April 5, 2005

I rise this morning, just having returned to Washington from Colorado, to share a few comments about the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.

My family’s faith tradition since time immemorial has been Roman Catholic. In Pope John Paul II, we witnessed a great spiritual leader, a conscience and a statesman.

Pope John Paul II exemplified the values and teachings of Jesus Christ in his humility, service to others, and in his struggle to have the world recognize the dignity of every human being. John Paul II lived the creed of Jesus Christ as set forth in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 23, Verses 11-12, where Jesus, speaking to the crowds and his disciples, said:

“The more lowly your service to others, the greater you are. To be the greatest, be a servant. But those who think themselves great shall be disappointed and humbled; and those who humble themselves shall be exalted.”

More than twenty-six years ago, in the eighth round of voting, Karol Wojtyla was elected to head the Roman Catholic Church. His predecessor, Pope John Paul I, had died after only 32 days as Pope. The selection of the charismatic Polish cardinal – the first non-Italian pope in 455 years – surprised many people both inside and outside the Catholic Church.

In the quarter-century since then, Pope John Paul II continued to surprise – and challenge – not only members of my church, but indeed, the entire world to recognize and celebrate the dignity of each and every person.

But that was not all “the Pilgrim Pope” revolutionized. Where previous pontiffs had often seemed distant from their flocks, Pope John Paul II traveled to more nations and spoke to more people – often times in their language – than any other pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

His first trip abroad as pontiff was to a region in crisis. Latin America, home of half the world’s Roman Catholics, was ravaged not just by poverty and hunger but by violence and civil war that claimed tens of thousands of innocent lives.

His next trip was to his homeland, Poland, a land that had been subjugated for decades, first by Nazism, then by communism. One journalist wrote that the pope’s visit to Poland “helped bring about such profound, irreversible changes that Poland then became a country which was clearly ceasing to be a communist country.”

John Paul also visited America during the first year of his Papacy, attracting huge crowds wherever he went.

In 1993, he came to Denver, bringing a message of substance and hope to our youth. I remember that visit fondly – and recall my father’s excitement after he reached over a fence to touch the Pope.

This pope is recognized – and rightly so – as a sort of patron saint for the Solidarity movement in Poland and a catalyst for the demise of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

But that was only part of this pope’s message. He has also warned repeatedly about the shortcomings of capitalism. He reminded us all that we have an obligation to help the poor and the oppressed.

In 1998, he traveled to Cuba, strengthening a Church that is doing more and more to help that country’s forgotten, and breathing life into an opposition movement that surprised the world – and that country’s backward regime – with a grassroots call for reform.

In 1999, he again visited the US, reminding us of our duty to not forget the poor and oppressed and continuing his special outreach to America’s young people and challenging them to fight for a better America and a better world.

And in 2000, a visibly frail Pope visited the Holy Land to mark the Millennium and in an attempt to bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together. Both Jews and Muslims welcomed him – and recognized his visit – and his words supported their positions.

His efforts to heal the rift between the Vatican and Jews had to be colored by his own experience with the brutality of anti-Semitism. In September 1939, he saw his university in Krakow shut down and eventually saw several of his friends and classmates sent to Auschwitz after the Nazis invaded Poland.

His efforts at healing historical rifts continued, evidenced by meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest ranking official in the Episcopal Church. Many wished he could have done more on these hurtful rifts, but no one doubted that he began to confront these challenges like no Pope before him.

For these nearly 27 years, the Pilgrim Pope – an accomplished poet, an intellectual and a mystic in that fine Catholic tradition – was hailed as a visionary and attacked as a relic. Within the Church itself – as in the scores of countries he visited – he was criticized by critics on both the left and the right.

That is because in the Church and on each of his many trips, he brought not only comfort and hope – hope for peace in Latin America, freedom in Eastern Europe, reconciliation in the Middle East, and improvement in America – but discomfort and challenges.

In 2003, the Vatican had this to say about the role of the Church in public life,

“The Church does not wish to exercise political power or to eliminate the freedom of opinion of Catholics regarding contingent questions.

Instead, it intends – as is its proper function – to instruct and illuminate the consciences of the faithful, particularly those involved in political life, so that their actions may always serve the integral promotion of the human person and the common good.”

None of us lived up to the challenges and prescriptions the Pope mapped out in 27 years of examining the fundamental issues that we must face. We could not because Pope John Paul II challenged all of us to do more, to be better.

Physically, the frail, stooped Pope we saw in the last weeks bore little resemblance to the athletic 58-year-old who ascended the throne of Peter nearly 27 years ago. But inwardly, he remained deeply consistent – challenging us to uphold the dignity of each and every person – and illuminated and instructed, as well as challenged and surprised.

We will miss Pope John Paul II, but his vibrant legacy lives on in each of us and in the lessons and challenges he placed before us.

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