Gerry Vanderhaar
Because I was working in Rome in June 1963 when beloved Pope John XXIII died, I was able to fulfill the dream of so many young Catholics by standing in St. Peter’s Square when the white smoke rose above the Sistine Chapel signaling that a new Pope had been elected. A half hour or so later, the door of the balcony above the entrance to St. Peter’s opened, we heard the words, “Habemus Papam,” and a slightly stooped, solemn faced, heavily garbed figure appeared. The papal functionary next to him announced that Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Montini, had chosen. He would be Paul VI.
The new Pope blessed the applauding crowd several times, then retired. The door was closed. We all went back to work.
How could anybody, I thought, take the place of John XXIII!
How, so many now wonder, can anybody take the place of John Paul II, the most vigorous and physically active pope in modern history?
Decades after Pope John XXIII and the new spirit of life and hope he brought, we appreciate very much Pope John Paul II’s contributions to the Church’s legacy of peace and justice. We remember vividly his somber testimony in the volatile weeks leading up to the war against Iraq: “Nothing is resolved by war. On the contrary, everything is placed in jeopardy by war.”
Pope John Paul II opposed the war against Iraq. The world knew it, President Bush knew it. Yet the war started, supported, unfortunately, by the majority of American Catholics.
He showed courageous love of enemy when he visited his would-be assassin in prison, and forgave him.
And he gave the world a splendid example of ecumenical and interfaith sensitivity. “More has been accomplished in Jewish-Christian relations during this pope’s tenure than in the preceding 1,000 years,” a Memphis, TN rabbi said.
Looking to the future, we can hope that the new Pope practices and preaches active nonviolence in personal, social and political life.
The new Pope enters a system of protocols and precedents, of doctrines and decisions that will give him little room to maneuver independently for some time. A generation ago Pope John XXIII wanted something different for the Church than the course it had taken under his predecessor, Pius XII. Pope John XXIII’s realistic sense of the Vatican, expressed in his heartfelt if perhaps apocryphal remark, Sono nel sacco qui, “I’m in a sack, a bag, a box here,” led him away from trying to change ecclesiastical systems directly. He would leave that up to the Spirit. So he announced, as a bolt out of the blue, that he was calling a Council.
The gentle power of that Second Vatican Council continues to inspire the Church today.
What we might realistically expect from the new Pope, in the foreseeable future at least, is the status quo. The Vatican leadership will speak about the ideals of peace. It will, with due caution, oppose new adventures by imperial powers. It will urge justice for oppressed peoples, occasionally naming parts of the world that need special attention.
Catholics who work for peace and justice, in respect for the venerable and noble tradition, will embrace all of these gestures as further affirmation of our work, while continuing steadily on our course for a less violent, more just world.
To read more articles from The Catholic Peace Voice, click here.
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