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Vatican to ponder legacy of John Paul II in twilight
by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 05, 2010
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionThough the Vatican has had a Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers for twenty-five years now, and while Christian literature is rich with meditations on the spirituality of suffering, one could nevertheless make the argument that the most powerful recent statement Catholicism has made about the dignity of the ill person was the way John Paul II allowed his own twilight to play out in full public view.
Throughout the latter years of his papacy, John Paul was aware of the voices making the rounds that it was undignified for the pope to continue to travel and appear in public in such a weakened state, badly hobbled by age and by Parkinson's disease. To be fair, that reaction was partly rooted in natural pity for an elderly man struggling just to stay on his feet, or to utter a few slurred words. But John Paul took the opposite view, seeing his determination to keep going as an important counter-witness in a society that often worships youth and physical beauty.
I recall in 2000 asking Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche community that works with people struggling with mental and physical disabilities, if John Paul had become a more powerful symbol because he was himself “disabled.
Vanier’s response was simple and unequivocal: “The pope has never been more beautiful than he is right now,” he said.
That aspect of John Paul’s legacy will be one focus of a three-day event sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers Feb. 9-11, marking the office’s 25th anniversary as well as the 18th “World Day of the Sick.”
The official theme of the event is, “The church in the service of love for the suffering,” and its focal point is John Paul’s apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris (“On the Christian meaning of human suffering”) issued in 1984.
On Tuesday afternoon, Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, will speak on “The meaning of the suffering of John Paul II for the church and the world.” There’s also going to be a display of roughly 30 panels dedicated to John Paul II and suffering, with the idea apparently being that this could become a traveling exhibition.
Among other items of note, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Center, who has been leading the U.S. bishops’ campaign on health care reform, is scheduled to talk about the pastoral fruits of the World Day of the Sick.
During a Vatican news conference this morning to present the event, Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and Lourdes in France was also on hand to explain that relics of St. Bernadette of Lourdes will be brought to Rome for next week’s gathering. The plan is for the relics to be welcomed in Rome on Tuesday at the Basilica of St. Mary Major (the service will be presided over by the basilica’s archpriest, Cardinal Bernard Law), and on Thursday the relics will be carried in a procession down the Via della Conciliazione into St. Peter’s Basilica.
Perrier said there's a special connection between John Paul's suffering and Lourdes, known for its springs which devotees believe to have healing powers. The pope visited the sanctuary twice: the first trip came two years after the 1981 assassination attempt, and the second in August 2004, in what would be the last trip outside Italy of his papacy. On that occasion, John Paul famously declared himself "a sick man among the sick."
The program for the event can be found here: http://www.healthpastoral.org/text.php?cid=486&sec=3&docid=150&lang=en
Isn't Carl Anderson also
Isn't Carl Anderson also recently named to the Vatican Bank's Board of Directors?
In a Sept. 22, 2008 CNN report on Anderson's nationwide advertising campaign against then Senator Joe Biden's VP bid, Dennis Sadowski writes, "Between 1983 and 1987 Anderson held various positions in President Ronald Reagan's White House, including special assistant to the president and acting director of the Office of Public Liaison ( . . .)"
Meanwhile Lourdes comes to the exiled Bernie Law?
Frere Charles, with all do
Frere Charles, with all do respect, I believe that your argument is an ad hominem. It is the content of what Carl Anderson says, not the one saying it, that is either true or untrue.
Great article. I am very
Great article. I am very glad Pope John Paul II lived out his Papacy through his illness to his death. It was a great example.
I attended one of the public
I attended one of the public audiences of JPII two years before he died. He spoke in 8 languages. His English was slurred, but somehow understandable! He lost control of his papers, which seemed to fly to the four winds when he sneezed. His aids rushed to gather the papers so that he could continue. He didn't seem bothered by his fragile state or situation.
I couldn't help but cry. Seeing him in his very public suffering only reminded me of so many I knew who had suffered in life. I suddenly understood why this "old man" refused to step down. He was speaking for those who suffer and displayed the suffering Christ's love for humanity.
John Paul II lived his life
John Paul II lived his life the way he chose to. He lived out his illness in a palace surrounded by servants and receiving the best medical care available. He traveled in luxury and comfort. To suggest that he "suffered" beyond the deferences to his physical wound is assigning heroics where it does not belong. I think John Paul was christian when he forgave his attacker. But his declining years have nothing in common with those who live in the real world, absent decent health care or financial support to afford medicines. I think the American bishops are on the wrong path to establish sadism as normal treatment for the dying in catholic hospitals. Look at the human abuses upon the innocent by deranged priests and nuns. The cloak of the church has been used as cover for inhumanity to mankind whenever men or women set themselves up to be the "enforcers" of God's will . People have a right to live and die in dignity, no matter their financial worth. They also have a right to decide whether their suffering is "redemptive" or just plain torture. No Catholic hospitals for me in my declining days.
That John Paul II suffered
That John Paul II suffered and did so openly and fearlessly, I have no doubt. That certainly was true to his character. But what sticks in my mind about his final years was the way he defended his friend Marcel Maciel Degollado, Founder of the Legionaires of Christ, against all those charges of the sexual abuse of the nine young seminarians. I remember the way he smeared those who brought the accusations, saying that they were people who simply wanted to ruin the reputation of the church, etc. He went to his grave still defending Degollado and brushing aside as defamers those who brought the accusations. Meanwhile, during John Paul II's last year - which he spent mostly drugged up - Cardinal Ratzinger quietly began to study the evidence against Degollado. And a year after the Cardinal became Benedict XVI, he deposed Degollado and sent him off to a life of "prayer and penitence" for his sexual abuse of the seminarians. And since Degollado's death more of his scandals have been revealed - starting with that he was bi-sexual and fathered an illegitimate child. Sad to say, to my knowledge, there has never been any open apology to the nine seminarians (now grown men) nor any efforts to repair their damaged reputations. Damaged of course by John Paul II.
This memory makes it a little hard for me to take all the glorification of John Paul II going on at present. A little hard to accept the rush to his canonization. I really wonder just how much of it is part and parcel of the cover-up of the worst scandal in the church in our history: the hierarchical cover-up (still going on - witness Cardinal Francis George's legal court deposition in August of 2008) of the crime of clerical sexual abuse and the protection of the abusers.
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