Posts Tagged ‘John Paul II’

Archbishop of Westminster Suggests New Title For John Paul II

Blessed JP2

The Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols gave an interview before the beatification of John Paul II, where he spoke of personal memories of the Polish Pontiff and gave him a special honorary title.

He remembered the Holy Father’s seemingly unending energy during his 1982 visit to the UK, and the encouragement he gave to all. The Archbishop said: “I think his very first words on election, on coming out on the balcony were, ‘Do not be afraid’.”

In fact, they were, “Praised be Jesus Christ.” It was this unity to Jesus and the constant prayer which accompanied it, that allowed him to be so brave and to have the virtue of courage that the Archbishop so rightly praised him for.

“The fearless one”

“For me,” Nichols continued, “He would be the fearless one.” It is a title that does much to express John Paul II’s example as a Christian who is not above fear, but can, with the help of his Lord, move beyond it.

This courage was present in his pastoral trips around the globe and his forceful proposal that to reject the Gospel means to lower human aspiration. For the Archbishop, as for many others, his courage was especially present in his suffering. “It is that courage that overcomes fear, and certainly in the life of John Paul II, very visibly overcame the fear of illness, incapacity and death.”

Jim Gallagher, in his updated biography, John Paul II – The Road to Sainthood points this out clearly, reminding everyone that the former Pope died at a very significant time:

“Without fear or favour he faced up to governments to defend the weakest and the tiniest. His own dying – in the very week that an American court would authorise the starvation of a handicapped woman Terri Schiavo – was a testimony to the dignity of old age and natural death.”

Well done to the Archbishop, for reminding us that blessed John Paul II’s now famous call, “Do not be afraid” was one that he lived out himself, perhaps we can add this title, “The fearless one” to blessed, saint and the great, which the Church will surely confer on one of history’s greatest Popes and greatest men.

John Paul II – The Road to Sainthood by Jim Gallagher is available from CTS at £2.95

Of related interest:

JPII John Paul II: The Pope who Made History – A unique and monumental 5-DVD collection that chronologically follows Pope John Paul II’s life, including his childhood in Poland, his appointment as Pope, his most important foreign visits, and his last days.
JPII's Life John Paul II: His Life his Pontificate – his DVD contains two feature-length documentaries: His Life (30 mins) and His Pontificate (60 mins). They consider the two parts of John Paul’s life, before and after his election as Pope.
Saints made How Saints are Canonised - Through baptism, all Christians are called to be saints, and yet there are also ‘saints’ who are ‘canonised’ by the Church. This booklet gives an overview of the history and process of beatification and canonisation in the Catholic Church.
Wednesday, 04 May 2011 09:24

Blessings from John Paul II – My Journey

Blessed JP2

When I decided to go to the beatification of John Paul II, I feared two things: crowds and rain. I was right to fear one, whereas the other never materialised.

I knew because of the likelihood of long queues that I would not get much sleep between Saturday evening’s vigil of prayer and Sunday morning’s beatification mass, in the event I did not get any.

The festivities began for me when, walking over the crest of the entrance to the Circus Maximus, I was greeted by the sight of thousands of lighted candles reminiscent of images of the Marian shrine at Lourdes. There, as people like former Vatican press office chief Joaquín Navarro-Valls and John Paul II’s secretary Stanisław Dziwisz gave their testimonies on the stage – which was a long way from where I was – people did the same on the ground remembering John Paul II, and many silently made their confession to priests where chariots once raced.

One felt close to Karol Józef Wojtyła while saying the Rosary, the prayer he so loved, with the mysteries of light that he instituted. After that we walked (or others walked and I was pushed) across the city and got into the queue for Saint Peter’s square. Here my fear of crowds was justified, we were so pressed together people could not move and could not get out. Some began to push forward and I thought of the Heysel and Hillsbrough disasters, where people were crushed to death because they had no escape.

Luckily, my wheelchair gave me a little more space and after 3 very uncomfortable hours – where some impressively unchristian behaviour was on display from clergy and laity – we were allowed into Via della Conciliazione.

Giving thanks

It seemed a grace from John Paul II that nothing terrible happened but more graces were to come. My other fear, the rain that everyone had predicted, was nowhere in sight. As the Mass began – just as had happened at the beatification of Cardinal Newman – the sun came out and an atmosphere of joyful thanksgiving and prayer descended on us all.

Me

The moment Pope Benedict XVI said the words we had come to hear and a picture very similar to the one on the front of our John Paul II: The Road to Sainthood biography was unveiled, there was a sense that those of us who applauded did so not only for ourselves but on behalf of all those we knew who loved the Holy Father but could not be there.

The many hundreds of Poles around me were in tears and I was close too, the suffering and inconvenience of no sleep or food were nothing compared to the gratitude everyone felt towards the man who, as his successor said, “restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope.”

Put me on the list for the canonisation – just organise it better.

Blessed John Paul II, pray for us.

John Paul II – The Road to Sainthood by Jim Gallagher is available from CTS at £2.95

Of related interest:

JPII John Paul II: The Pope who Made History – A unique and monumental 5-DVD collection that chronologically follows Pope John Paul II’s life, including his childhood in Poland, his appointment as Pope, his most important foreign visits, and his last days.
JPII's Life John Paul II: His Life his Pontificate – his DVD contains two feature-length documentaries: His Life (30 mins) and His Pontificate (60 mins). They consider the two parts of John Paul’s life, before and after his election as Pope.
Saints made How Saints are Canonised - Through baptism, all Christians are called to be saints, and yet there are also ‘saints’ who are ‘canonised’ by the Church. This booklet gives an overview of the history and process of beatification and canonisation in the Catholic Church.
Tuesday, 03 May 2011 08:55

Six Years of Pope Benedict – A Teacher Learning From His Master

God is Love

Yesterday was the 6th anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI the 265th Pope and the first German bishop of Rome in nearly 500 years.

Since then, the Holy Father has written three encyclicals and been on 18 Pastoral visits, including the very special one to the UK in September of last year.

His teaching has included: 5 Apostolic Constitutions – the latest of which was Anglicanorum Coetibus which established the Ordinariate – 2 Post Synodal Exhortations, 21 Apostolic Letters and much more by way of his audiences, speeches and addresses, as well his as yet unfinished trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth. CTS, as Publishers to the Holy See, has been pleased to publish all his official documents.

One of the Pope’s titles is “Servant of the servants of God” and Joseph Ratzinger has fulfilled that faithfully since he stepped out onto the balcony of the Apostolic Palace in 2005 and declared himself a “Humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard.”

He inherited a Papacy that had been brought back to its pastoral and evangelical roots by his soon-to-be-blessed predecessor John Paul II and has continued in that vein. When he came to Britain last year, his humility was striking and though he is clearly a little shy, he has spent the last six years working tirelessly to strengthen his brothers (Mark 22:32)

An apostle

His first encyclical Deus Caritas Est surprised many, especially outside the Church, he wrote, right at the beginning of the letter:

“I wanted here—at the beginning of my Pontificate—to clarify some essential facts concerning the love which God mysteriously and gratuitously offers to man, together with the intrinsic link between that Love and the reality of human love.” (§1)

And that, in many forms, is what he has been doing ever since. Some saw him as a “conservative” but political labels do not fit when analysing or trying to understand a Pope. This one is a teacher who, over 84 years, has never stopped learning from his “One Teacher, the Christ” (Matthew 23:10).

Certainly it has been anything but an uneventful six years, neither can it be said that everything has gone smoothly – the controversy surrounding the Regensburg Address and the part of Light of the World about male prostitutes and the use of condoms spring to mind – but on this anniversary we pray especially for Pope Benedict and thank God for these years of his ministry, a ministry that has stressed the merciful love of the Lord, asking God and His mother Mary – just as Benedict XVI did right at the beginning of his pontificate – to be with him.

For a look at some of Benedict XVI’s other addresses as Pope, including on his trip to Turkey, Spain and Fatima, Angola and Cameroon, click here.

Of related interest:

Hope Spe Salvi - The present day crisis of faith, Pope Benedict argues, is a crisis of Christian hope. In his second encyclical, the Holy Father presents a masterly survey of the abandonment of Christian hope in favour of faith in progress and technology.
Love in Truth Caritas in Veritate – “Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality.” Caritas in Veritate is the fruit of the Church’s reflection on the challenges facing the world today.
Anglicans Anglicanorum Coetibus - The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus and accompanying norms are the response of the Holy Father to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full, visible communion with the Catholic Church.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 08:43

Blessed John Paul II: World Youth Day & Leaning on God

JPII

Continuing our series looking forward to the beatification of Pope John Paul II, we concentrate on the roots of his work with young people and his conviction that God’s glory was the reason for all that he did.

It is easy to be cynical about the World Youth Days instituted by John Paul II: they were simply a chance for him to show off his dramatic personality, or to be some kind of religious rock star, this argument runs. Yet to engage in this kind of cynicism, as many both inside and outside the Church do, is to miss the point.

Vatican II

The World Youth Days, which began in Rome in 1985, were not some kind of ‘Catholic Woodstock,’ they were part of the Pontiff’s implementation of Vatican II on a global scale.

Just as in Krakow, as a priest, a bishop and an archbishop, he had a special ministry to young people, speaking to them about who they were, what their worth was and how that should encourage them to live their lives, the World Youth Days globalised that same message of faith as the foundation stone of our existence.

The Council Fathers at Vatican II had, echoing Blessed John Henry Newman, called for the laity to be deeply formed in faith, and this was what the Pope was trying to achieve, as Fr Andrzej Koprowski SJ comments:

“With the creation of the World Youth Days, the Pope gave his support to various forms of activity of lay people in the life and mission of the Church.”

God sustains our efforts

Karol Wojtyla was seen live by more people than possibly any other man in history, and was certainly the most visible Vicar of Christ ever. At the World Youth Day event in the Philippines in 1995, for example, a crowd of more than 5 million was reported.

What had they come to see? Was the Holy Father ahead of his time in instituting some kind of cult of celebrity?

Not according to Jim Gallagher, who summarizes the real key to this aspect of the Pope’s work in his biography, John Paul II – The Road to Sainthood:

“John Paul’s outreach to the young was successful because they recognized that he genuinely did love them, that he was a genuine man of God and true pastor.”

Love and mercy

Fr Koprowski adds:

“The foundation of all the efforts of our life is in God. We are covered by divine love, by the results of Redemption and Salvation. But we must help people to become deeply rooted in God himself.”

For Fr Koprowski, John Paul II understood the immense value of this love and the mercy that goes with it, and that is not something on offer anywhere else save in God.

“He was aware that modern culture and its language do not have a place for mercy, treating it as something strange; they try to inscribe everything in the categories of justice and law. But this does not suffice, for it is not what the reality of God is about.”

John Paul II – The Road to Sainthood by Jim Gallagher is available from CTS priced £2.95

Of related interest:

Young Way of Life for Young Catholics – Written for young Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply but are not sure what steps to take, this booklet contains practical, down-to-earth advice on many aspects of daily life.
JPII John Paul II: The Pope who Made History – A unique and monumental 5-DVD collection that chronologically follows Pope John Paul II’s life, including his childhood in Poland, his appointment as Pope, his most important foreign visits, and his last days.
JPII's Life John Paul II: His Life his Pontificate – his DVD contains two feature-length documentaries: His Life (30 mins) and His Pontificate (60 mins). They consider the two parts of John Paul’s life, before and after his election as Pope.
Friday, 15 April 2011 15:30

John Paul II Beatification – How You Can Get Involved

JPII

The beatification of Pope John Paul II is just a little over two weeks away. As you may have seen, we have recently been looking back at different aspects of the Polish Holy Father’s life and spirituality.

But that – which we will continue to do – is not the business of this post: we want to go through some ways you can get involved in this momentous occasion.

Prayer and Devotions

Prayer is certainly an important way to take part wherever you are. John Paul II was particularly devoted to the Mother of God; perhaps saying the Rosary on the big day, blessing God for giving us Karol Wojtyła as bishop of Rome for 27 years, would be one demonstration of gratitude this particular Servant of God would appreciate.

Another devotion close to the heart of the late Pope was the Divine Mercy – and indeed his beatification falls appropriately on ‘Mercy Sunday’ instituted by John Paul in accordance with Our Lord’s wishes as expressed to St Faustina; so praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet is another way of participating.

Finally, there is another providential ‘coincidence’ in that the beatification falls on 1st May, the day established as the feast of St Joseph the Worker as a religious alternative to communist May Day celebrations – a reminder of John Paul’s key role in the defeat of the atheist communist regimes in Europe, and of his own belief in the sanctification of human labour (witness the document Laborem Exercens and his canonisation of St Josemaria Escriva). So devotions in honour of St Joseph are entirely appropriate.

Reviewing our list we have to note that Jesus, Mary and Joseph all feature – so it would not be out of place to mention devotion to the Holy Family, another theme of John Paul’s pontificate.

Participate via social media

There is talk of 4 million people descending on the Italian capital for the ceremony on May 1st, but what about those who are not as lucky as the writer of this blog – who will be going; where and how can they get their information?

Well, since John Paul II was a great communicator and struck such a chord with the young, new methods are being used to promote his life and his message.

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are being used for this purpose for the first time.

The John Paul II Facebook Page is an ideal portal for the many video clips of the Polish Pope and for sharing memories about him. Browsing here is a great way to warm up for the beatification.

A Twitter feed has also been set up, called “Pope2You” where the three-day event will be screened live.

The Vatican even launched a shiny new website for the occasion which has, among other things, a webcam covering his tomb under St Peter’s Basilica – make of that what you will.

Other media outlets

Without doubt, the event will be covered by the secular as well as religious media, even if only because such a large crowd has to be worth reporting. It is not yet clear whether any UK broadcaster will do more than run a story on its news channel, but we will keep you posted – or if you know something, do tell us.

Please leave your suggestions for how to get ready for this important event in the life of the Church and the world.

Of related interest:

Saints made How Saints are Canonised - Through baptism, all Christians are called to be saints, and yet there are also ‘saints’ who are ‘canonised’ by the Church. This booklet gives an overview of the history and process of beatification and canonisation in the Catholic Church.
JPII John Paul II: The Pope who Made History – A unique and monumental 5-DVD collection that chronologically follows Pope John Paul II’s life, including his childhood in Poland, his appointment as Pope, his most important foreign visits, and his last days.
JPII's Life John Paul II: His Life his Pontificate – his DVD contains two feature-length documentaries: His Life (30 mins) and His Pontificate (60 mins). They consider the two parts of John Paul’s life, before and after his election as Pope.
Thursday, 14 April 2011 15:30
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