Pope John Paul II

Life's work

Teachings

As pope, John Paul II's most important role was to teach people about Roman Catholic Christianity. He wrote a number of important documents that many observers believe will have long-lasting influence on the Church.

Related Topics:
Roman Catholic - Christianity

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A notable achievement of John Paul II was the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which became an international bestseller. Its purpose, according to the Pope's Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum was to be "a statement of the Church's faith and of Catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." His first encyclical letters focused on the Triune God; the very first was on Jesus the Redeemer ("Redemptor Hominis").

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In his Apostolic Letter At the beginning of the third millennium (Novo Millennio Ineunte), he emphasized the importance of "starting afresh from Christ": "No, we shall not be saved by a formula but by a Person." In what he calls a "program for all times," he placed "sanctity" as the single most important priority of all pastoral activities in the entire Catholic Church. Thus, he canonized many saints around the world as exemplars for his vision and he supported the prelature of Opus Dei, whose aim is to spread the message of the universal call to holiness and the sanctification of secular activities, which he said is a "great ideal."

Related Topics:
Novo Millennio Ineunte - Christ - Opus Dei - Universal call to holiness

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In The Splendour of the Truth (Veritatis Splendor) he emphasized the dependence of man on God and his law ("Without the Creator, the creature disappears") and the "dependence of freedom on the truth". He warned that man "giving himself over to relativism and skepticism, goes off in search of an illusory freedom apart from truth itself".

Related Topics:
Relativism - Skepticism

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John Paul II also wrote extensively about workers and the social doctrine of the Church, which he discussed in three encyclicals. Through his encyclicals, John Paul also talked about the dignity of women and the importance of the family for the future of mankind.

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Other important documents include The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae), where he issued unprecedented teachings on moral matters like on murder, euthanasia and abortion, statements which, according to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, were "infallible", Faith and Reason (Fides et Ratio), and Orientale Lumen (Light of the East).

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John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the Vatican II, constantly affirmed the teachings of that Council and did much to implement them. Nevertheless, his critics often wished aloud that he would embrace the so-called "progressive" agenda that some hoped would evolve as a result of the Council. John Paul II refused to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were no longer sinful. Instead, he exalted marital sexual intercourse as a sacramental and religious act that was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a second marriage, and homosexual acts. He also rejected calls to break with the constant tradition of the Church by ordaining women to the priesthood. In addition, John Paul II chose not to do away with the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, though he did encourage married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests. In fact, the Council did not advocate "progressive" changes in these areas, and went so far as to condemn abortion as an "unspeakable crime".

Related Topics:
Vatican II - Contraception - Abortion - Homosexual acts - Sexual intercourse - Sacrament - Celibacy

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John Paul II, as a writer of philosophical and theological thought, was characterized by his explorations in phenomenology. He is also known for his development of the theology of the body.

Related Topics:
Philosophical - Theological - Phenomenology - Theology of the body

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Pastoral trips

During his pontificate, Pope John Paul II made over 100 foreign trips, more than all previous popes put together. In total he logged more than 1.1 million km (725,000 miles). He consistently attracted large crowds on his travels, some amongst the largest ever assembled in human history. While some of his trips (such as to the United States and the Holy Land) were to places previously visited by Pope Paul VI (the first pope to travel widely), many others were to places that no pope had ever visited before. All these travels were paid by the money of the countries he visited and not by the Vatican.

Related Topics:
United States - Holy Land - Pope Paul VI

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One of John Paul II's earliest official visits was to Poland, in June 1979.{{ref|home}} In 1982 he became the first reigning pope to travel to the United Kingdom, where he met Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Related Topics:
Poland - 1979 - 1982 - United Kingdom - Queen Elizabeth II - Supreme Governor - Church of England

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Throughout his trips, he stressed his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary through visits to various shrines to the Virgin Mary, notably Knock in Ireland, Fátima in Portugal, Guadalupe in Mexico and Lourdes in France.

Related Topics:
Blessed Virgin Mary - Shrines to the Virgin Mary - Knock - Ireland - Fátima - Portugal - Guadalupe - Mexico - Lourdes - France

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In 1984 John Paul II became the first Pope to visit Korea and Puerto Rico. On 15 January 1995 he offered mass to an estimated crowd of 4.5 million in Luneta Park, Manila, Philippines, the largest papal crowd ever. On 22 March 1998 he paid a second visit to Nigeria. Also in 1999 John Paul II made another of his multiple trips to the United States. In 2000 he became the first modern Catholic pope to visit Egypt, where he met with the Coptic pope and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. In May 2001 the Pontiff took a pilgrimage that would trace the steps of his co-namesake, Saint Paul, across the Mediterranean, from Greece to Syria to Malta.

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He was the first Roman Catholic Pope to visit and pray in an Islamic mosque, in Damascus, Syria. He visited Umayyad Mosque, where John the Baptist is believed to be interred.

Related Topics:
Islamic - Mosque - Damascus - Syria - Umayyad Mosque - John the Baptist

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In September 2001 amid post-September 11 concerns, he travelled to Kazakhstan, with an audience of largely Muslims, as well as Armenia, to participate in the celebration of the 1700 years of Christianity in that nation.

Related Topics:
2001 - September 11 - Kazakhstan - Muslim - Armenia - Christianity

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Relations with other religions

Pope John Paul II travelled extensively and came into contact with many divergent faiths. With these he ceaselessly attempted to find common ground, whether it be doctrinal or dogmatic. He made history with his establishment of contacts with Israel, praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, visited Pope John Paul II eight times, more than any other single dignitary. The Pope and the Dalai Lama often shared similar views and understood similar plights, both coming from peoples who have suffered under communism.

Related Topics:
Israel - Western Wall - Tenzin Gyatso - Dalai Lama - Tibetan Buddhism - Communism

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In contrast, the Northern Irish Protestant leader Ian Paisley repeatedly accused John Paul II of being the Antichrist.

Related Topics:
Northern Irish - Protestant - Ian Paisley - Antichrist

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Image:Dalai Lama.jpg|John Paul II meets Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama at the Vatican in 1999.

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Image:Jp2lutheran_2.jpg|Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope ever to preach in a Lutheran church; Rome, December 1983

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Image:jp ii wailing_wall.jpg|John Paul II prays and expresses sorrow for past Catholic mistreatment of Jews at the Western Wall.

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Image:Jp2synogogue.jpg|Pope John Paul II visiting The Great Synagogue of Rome in April 1986

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Image:Pope_and_Christodoulos2.jpg|Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Christodoulos issue a "common declaration".

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Relations with the Jewish people

Relations between Catholicism and Judaism improved during the pontificate of John Paul II. He spoke frequently about the Church's relationship with Jews. In 1979 he became the first Pope to visit Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where many of his countrymen (mostly Polish Jews) had perished under Nazi rule. Shortly afterward, he became the first modern Pope to visit a synagogue when he visited the Synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986.

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In March 2000, John Paul II visited Yad Vashem, (the Israeli national Holocaust memorial) in Israel and later touched the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall in Jerusalem. In October 2003 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a statement congratulating John Paul II on entering the 25th year of his papacy.

Related Topics:
March 2000 - Yad Vashem - Holocaust - Israel - Judaism - Western Wall - Jerusalem - 2003 - Anti-Defamation League

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Immediately after the pope's death, the ADL issued a statement that Pope John Paul II had revolutionized Catholic-Jewish relations, saying that "more change for the better took place in his 27 year Papacy than in the nearly 2,000 years before." (Pope John Paul II: An Appreciation: A Visionary Remembered).

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A number of points of dispute still exist between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community, including World War II-related issues and issues of doctrine. Nonetheless, the number of issues that divide Jewish groups and the Vatican has dropped significantly during the last 40 years.

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Relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church

In May 1999, John Paul II visited Romania on the invitation from Patriarch Teoctist of the Romanian Orthodox Church. This was the first time a pope had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054. On his arrival, the Patriarch and the President of Romania, Emil Constantinescu, greeted the Pope. The Patriarch stated, "The second millennium of Christian history began with a painful wounding of the unity of the Church; the end of this millennium has seen a real commitment to restoring Christian unity."

Related Topics:
Romania - Teoctist - Romanian Orthodox Church - Great Schism - 1054 - Emil Constantinescu

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John Paul II visited other heavily Orthodox areas such as Ukraine, despite lack of welcome at times, and he said that an end to the Schism was one of his fondest wishes.

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Pope John Paul II could not escape the controversy of the involvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustasa regime of World War II in his relations with the Serb Orthodox Church. He beatified Aloysius Stepinac in 1998, the Croatian war-time Archbishop of Zagreb, a move seen negatively by those who believe that he was an active collaborator with the Usta?e fascist regime. On 22 June 2003 he visited Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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The Pope had been also saying during his entire pontificate that one of his greatest dreams was to visit Russia, but this never occurred. He had made several attempts to solve the problems which arose over a period of centuries between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, like giving back the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in August 2004. However, the Orthodox side was not that enthusiastic, making statements like: "The question of the visit of the Pope in Russia is not connected by the journalists with the problems between the Churches, which are now unreal to solve, but with giving back one of many sacred things, which were illegally stolen from Russia." (Vsevolod Chaplin).

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The Pope for youth

John Paul II had a special relationship also with Catholic youth and is known by some as The Pope for Youth. He was a hero to many of them.

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He established World Youth Day in 1984 with the intention of bringing young Catholics from all parts of the world together to celebrate their faith. These week-long meetings of youth occur every two or three years, attracting hundreds of thousands of young people, who go there to sing, party, have a good time and deepen their faith. His most faithful youths gathered themselves in two organizations: "papaboys" and "papagirls."

Related Topics:
World Youth Day - 1984

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Apologies

Over the later parts of his reign, John Paul II made several apologies to various peoples that had been wronged by the Catholic Church through the years. Even before he became the Pope, he was a prominent supporters of initiatives like the Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops from 1965. During his reign as a Pope, he publicly made apologies for over 100 of these mistakes, including:

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The persecution of the Italian scientist and philosopher Galileo Galilei in the trial by the Roman Catholic Church in 1633 (31 October 1992).
Catholic involvement with the African slave trade (9 August 1993).
The Church's role in burnings at the stake and the religious wars that followed the Protestant Reformation (May 1995, in the Czech Republic).
The injustices committed against women in the name of Christ, the violation of women's rights and for the historical denigration of women (10 July 1995, in a letter to "every woman").
Inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust (16 March 1998).
For the execution of Jan Hus in 1415 (18 December 1999).
For the sins of Catholics throughout the ages for violating "the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and contempt for their cultures and religious traditions". (12 March 2000, during a public Mass of Pardons).
For the sins of the Crusader attack on Constantinople in 1204. (4 May 2001, to the Patriarch of Constantinople).
For missionary abuses in the past against indigenous peoples of the South Pacific (22 November 2001, via the Internet).
For the massacre of Aztecs and other Mesoamericans by the Spanish in the name of the Church.

Social and political stances

John Paul II was a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to reproduction and the ordination of women.

Related Topics:
Doctrine - Ordination

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A series of 129 lectures given by John Paul during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984 were later compiled and published as a single work entitled "Theology of the Body," an extended meditation on the nature of human sexuality and masculinity in human life. He also extended it to condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and virtually all uses of capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world. He was a pacifist, opposed to capital punishment. He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice.

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The pope, who began his papacy when the Soviets controlled his native country of Poland, as well as the rest of Eastern Europe, was a harsh critic of communism and offered support to those fighting for change, like the Polish Solidarity movement. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev once said the collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II.{{ref|Gorbachev}} This view is shared by many people of the post-Soviet states, who view him, as well as Ronald Reagan, as the heroes responsible for bringing an end to the communist tyranny. In later years, John Paul II also criticized some of the more extreme versions of corporate capitalism.

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In 2000 he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono. It was reported that during this period, U2's recording sessions were repeatedly interrupted by phone calls from the pope, wanting to discuss the campaign with Bono.

Related Topics:
Jubilee 2000 - African - Debt relief - Bob Geldof - Bono - U2

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In 2003 John Paul II also became a prominent critic of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. He sent former Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to the United States Pío Cardinal Laghi to talk with American President George W. Bush to express opposition to the war. John Paul II said that it was up to the United Nations to solve the international conflict through diplomacy and that a unilateral aggression is a crime against peace and a violation of international law.

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In European Union negotiations for a new European Constitution in 2003 and 2004, the Vatican's representatives failed to secure any mention of Europe's "Christian heritage"—one of the pope's cherished goals.

Related Topics:
European Union - European Constitution - 2004

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The pope was also a leading critic of same-sex marriage. In his last book, Memory and Identity, he referred to the "pressures" on the European Parliament to permit same-sex marriage. Reuters quotes the pope as writing, "It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man."

Related Topics:
Same-sex marriage - European Parliament

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The Pope also criticized transsexual and transgender people, as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he supervised, banned them from serving in church positions, as well as considering them to have "mental pathologies".

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Criticism

When the Cold War ended, some conservatives argued that the Pope moved too far left on foreign policy, and had pacifist views that were too extreme. His opposition to the 2003 Iraq War was criticized for this reason.

Related Topics:
Cold War - Pacifist - 2003 Iraq War

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John Paul II was also criticized for his support of the Opus Dei prelature and the canonization of its founder, Josemaría Escrivá, whose opponents call him an admirer of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Related Topics:
Opus Dei - Canonization - Josemaría Escrivá - Spanish - Francisco Franco

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John Paul II's beliefs about gender roles and sexuality also came under attack. Some feminists criticized his positions on the role of women, and gay-rights activists disagreed with criticism of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

Related Topics:
Gender roles - Sexuality - Feminists - Homosexuality - Same-sex marriage

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His opposition to artificial contraception was particularly controversial. Claims were made that John Paul II's papacy spread an unproven belief that condoms do not block the spread of HIV; between these two claims, many critics have blamed him for contributing to AIDS epidemics in Africa and elsewhere in which millions have died.{{ref|Toynbee}} His supporters disagree and stress the importance of sexual abstinence in preventing the spread of AIDS. Critics have also claimed that the large families caused by lack of contraception have exacerbated Third World poverty and problems such as street children in South America.

Related Topics:
Contraception - Condom - HIV - AIDS epidemic - Africa - AIDS - Third World - Street children - South America

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John Paul II was also criticized for the way he administered the Church; in particular, critics charged that he failed to respond quickly enough to the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. He was also criticized for recentralizing power back to the Vatican following the earlier decentralization of Pope John XXIII. As such he was regarded by some as a strict authoritarian.

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Besides all the criticism from those demanding modernization, Traditional Catholics were at times equally vehement in denouncing him from the right, demanding a return to the Tridentine Mass and repudiation of the reforms instituted after the Second Vatican Council, such as the use of the vernacular language in Mass.

Related Topics:
Traditional Catholic - Tridentine Mass

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Because of the many criticisms he received during this lifetime, including many assassination attempts, some led by communists, and due to the downfall of his detractors in contrast with his fame of sanctity after his death, John Paul II has been called by theologians a sign of contradiction (a sign that is spoken against), which John Paul II suggests in his book of the same title as "a distinctive definition of Christ and of his Church."

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◄ Pope John Paul II: Biography

Pope John Paul II: Other ►

~ Table of Content ~

►	Introduction
►	Theiapolis People!
►	Overview
►	Biography
►	Life's work
►	Other
►	Further reading
►	Films about Pope John Paul II
►	See also
►	Notes
►	Goodies & Collectibles
►	Posters & Prints

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