierre Normand, with Parkinson’s disease is the miracle that paved the path for John Paul to be made “blessed.”
John Paul, a native of Poland, took the Catholic world by storm when he was elected the 264th pope on Oct. 16, 1978. From the beginning, at the tender age of 58, he made history by being the youngest pope ever and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years to be entrusted with St. Peter's keys.
John Paul, best known for his principled opposition to abortion, contraception, gay marriage and euthanasia, refused to cower to contemporary liberal trends. His unyielding Catholic orthodoxy throughout his 26-year tenure angered left-wing radicals both from within and outside the Catholic Church. His determination to promote a culture of life, although unpopular in liberal media circles, won him the adoration of millions throughout the world, especially among younger generations.
Christened Karol Joseph Wojtyla, he was born on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland. From a very young age, Wojtyla experienced suffering and hardship. His mother died in labor when he was nine. Three years later, his brother, Edmund, died of a scarlet fever. Wojtyla and his father fled Nazi Germany and moved to Krakow, where he studied philosophy and was involved in a theater group at Jagiellonian University.
From the outset, Wojtyla demonstrated a fierce commitment to democracy and human rights that would characterize his papacy. He was an unyielding opponent of totalitarianism, devoting his life to defeating both Nazism and Soviet Communism.
When Adolf Hitler's troops invaded Poland on Sept.1, 1939, Wojtyla's university theater went underground. At 19, he worked as a stonecutter and in a quarry while secretly continuing his studies and writing poetry. He then worked at a chemical plant before becoming active in UNIA, a Christian underground group.
In 1941, Wojtyla entered the priesthood through Krakow's underground seminary. He became blacklisted by the Nazis in 1944 when he disappeared from the chemical plant. He was then ordained in 1946 and sent to study at the Angelicum University in Rome. In 1962, he became archbishop of Krakow. And in 1967, Pope Paul VI elevated Wojtyla to cardinal after his impressive contribution to the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1967 in which he assisted in writing four of the major documents, notably, Gaudium et Spes (The Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World) and Lumen Gentium (The Light of the People).
On Wojtyla's ascension to the papacy, he dedicated himself to promoting a culture of life, crying out for the end of abortion. His papacy was marked by an unyielding conviction for the respect and dignity of every life, from the moment of conception until natural death. He even went so far as to defy attempts by the administration of President Bill Clinton to spread abortion and contraception programs throughout the Third World. And most famously, he denounced the removal of the feeding tubes of an American woman in a vegetative state, Terri Schiavo.
Throughout his 26-year reign, John Paul traveled extensively throughout the world, making a total of more than 100 trips outside Italy—a record that exceeds all of his 262 predecessors combined. In 1979, he made his first trip overseas to Mexico, where he confronted and warned against the evils of the Marxism-influenced liberation theology of Latin America. He also visited the United States seven times. Moreover, he was the first pope to visit the Holy Land and the first to apologize for Catholic wrongs toward other religions—notably apologizing for the wrongs inflicted on Jews during the Holocaust.
Pope John Paul II was also one of the most prolific pontificates, writing 14 encyclicals and numerous apostolic letters. One of his most famous encyclicals is Vertitatis Splendor (The Splendor of Light), which condemns moral relativism and anchors truth in Jesus Christ. Other groundbreaking encyclicals include Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) which condemns abortion, contraception, euthanasia and all that he coins, "the culture of death." Also prominent is Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), in which he argues that science and absolute truth can coexist harmoniously. And in his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist in its Relationship to the Church) published in April 2003, the pontiff outlined the significance of the Eucharist and its relationship to the Church.
His apostolic letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary, 2002), was a tribute to the Virgin Mary and the rosary. The apostolic letter introduces a new mystery called "The Luminous Mysteries," which, unlike the other mysteries which focus on Christ's birth, death and resurrection, highlights Christ's ministry on earth. In March 2005, the pope's last work, “Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a New Millennium ,” assessed the legacies of Nazism and Stalinism within the broader context of today's evils—such as abortion and Islamic fascism.
Among Pope John Paul II's most remarkable contributions to the 20th century was his help in bringing down communism. He supported the Catholic-based solidarity labor uprising in Poland, and his friendship with Polish communist leaders led them to secretly introduce him to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. John Paul also befriended President Ronald Reagan during his trips to the United States, where the two repeatedly spoke out against the evils of communism. These two remarkable men, along with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, were pivotal in helping to usher the Soviet Empire into the dustbin of history.
John Paul also had other diplomatic triumphs. He denounced Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic's genocidal campaign in the Balkans, drawing the world's attention to Belgrade's aggression against Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. He was a strong friend of Israel, and his papacy marked an historic turning point in improved relations between the Vatican and the Jewish state. Under his leadership, the Church gained millions of converts across Africa.
Despite being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease nearly 15 years prior to his death, he continued to preach the Gospel of life even if it meant taking unpopular positions. He criticized the rampant materialism and consumerism in the West, warning against the excesses of technology and capitalism. It was not the free market that John Paul opposed. Rather, it was the growing tendency across Europe and the United States to place the cash nexus and personal gratification above humanity's transcendental moral destiny. Moreover, he opposed most forms of war on the grounds that it violated the sanctity of life, except in cases of national self-defense. He was a leading critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, preferring to use diplomacy and moral suasion instead of force in dealing with Arab dictators.
John Paul’s passing on April 2, 2005 came after years of suffering and numerous illnesses. His brave, stoic body had been ravaged by Parkinson's disease, respiratory problems and ultimately, heart and kidney failure. Even in his suffering, the Holy Father remained an inspiration to millions of Catholics, as he embodied Christ's suffering on behalf of his flock. As John Paul wrote in his 1984 encyclical, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, he viewed suffering as "a source of joy" because "faith in sharing the suffering of Christ brings with it the interior certainty that the suffering person...is serving, like Christ, the salvation of his brothers and sisters. Therefore, he is carrying out an irreplaceable service."
John Paul’s death was a watershed moment both in Vatican history and that of the West. The world lost not only a great religious and moral leader, but one of its pre-eminent theologians and philosophers, as well.
Radical left-wing anti-Catholic bigots like New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd are up in arms over Pope John Paul’s beatification, claiming that the sex-abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in 2002 is “the indelible stain” that negates the validity of this title and process. Ms. Dowd believes the pope cannot be a saint because “he fail[ed] to protect innocent children.” But what Ms. Dowd fails to realize is that although the pope did not initially grasp the severity of the situation, once he did, he put in place important guidelines for future priests and reshaped seminaries across the United States and around the world, ensuring this kind of travesty would never happen again.
Critics of John Paul’s beatification also point to dwindling faith across Europe, and North and South America—specifically in places where Catholicism once dominated. But the reality is that John Paul’s papacy inspired a new generation of men—roughly tens of thousands of men— to commit their lives to the priesthood. Moreover, millions of lay Catholics found their faith or had it reignited by John Paul’s trademark World Youth Days which mobilized millions of youth to rally for Christ.
Pope Benedict XVI did not rush the process of beatification in order to give the Catholic Church a “PR boost,” as Ms. Dowd claims. Rather, the simple truth is that a great man led an extraordinary life. Pope John Paul II sowed innumerable seeds all across the world that inspired millions, and as such, deserves this fitting honor. He is truly blessed—as the worldwide homage he has received proves—and has blessed us with his magnanimity, compassion, writings, charisma and example.
Pope Benedict XVI could not turn a blind eye to this fact. During the beatification Mass, Pope Benedict XVI noted that John Paul “reclaimed for Christianity that impulse of hope which had in some sense faltered before Marxism and the ideology of progress. He restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope.”
In Pope John Paul II, the world saw a saint living in our time, for all time. Let us wait no more, “Santo subito!”
-Loredana Vuoto is President of Eloquence, LLC, a speechwriting and writing services firm in Washington, DC. She is also the Editor of Reflections.
