CC#28--A Personal Tribute to St. John Paul II: The Saint Who Steered My Faith Journey

One week ago was the feast of Saint John Paul II. Let's talk about how he influenced the world on this Catholic Corner.

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Catholic Corner. In our last Catholic Corner, yesterday, we talked about my 20 years at St Patrick's Parish and how that parish was vital to my maturing into a good practicing Roman Catholic, or at least I'm trying to be humbly walking that path. Now, one aspect I did not touch on in yesterday's podcast was how important St John Paul II was to my becoming Catholic. So today, because today is the feast day of St John Paul II, october 22nd, we will dedicate this podcast to talking all about him. And first, there could not have been a better example of a Christian. In the modern world, with all of its questions and all of its confusions and all of its complexities and its rapid changing technology, there could not have been a better Christian, a better Catholic, at least for me, than St John Paul II. His example, his life story, his losing both of his parents so early in his life, his dedication to becoming a Catholic priest in the face of extreme Nazi persecution that example was mind boggling to me. In fact, I did my senior political science thesis on John Paul II because he was so impactful on my becoming Catholic. Now, second, we started this podcast with the very first book we quoted from was from George Weigel's epic and monumental biography of St John Paul II, titled Witness to Hope. If you go all the way back to Mojo, minute number one, that was all about the power of good example, and we covered the book Witness to Hope. That was intentionally done. John Paul II's example of forgiving a person who attempted to assassinate him was equally mind boggling to me. That extreme sense of charity and that equally great example to millions, if not billions, of Christians around the world for us to follow in our own daily lives was monumental. Now, to help illustrate some other reasons that he was instrumental in my becoming Catholic, I will share with you a book that I read roughly two or three years ago that provides a wonderful but quick outline of St John Paul II's life. That book is titled 100 Ways John Paul II changed the world. It's by Patrick Nokovsky. Now, don't get worried, we're not going to talk about all 100 ways, though I think I could talk about 75 of them, because they're actually worth talking about, but I won't Now. One way to introduce you to this book is through the great author, dr Paul Kengor, who wrote the foreword to this book. So let's grab a portion of that to set the stage for the rest of our podcast. Going to the book as readers forge ahead with this book, they should do so confidently, learning and integrating the thoughts and the exhortations of Pope St John Paul II. Many of these, from his teachings on the family to divine mercy, to his theology of the body, constitute, as biographer George Weigel said, of the theology of the body, a kind of quote theological time bomb set to go off with dramatic consequences sometime in the third millennium of the church. End of quote. I would hasten to add that this constitutes a theological time bomb not only for the church but for the world, especially a Western world wash in what John Paul II's successor described as a dictatorship of relativism. Standing strong amid that dictatorship will take courage and it will take an understanding of the teachings of this great Pope. Catholics and other Christians generally should take those lessons to heart and into their families and schools and culture. They should, to borrow from another category on Patrick's List, heed Pope John Paul II's timeless advice to be not afraid. Indeed, be not afraid. That was the key phrase of John Paul II's pontificate From 1978 to 2005,. Perhaps the very best example of St John Paul II and his gift to the world was his prayer life. He was a man of deep and intense prayer. Let's go to the book to hear all about that. More than anything, john Paul lived for his relationship with Jesus Christ. His prayer life fueled everything he did and said. If there's one takeaway from this book, it's his call to prayer. Prayer is rocket fuel for sanctity, which he lived beautifully, as he told a gathering of young people in New Orleans in 1987, quote if you really wish to follow Christ, if you want your love for him to grow and last, then you must be faithful to prayer. It is the key to the vitality of your life in Christ. Without prayer, your faith and love will die. If you are constant in daily prayer and in the Sunday celebration of Mass, your love for Jesus will increase and your heart will know deep joy and peace such as the world could never give. Such important words for a young person like me to read in the library on the campus of Ohio Northern University, a young person who had not known what a deep prayer life was like or even how to start it. But the seed was planted. Seed was planted because this man was a man to follow. This man was a man to understand, to understand why he did what he did. This was a Christian who was pointing the way to Christ and that was profound, especially for me. Now Patrick gives us a sense of his book, saying let's go to the book. This book looks at 100 different ways Pope John Paul II influenced the world. The first 90, numbers 100 to number 11 are grouped to best tell the story of how the Holy Father changed the world. The final 10, numbers 10 through 1 are ranked according to importance, based on conversations with scholars who knew and studied John Paul. Perhaps some will disagree with the rankings, but I expect that none will disagree that this extraordinary man left an indelible mark on the history of the church and on the world. I totally agree. This man left an indelible mark on the history of the church and on the world. So to quickly give you a sense of this book, let's go through the top 50, which I will read through quickly. The remaining you can check out for yourself. But the top 50 will give you a sense of the width and the depth and the breadth of this man's life and how impactful he was and, most importantly, how impactful he was to me on my faith journey to become Catholic but, more importantly, to challenge me to become a better disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. Okay, so here we go. Here is the top 50. At least we're going to read from number 50, starting with number 50. Go on to the book. Number 50, be not afraid. Number 49, relations with the Middle East. Number 48, a visit to Israel. Number 47 visits to Africa. 46, love of Italy, then affirming natural law, consecrating women, the elevation of women, the teaching on sports, number 41, the mystery of suffering. And number 40, the response to this sexual abuse crisis. Actually, let's stop here at number 40 and talk about this. Go on to the book. Response to the sexual abuse crisis. The abuse of minors by priests worldwide during the middle of the 20th century is one of the most painful chapters in the Catholic Church's 2000 year history. Despite the fact that the abuse of minors has been shown to correlate strongly with the increase of homosexual men in the priesthood from the 1950s through the 1980s, the crisis did not explode publicly in the United States until 2002, at a time when John Paul II was plagued by health issues. Critics accused the Pope of not doing enough to stop predatory priests and for being sluggish in the response to the crisis. However, former papal spokesman Joaquin Navarra Vols told reporters in 2002 very few, including John Paul, understood the depth and breadth of the situation. In 1994, at the request of the US bishops seeking to implement a zero-tolerance policy, john Paul proved changes to church law to allow proposed norms and two years later did the same for the Irish bishops. When he addressed the American bishops in 2002, he made it quite clear that the church would have no tolerance for the abuse of minors. People need to know this is him quoting. People need to know there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young. He said. They must know that the bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of the Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and the family. The Pope was also blunt in his expressing his horrors at the scandal, which cast a great deal of mistrust upon the church and the priest entrusted with bringing Jesus to the world. Like you, I too have been deeply grieved by the fact that priest and religious whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives In the sight of God have themselves caused such suffering and scandal to the young the abuse has caused. This crisis is, by every standard, wrong and rightly considered a crime by society. It is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. Now, at the same time, the Pope expressed solidarity with the abused, saying to the victims and their families, whatever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern. He said Chicago's Cardinal Francis George at the time said the 2002 meeting with John Paul affirmed that homosexuality among the priest was a pressing concern. Quote a definite connection was made between homosexuality and the sexual misconduct with minors. If the conduct is with minor men, george said, if you have a man who cannot see himself as a married man with children, I don't think he has a vacation to the priesthood. He said Papal biographer George Weigel pushed back on the idea that the Pope ignored the crisis, quote. I think that the only way to think about the cop that comprehensively is to understand that John Paul to was a great reformer of the Catholic priesthood. Catholic priesthood in 1978 was in the worst condition and had been since the 16th century. Thousands of priests had left the act of ministry. We now know that a small minority of priests were involved in horrible crimes and grave sins. Seminary formation was weak. All of that was changed over the next 26 and a half years end of quote and that was vital to the rooting out of bad priests with evil intentions. I can't say I have seen seminary formation becoming vastly, vastly better in my time in the church since 1998. Also, let me make mention here a call out to Bishop Robert Barron's book on the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church as one of the best books I have read on this very sensitive subject. That book is titled Letter to a Suffering Church A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis. It was written in 2019 and I highly, highly recommended it to many people in and outside of the Catholic Church. Okay, moving on with our list to number 39. And this is the top 50 ways St John Paul II influenced the world, from the book by Peter Narkovsky Number 39. Outreach to children Number 38,. Love of circus Love of the circus. Then response to Metchagoria. Number 36,. Our Lady of Chetchahova. Then care for the Swiss guard. Care for the police. Honoring firefighters Concerned for military personnel Number 31,. Standing up to the mafia Number 30, the 1979 visit to Poland. And let's stop right here for a quick minute for another call out. John Paul II's trip to Poland in 1979 was earth-shattering. We covered this trip in detail with the podcast number actually Catholic Corner number 10, titled those Nine Days in June. Be sure to check that out. I will offer just one quote from those profound days. Quote Christ cannot keep out of the history of man in any part of the globe, the Pope said to a thunderous applause in his homily on the first day. On that first day, the exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man. Without Christ it is impossible to understand the history of Poland. Many understood his words as a direct challenge to the communist rule. He ended the homily by calling down the Holy Spirit upon his native land, which had suffered five years of Nazi occupation, followed by 33 years of communist rule. Quote and I cry. I who am a son of the land of Poland and who am also Pope John Paul II, I cry from all the depths of this millennium. I cry on the vigil of Pentecost. Let your spirit descend. Let your spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land. End of quote. Throughout the Pope's homily, the crowd rhythmically chanted we want God, we want God. Those were powerful words chanted from the crowd, and it was a vital turning point on which the history of the world pivoted. The truth that the free world had been telling to the whole world was finally coming out. The communist were vapid. They had nothing to offer. They believed in no God. Now John Paul II drove home that powerful sentiment by echoing in their hearts a repeated theme at each one of his stops during those nine days. He essentially said you are not who they say. You are meaning you, the people of Poland, 95% of whom are Catholic, and this was their first Polish Pope coming back to their country in 1979. He understood them, he spoke on their behalf. He was one of them and he was telling them you, my beloved countryman and countrywomen, you are not who they, the communists, say you are. That theme ignited a final revolution of conscience that began the crumbling of the Soviet empire. By all accounts, there was no other greatest factor in toppling Eastern European communism. John Paul II rallied his people to say no, this will no longer stand. And they did it. By all accounts, it was one of the most peaceful, silent, nonviolent revolutions in all of human history. More people took up their rosaries each and every night to offer prayers and supplications to our Lord, then grabbed their guns to go fight and shoot the communist. Okay, let's resume our list, moving down the list of the top 50 ways Saint John Paul II influenced the world from the book by Peter Narkovsky, where he actually lists 100 ways, but we're just doing the top 50 for right now. Number 29, empowering the laity. Number 28, faustina Kowalska. Number 27, maximilian Kolbe, next the development of personalism, then resistance to capital punishment. Number 24, the friendship with Joseph Ratzinger, later to be Pope Benedict XVI. Number 23, the, the theological legacy. Number 22, the expansion of the College of Cardinals. Number 21, the church in China. Number 20, the dignity of marriage, then the defense of the family, followed by the gift of motherhood, then the protection for the unborn. Number 16, the care for the elderly. Number 15, the saint maker. Number 14, a wonderful encyclical, the splendor of truth, I'm sorry, the splendor of truth. Number 13, the revised code of Canaan law. Number 14, the world travel, then the devotion of the Eucharist and next, at number 10, the devotion to Mary. So again, we're moving down our list of the top 50 ways St John Paul II influenced the world. From the book by Peter Narkovsky, which is actually titled 100 ways that St John Paul II influenced the world, we're doing the top 50. And we're at number nine, which is titled Unpacking Vatican II. Now we'll stop right here for a quick, hot second. For his 26 and a half years, john Paul II helped to unpack what came to be a very divisive Vatican or second Vatican Council. Now most people don't know that most Councils of the Church are notably divisive and it takes the Church some 30 to 60 to 90 years or even 100 years after such a Council to digest the writings of the Council, to read and pray on the writings that have come out of the Council. And that was true in the earliest Councils and that is true of this latest Council. Now we'll be covering a book in the Academy coming up shortly, all about Vatican II. So stay tuned for that. But we'll continue to move down our list. For now, number eight, the culture of life, and we'll just offer a brief quote here because it's worth our while going to the book. As Christianity waned in practice and influence, particularly in the West, the Pope saw that human life was being cheapened. His first notable reference to a culture of life was in his 1991 encyclical Santissimus Annus, in which he said that the morals and the ethics must first be nurtured in the family. Quote the family is indeed sacred. It is the place in which life, the gift of God, can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth In the face of the so-called culture of death. The family is the heart of the culture of life, and the culture of death offers the world no hope, no freedom, no pathway to a better society. It's a cul-de-sac into despair. Just putting the very strong against the very weak is no way to run a country or a world. That is tyranny, not Christianity. Now, moving down our list of the top 50 ways St John Paul II influenced the world From the book by Peter Nekofsky, we'll move to number seven, world Youth Day. Just one comment here from the book is in order, I'm sorry. Just one quote from the book is in order. While it's impossible to measure the full impact of world youth day, it is also impossible to ignore its fruits. The secular media predicted world youth day in Denver 1993 would be a bust. They thought that no sane young person, catholics or otherwise, would trek to, of all places, colorado to listen to a 73-year-old Polish pope. They were wrong. Denver was a massive success, with John Paul receiving a rock star welcome at Mile High Stadium and nearly a million people camped out for the final day of Mass in Cherry Creek Park. Quote do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first apostles who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of cities and towns and villages. There is no time to be ashamed of the gospel. It is the time to preach it from the rooftops. John Paul challenged in his homily and the American youth responded by embracing the faith in droves. Again, just another example of the major media not having any clue about the pulse of the people. Zero clue what the pulse of the people in 1993, especially in its reports, their thinking or feeling, or even what the mindset of the people was. Moving down our list to number six, the luminous mysteries of the rosary. Now, I had just gotten back from Rome in October of 2002, when the Holy Father declared from October of 2002 to October of 2003, the year of the rosary. At the same time he issued the apostolic letter on the Holy Rosary of the Virgin Mary. There he introduced to the world and suggested a set of new, five new mysteries to be incorporated into the current rosary. Those mysteries were number one Jesus's baptism by John and the Jordan River. Number two, the wedding at Cana, jesus's first miracle, where Jesus's first miracle took place. Number three, the proclamation of the kingdom, the many areas throughout the public life of our Lord where he proclaimed the good news. Number four, the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain with Peter, james and John. And number five, the Last Supper, where we have the institution of the Holy Eucharist. In his apostolic letter, he reminded the faithful that the family that prays together stays together, understanding that universal and vital bedrock of all human civilization is the family, no matter the culture, no matter the political or economic system. So goes the majority of families, so goes the culture. Moving on to number five, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Beginning in 1992, and after much consultation, a group of 12 bishops, led by the departments of the Roman Curia, updated the Catechism. Now the Catechism is a reference document, a catalog of all the teachings of the Catholic Church. It has come in various iterations and various public ways throughout the 2000 year history of the Church, but it was last officially and universally put out in response to the Protestant Revolt in the mid-16th century after the Council of Trent was finally approved and was given to the faithful, in which it had been a wonderful teaching and reference document. So it was a very good thing in 1992 that the Holy Father, along with much consultation with the bishops and many of the departments of the Curia, the governing body of the Church, they updated the Catechism in 1992. Again, it was a wonderful teaching and reference document for the faithful. Now, moving on to number four of our top 50 ways John Paul II has influenced the world. Number four is the fall of communism, which we touched on earlier. Number three is a theology of the body. Now let's go back to the book on this one because it's super important and it will set the stage for some episodes that are coming up in the next week, and this is an important week coming up and I will share more on that at the end. But let's go to the book to discuss what is the theology of the body. Go into the book. The theology of the body Even before his election as Pope in 1978, carol Wotewa recognized that the culture had developed a serious misunderstanding of the human person. When he published his first book, love and Responsibility, in 1960, the sexual revolution was not yet in full swing. He intended it as a resource for those who desire to cultivate a correct Christian anthropology, particularly with regard to human sexuality. The cultural confusion about the purpose of human sexuality led to a massive dissent from Pope Saint Paul VI in his document Humane Vitei, especially among the bishops and priests and laypeople within the church. Seeking to put that prophetic document in proper context and to build a base for its understanding, pope John Paul II launched a series of lectures, 130 in all, during his Wednesday general audiences from September 5th 1979 to November 28th 1984. This series of orations, which came to be known as the theology of the body, was the first major teaching of his pontificate and one of the most significant. John Paul II's theology of the body presents a holistic vision of Christian life, rooted in the fact that God created man to experience real love through a free, unconditional and reciprocal gift of the self to the other, culminating in a union of husband and wife. John Paul's integrated vision of the human person asserted that the human body has a specific meaning making visible and invisible reality. He taught that the human body is capable of revealing answers to the fundamental questions about humans and about our lives and of revealing God when he says quote man, whom God created male and female, bears the divine image imprinted on his body. Quote from the beginning. He said in his 1980 general audience man and woman constitute two different ways of the human being a body in the unity of that image. John Paul asserted that the human person was not created to be solitary but to live in communion with others, wrote American theologian Cardinal Avery dollars. By God's design, male and female are complimentary I'm sorry, complimentary. This complimentarity Comes to its fullest expression in the marital act, which is intrinsically ordered towards procreation and activity, whereby human beings are privileged to participate in the creative action of God. The total self-giving of the partners demands openness to the generation of new life. Now, this is such an important theological teaching and I have been studying it and reading it Since 2004 when I discovered it. It's so incredibly deep and incredibly riching. Now two callouts for books if you want to know more about John Paul II's Theology of the body. The first is a book titled man and woman he created them, which is a book of the actual teachings with a solid translation, produced by the daughters of st Paul, and another book is theology of the body for beginners by a gentleman named Christopher West. Christopher West has been teaching all about John Paul II theology of the body for the better part of 20 years. He's created a theology of the body Institute in southeastern Pennsylvania, which is they offer wonderful books all about this, this teaching. And let's just tack on One more quote from this book the 100 ways John Paul II has changed the world. All about theology of the body. Above all, john Paul viewed marital love through the lens of Christ. Love for his bride, the church. Such love, he said, necessitates sacrifice. Christ manifests the love with which he has loved her, the church, by giving himself for her. That love is an image and above all, a model of the love which the husband should show to his wife and marriage when the two are subject to each other out of reverence for Christ. This groundbreaking teaching also brings the modern world a more complete understanding of freedom, sexual love and the relationship between them. In 1999, papal biographer George Weigel predicted how revolutionary this work would become. John Paul II theology of the body is emphatically not made for the age of the 22nd soundbite or the for a media environment in which every idea Must be labeled liberal or conservative. It may be the case that the theology of the body will be seriously engaged Only when John Paul II, a lightning rod of controversy, is gone from the historical stage. These 130 catechetical addresses Taking together constitute a kind of theological time bomb set to go off with dramatic consequences Sometime in the third millennium of the church. A Theological time bomb indeed. Now, in the next Catholic corner next weekend, we will dive deep into the theology of the body. But for now we'll close out our podcast with the final two remaining ways that John Paul II influenced the world, picking up this list from Peter Nikovsky's wonderful book. Number two, divine mercy. And Finally, number one, reason the John Paul II influenced the world is the new evangelization. Now divine mercy we touched upon earlier this year in Catholic corner number 22, where we did a two-part series All about divine mercy, by following up or by following the wonderful nuggets of wisdom offered to us by Father Michael Gately and in his book, the second greatest story ever told. Now is the time for mercy. Be sure to check out those podcasts. We'll put links in the show notes for that. Part one was 22 minutes long. That was a deep dive, and part two was 26 minutes long. So deep, super deep stuff there. All good, and then, just commenting on the number one way, john Paul the second influenced the world again from the brilliant book by Peter Nikovsky, the new evangelization. We will be talking more about that in the coming months, but for now, looking at the time in this Catholic corner, we hope you were inspired and perhaps motivated to study the life of this great saint, saint John Paul the second. He had a profound influence on my life, most especially in my younger years. He gave a wonderful example, he essentially taught me how to pray and I was fortunate enough to see him in person in 2002 in Rome, right before he passed away from this earth in 2005. So again, I hope you were inspired. I hope you appreciate this wonderful saint who most of us if you are older than 40, have had the wonderful experience of calling this guy a contemporary of ours, most likely one of the greatest saints in the 20th century, for sure, and perhaps one of the greatest saints in the second millennium. So thank you for listening, saint John Paul the second pray for us and, as always, keep fighting the good fight.

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