Vol. XV
No. 10
November 2003
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Popes deserving to be called great have not been plentiful since Leo and Gregory of that title, but the present occupant of Peter’s throne may justly deserve to be known one day as John Paul the Great. Or, as the late Italian expert on Vatican affairs Domenico Del Rio entitled his last book on the Pope: Karol the Great.
The Pope has a brilliant mind. Many of his encyclicals are masterpieces of intellectual analysis and visionary prophecy and would by themselves establish his papacy as one of the most remarkable in history.
Once we have the benefit of a little hindsight, John Paul’s pontificate may begin to look almost as providential for the future of Christianity as the Second Vatican Council itself; and there is, in fact, an intimate relationship between that Council and this Pope.
Pope John Paul II is the only true world leader at large today. Along with Mother Teresa, he has always been near the top of polls asking who is the most respected human being. He inspires the affection of hundreds of millions of people. He was the first Pope to enter a synagogue, and the first to visit a Moslem country, and even to take off his shoes and pray in a mosque. He is a stubborn and innovative visionary.
Wherever he goes, this now frail old man gathers massive audiences - because he has a message. Wherever he has gone, especially in his later years, John Paul has been able to say the difficult things, and is often the only person whom his audience has ever heard saying them. It has been an exceptional experience to be addressed by one that is a leader not a follower; who deals in challenges not comforts; who gives us propositions to accept or reject, not platitudes.
As influential and powerful as Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King in their day, Pope John Paul II has been a rock of constancy and belief in an age beset with uncertainty. A ceaseless champion of the causes of human rights and social justice, a man to bring fresh hope to millions of the world’s oppressed, and who became perhaps the most important person in the resolution of the century’s greatest story: the rise and fall of totalitarianism.
Paradoxically, we perceive the Pope nearer to us now that he is physically sick and worn out than when he was younger and more vigorous. The images of the Pope who caresses, points the finger, and gets angry show him as a true man, close even to those who seem furthest away. Karol the Great, indeed – a missionary Pope.
©2003World Mission Magazine
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