"From the Office of Bishop Raymond J Lahey, Diocese of Antigonish, NS"

A Profile in Courage

Appropriately, I am writing this column in Rome, where I have been taking part in some meetings, and where the Holy Father has only recently celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his election as Pope (October 16, 2003). Over the years, illness has obviously taken its toll on his physical strength, and that tends to be the recent focus of the media; his spirits, however, always young and hopeful, clearly remain undimmed.

On such an occasion, it is difficult to ignore all that John Paul II has contributed to the Church and to the world. Some have called him “The Man of the 20th Century,” and have rightly given him much credit for the end of the Cold War between East and West. His journeys throughout the world have made him a well-known figure everywhere and to those of all faiths, and his consistent statements about peace, justice and life have given him commanding public stature.

In twenty-five years the Pope has also left an indelible mark upon the Church. His sponsorship of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and his revision of canon law, together with his extensive body of teachings, form a legacy that will endure for years to come. Many younger Catholics today have known no other pope, and their lives will ever be touched by their experience of John Paul II. Undoubtedly history will not regard his every decision as correct, but it will surely speak of his pontificate as a great one.

Personally, what I have found most striking about this remarkable man is his courage. Who among us did not marvel at the courage of an obviously ill and elderly man as he struggled down the steps of an aircraft to celebrate together with the youth of the world a common faith and hope? Then there is that other courage shown in his standing consistently for the beliefs of Christ, even when he knows what he teaches will be unpopular. That same courage led to the Holy Father’s unwavering defense of human life from conception to natural death as a seamless garment, and his consequent opposition to such wrongs as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and war. His comprehensive pro-life stand clearly comes from his conviction that to diminish human dignity is to deface the image of God, and it led him to take equally strong and courageous positions, often overlooked, on issues of justice, including the cancellation of crippling foreign debts and the evils of communism and capitalism alike, even when such positions alienated supposedly friendly governments.

It took courage also for John Paul II to constantly stand for commitment to Christian unity as part of the very core of Church life, for that stance was popular neither with Catholics who looked only inward nor with others who spoke of “the winter” of ecumenism. Courage dictated that the Holy Father not cancel planned visits to Greece and Ukraine in the face of predictions of opposition and even violence, because his presence there would contribute to the unity of those who believe in Christ. Similarly, his courage made him fearless to speak out about the wrongful things the Church itself had done and to seek reconciliation, even when this kind of gesture was known to have been opposed by some of his close advisors.

But the most striking image of this courage is the photo of a Pope sitting alone in a Roman prison cell with the man who shot him: courage here not because of any physical danger, but because his visit with the man who had tried to kill him was as strong a statement of personal reconciliation as we are likely to see in a world that regularly reacts to hurt in terms of anger, retribution and revenge.

I doubt that the Pope ever thinks of himself in such terms. His courage is always cloaked with a profound sense of duty to the Gospel and to the world made by God. He has personally experienced both the horrors of war and the evils of totalitarianism, Nazi and Communist alike; he was formed in the eras of the concentration camp and the police state. It is not merely idealism, but life itself, which has fashioned his commitment “to do the right thing.” But doing right, and not just speaking of it, usually takes courage, and for the blessing of that courage which has served both Church and world so well over twenty five years we must be truly grateful.