The Beatification of John Paul: The Vatican Prepares

The preparations for John Paul II’s beatification are now in their final stages. No one knows how many people will attend the Sunday morning Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The greatest fear…

By Robert Moynihan, from Rome

The greatest fear now is… the weather.

Because the weather reports on Friday afternoon in Rome say that there will be light rain Saturday night, and light rain showers on Sunday morning.

And if there is rain, everything about this historic beatification, which is shutting down all auto traffic in the entire area around St. Peter’s Square starting on Saturday at one o’clock in the afternoon, will grow more complicated.

But hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who revered and loved Pope John Paul II and wish to be present at the moment of his beatification on Sunday morning are still expected to congregate in front of Piazza San Pietro throughout Saturday night, waiting patiently — even in the rain — until the entrances to the piazza open at 5:30 in the morning.

The Mass will begin at 10 am. Pope Benendict XVI is expected to arrive at 9:55 am.

At a final Vatican Press Conference regarding the beatification this morning, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., told journalists that there are no official previsions for how many people will be present when the Mass begins.

Current published estimates say Roman authorities expect some 300,000 people, but whispered rumors are circulating that the number may be 500,000, or even 1 million.

If such numbers do choose to attend the beatification, in spite of possible rain, it will be a dramatic testimony to the power of the message and spiritual vision of Pope John Paul II, six years after his death on April 2, 2005.

The Vatican has accredited 2,300 journalists to cover this event: 1,300 from television stations, 700 from magazines and newspapers, 230 photographers, and 250 from radio stations. The total number of nations represented by these journalists: 101. This is the clearest, simplest indication that the beatification is a global event of global interest.

Journalists themselves are concerned that they will not be able to reach St. Peter’s Square. We are being told to come to the Press Office or a special section in the Square reserved for journalists between 4 and 5:30 am. After 5:30 am, officials say, we may not be able to make our way through the crowds which will circle St. Peter’s Square.

The past 10 days included memorable experiences on a pilgrimage with a small group, as I mentioned in my last email. We traveled from Assisi, home of St. Francis, to Norcia, where Father Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., is rebuilding an abandoned Benedictine monastery at the birthplace of St. Benedict, to Cascia, the home of St. Rita, patroness of impossible causes, to Rome, where we were able to attend to be near Pope Benedict as he celebrated the solemn Easter Vigil and joyful Easter Sunday Masses.

The beatification of Pope John Paul will bring this pilgrimage to a conclusion.

If the sun breaks through the clouds on Sunday morning, well, that will be a blessing for many on that special morning.

—Robert Moynihan

 

The Essence of the Pontificate

A brief reflection on the six years of Benedict XVI’s papacy. Plus, a Holy Week pilgrimage begins…

By Robert Moynihan,  from Rome

What has been the essence of Pope Benedict XVI’s first six years, since his election on April 19, 2005, six years ago today?

What has been the pontificate’s chief characteristic?

If one thinks of the pontificate as a whole, it is clear that the center of Benedict’s papacy is teaching. This pontificate is the pontificate of a teacher — of a man trained to be a professor who was a professor in Germany for almost 20 years, and who, since 2005, has become the professor, not of a classroom, but of the whole Church.

His Wednesday audiences for many years have been the occasion for a series of talks on saints in Church history. Taken together, these talks amount to an overview of the entire history of the Church. (These magisterial talks ought to be collected, and published, as a series of books.)

Likewise, his three encyclicals and two books on Jesus have clarified and amplified his teaching.

But what has been the essence of this teaching?

The essence of the teaching has been Christ.

It is a “Christo-centric” pontificate, oriented toward Christ, centered on Christ, with Christ at the center of all its activity and preaching.

And this explains why the Pope has published two lengthy books on Jesus of Nazareth, books which take up in a profound way the question of who Jesus was, and what he means for the world and human reality.

This “Christo-centrism” is also a “Logos-centrism,” since Christ is the Logos, the “Word” of God.

In this view, there can be no ultimate conflict between reason and faith, as Christ himself is reason, and so reason stems from and finds its deepest expression precisely in Christ.

In this context, one of Benedict’s basic ideas can be found in his address on the “Crisis of Culture” in the West, a day before Pope John Paul II died, when he referred to Christianity as the religion of the Logos (the Greek for “word”, “reason”, “meaning”, or “intelligence”). He said then:

“From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos, as the religion according to reason… It has always defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of God, proclaiming for them… the same dignity. In this connection, the Enlightenment is of Christian origin and it is no accident that it was born precisely and exclusively in the realm of the Christian faith…. It was and is the merit of the Enlightenment to have again proposed these original values of Christianity and of having given back to reason its own voice…

“Today, this should be precisely [Christianity's] philosophical strength, in so far as the problem is whether the world comes from the irrational, and reason is not other than a ‘sub-product,’ on occasion even harmful of its development — or whether the world comes from reason, and reason is, as a consequence, its criterion and goal… In the so-necessary dialogue between secularists and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the Logos, from creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is truly rational.”

Benedict also emphasized that “only creative reason, which in the crucified God is manifested as love, can really show us the way.”

“Friendship with Jesus Christ”

At the conclusion of his first homily as Pope, on April 24, 2005, Benedict referred to both Jesus Christ and John Paul II.

Citing John Paul II’s well-known words, “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!”, Benedict XVI said this:

“Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ [the Logos, the word of God] enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to Him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us?… And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation….When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundred-fold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.”

In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict said, his main purpose was “to help foster the growth of a living relationship” with Jesus Christ.

What else?

One might ask: What else could be at the center of a papacy? What else besides Christ could be at the center of the life and work of the Bishop of Rome, successor of Peter?

A wise and rather worldly old cardinal once told me that Benedict’s fundamental problem as Pope was that he had no concept of power.

Not that he exercised power — papal authority — in a wrong or exaggerated or improper way, but that he had no concept whatsoever of what power is.

The funny thing is, the old cardinal, despite his shrewdness, was wrong. Benedict has a more profound sense of what true power is than this cardinal has ever imagined.

But it is true, Benedict is not a player of power games.

He is not attempting to interject the Church or the Vatican or the papacy into the increasing vacuum in the “power playing” of this world.

Rather, he is a living, teaching reminder that all power ultimately resides in the eternal, divine Lord, who has already vanquished the ultimate powers of this world — sin, meaninglessness, and death.

How will history judge?

I asked a monsignor today how he thought history would judge this pontificate.

“With each year that passes, it will be judged more favorably,” the monsignor replied. “We have not begun to understand the greatness of this Pope.”

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Lenten Obligation

By seeming chance, as I prepared to begin a Holy Week pilgrimage to Assisi, Norcia, then back to Rome for Holy Saturday and Easter, I just came across the definition of the Lenten obligation to go to confession, and it struck me that it might be of interest to one or another of the readers of these emails. (The questions and answers come from the old Baltimore Catechism.)

Q. 1349. What is meant by the command of confessing at least once a year?

A. By the command of confessing at least once a year is meant that we are obliged, under pain of mortal sin, to go to confession within the year.

Q. 1350. Should we confess only once a year?

A. We should confess frequently, if we wish to lead a good life.

Q. 1351. Should we go to confession at our usual time even if we think we have not committed sin since our last confession?

A. We should go to confession at our usual time even if we think we have not committed sin since our last confession, because the Sacrament of Penance has for its object not only to forgive sins, but also to bestow grace and strengthen the soul against temptation.

Q. 1352. Should children go to confession?

A. Children should go to confession when they are old enough to commit sin, which is commonly about the age of seven years.

Q. 1353. What sin does he commit who neglects to receive Communion during the Easter time?

A. He who neglects to receive Communion during the Easter time commits a mortal sin.

Q. 1354. What is the Easter time?

A. The Easter time is, in this country, the time between the first Sunday of Lent and Trinity Sunday.

Q. 1355. When is Trinity Sunday?

A. Trinity Sunday is the Sunday after Pentecost, or eight weeks after Easter Sunday; so that there are fourteen weeks in which one may comply with the command of the Church to receive Holy Communion between the first Sunday of Lent and Trinity Sunday.

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The Pilgrimage Begins

Our little pilgrimage, just 15 people, has an unexpected addition: a golden retriever.

One of our pilgrims has a health condition which requires her to travel with a specially trained dog. The dog’s name is Morgan, and we met for the first time this evening. Tomorrow we travel together to Assisi, city of St. Francis, lover of animals. It promises to be a memorable journey…

An Old Friend

Tonight I also met my old friend, Roger McCaffrey (in the center in the photo below, along with one of our pilgrims from the United States). Roger is the founder of Latin Mass magazine, and the publisher of Catholic Books. He was staying in the same place I was staying for these past few days, but without either of us knowing. (I saw his name on the breakfast list this morning, and left a note for him, and had the chance to talk with him this evening.)

It was an interesting conversation, as he has 30 years of experience in publishing Catholic books and magazines. He told me he now thinks that all Catholic print publications face such grave challenges that most will not survive more than a few more years, as readership will decline and prices to print and mail will rise. (All the more reason for those reading this who would like to support our work to subscribe to Inside the Vatican magazine.)

 

A blessed Holy Week to all

—Robert Moynihan

Music for Prisoners

A Swiss-based foundation with offices also in Rome makes classical music available in prisons, elderly homes, hospitals, and schools — and does it with Christian faith.

By Robert Moynihan, from Rome

From prayer, to music…

After today’s peaceful and prayerful Palm Sunday Mass — much of it, including the Creed and the Our Father, in Latin — I had brief conversations with Archbishop Rino Fisichella (head of the Pope’s new office for the “new evangelization”) and with Cardinal Velasio de Paolis (the Pope’s choice to oversee the reform of the Legionaries of Christ), then was invited to a small, free, but spectacular piano concert in Trastevere, a short distance from the Vatican. It focused on the music of the Polish composer Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), and was so impressive I felt I ought to make mention of it here.

Elizabeth Sombart (photo; you may hear a recording of one of her performances by clicking on this link), an internationally known Swiss concert pianist, was able to interpret the sensitivity and suffering of Chopin in an extraordinary way. (Chopin suffered from tuberculosis most of his adult life and died at the young age of 39.)

 

 

Listening to Sombart’s brief reflections on Chopin’s life and art, I had a sense of a profound cultural “connectedness.” Sombart has studied Chopin’s life and music so long and so intensively that she was able to communicate Chopin’s unique genius with peculiar effectiveness, both through her words and through her virtuoso performance of several pieces on a splendid grand piano before a small audience of about 100 people — and roaming cat (photo) and dog!

The essence of Sombart’s message was that Chopin had turned the suffering in his life into art — transmuting the sadness of living in exile outside of his beloved Poland and of not marrying the woman he loved because of her father’s opposition into melodies that can still speak to us and move us today.

There is an analogy in this to religious life and to spiritual experience: suffering embraced can, even in its scorching pain, nevertheless bring about a type of “excavation of the soul” which makes the soul deeper, wiser, more capable of self-sacrifice, and of love.

This is how the “way down” can become the “way up.”

And this is how suffering avoided and fled from can leave the soul “unexcavated,” “un-profound” — and perhaps unable to love as deeply as it might otherwise… and to accept love and receive it as a fellow-sufferer and wayfarer in this fallen world.

Sombart (here after she was given flowers at the end of the concert) said Chopin had a terrific struggle at times in the process of composing his piano pieces.

She drew on the observations of his contemporaries, one of whom described Chopin’s “tumultuous creative process” as filled with emotion, weeping, complaints and hundreds of changes of concept before returning to an original inspiration.

One Chopin contemporary wrote this about an evening Chopin spent composing in about 1840, when he was 30. The French painter and friend of Chopin, Eugene Delacroix, was present:

Chopin is at the piano, quite oblivious of the fact that anyone is listening. He embarks on a sort of casual improvisation, then stops. ‘Go on, go on,’ exclaims Delacroix, ‘That’s not the end!’

‘It’s not even a beginning,’ Chopin replies. ‘Nothing will come … nothing but reflections, shadows, shapes that won’t stay fixed. I’m trying to find the right color, but I can’t even get the form …’

‘You won’t find the one without the other,’ says Delacroix, ‘and both will come together.’

‘What if I find nothing but moonlight?’

‘Then you will have found the reflection of a reflection.’

The idea seems to please the divine artist. He begins again, without seeming to, so uncertain is the shape. Gradually quiet colors begin to show, corresponding to the suave modulations sounding in our ears.

Suddenly the note of blue sings out, and the night is all around us, azure and transparent. Light clouds take on fantastic shapes and fill the sky. They gather about the moon which casts upon them great opalescent discs, and wakes the sleeping colors. We dream of a summer night, and sit there waiting for the song of the nightingale…

Sombart founded the non-profit “Fondazione Resonnance” in Switzerland in 1988 with the goal of bringing music to places it ordinarily does not reach — prisons, hospitals, orphanages, elderly homes, and so forth. The Foundation holds free periodic “master classes” with young pianists, teaching them to play music at an international concert level, and organizing their charity performances throughout western Europe.

The Vice-President of the Foundation is Monsignor Aldo Tolotto (photo, holding the child of one of the pianists of the Foundation), a humble monsignor who has an important post inside the Vatican. Tolotto was present at the concert.

I asked Sombart whether she saw this work as in some way “evangelical” and she answered: “Certainly. Classical music has deeply Christian roots; it is enough to think of J.S. Bach and his profound love of God. By bringing classical music to people who have been abandoned by society, we bring something beautiful, and we bring it with great love. This has a spiritual impact.”

The address of Resonnance Italia is:

vicolo Sforza Cesarini, #53

00186, Rome, Italy

telephone: (39) 06-9970-1385

fax: (39) 06-9725-6838

web site: www.resonnance.org

email: infoitalia@resonnance.org

There will be a similar concert on May 29 here in Rome.

A blessed Holy Week to all.

—Robert Moynihan

The Pope and the Koran

Greetings from Rome as the Eternal City prepares for Holy Week! (I have just begun to send out “tweets” as I speak to different people in Rome and attend different events. If you would like to follow my “tweets” follow me HERE)

The email I sent out earlier this week, about the Vatican’s decision to set the annual Feast Day for Blessed Pope John Paul II as October 22 (he will be beatified May 1) prompted many responses from readers, some enthusiastic, but many highly critical of the late Pope and of the decision to beatify him.

Rather than go through all the praises of Pope John Paul, and all the criticisms of the man, of his actions (or lack of action) as Pope, and of the decision to beatify him, tonight I wanted to say something rather provocative — prompted by a long discussion this evening with a Vatican monsignor, an expert on the Middle East who speaks Hebrew and Arabic fluently, having studied for years in Jerusalem.

Premise: my profound hope is for peace in the Middle East for all who live there.

Corollary: my profound fear is that a way to peace will not be found, or chosen, causing fear and suffering for many, in the region and throughout the world, especially the children, who are innocent — before the long-hoped for “time of peace” finally comes.

One of the great charges against John Paul is that (it is said) he kissed a copy of the Koran on May 14, 1999.

John Paul’s critics say this was a profound mistake, indeed, an act of profound infidelity inconceivable for a man chosen to sit on the throne of Peter and to be the faithful Vicar of Christ on earth — since one of the key tenets of the Koran is that Jesus Christ is not the Lord of History and Son of God, but merely a prophet.

The Koran denies this central tenet of Christian faith.

Even more than the assembly in Assisi in 1986, there is a general consensus among critics of Pope John Paul II and of his pontificate, and of Benedict XVI’s decision to beatify John Paul, that this “kiss” was the negative act of John Paul’s life as a Christian, and as a Pope, par excellence.

That is was the worst thing he could have done.

That it revealed that he was in some way unfaithful to Christ.

Like Judas, who betrayed Christ with a kiss…

That John Paul had betrayed Christ with a kiss.

I say no.

And I would like to think that many in the Muslim world would note this.

I say John Paul was not wrong to kiss the Koran (if he did kiss it.)

He was not wrong because the meaning of his kiss was not what his critics think it was.

And what was the meaning of this kiss (which may or may not have been a kiss)?

The meaning was that John Paul, in the context of a world which was barreling toward 9/11, and what has come since 9/11, wished to make a gesture which was against the developing trend: a gesture of respect toward something beyond and beneath profound theological disagreements.

A gesture which showed that he disagreed with a broad-stroke denigration of Islam which can stir in all believing Christians horrified sentiments of shock and even disgust.

A gesture which showed that he sought peace even with those with whom he was in profound theological disagreement.

A gesture of a peace.

Christians can be shocked when they learn of certain Muslim teachings, ranging from the denial of Christ’s divinity to the denial that he actually died on the cross.

So Christian feelings can be stirred up, and inflamed, and Christians and Muslims can be set against one another, if these teachings are emphasized and amplified, and history shows that this has in fact actually taken place. It is not just a hypothesis.

John Paul chose not to inflame, not to stir up.

He could, perhaps, have taken the Koran, given him as a gift, and, with a gesture of shock and horror, tossed it to the ground.

Would he have been a greater soul, a greater saint, a truer Christian, had he done that?

Some Catholics might even argue so!

But I think: no.

Such a gesture would have transformed him from an independent servant of God and agent of God’s peace into an instrument of all those forces which seek conflict, and benefit from it, thoughtless of the cost to the innocent.

I think it is the height of superficiality for anyone to imagine that the Pope of Rome, in receiving the gift of a book regarded as holy by the followers of Islam, and bowing toward it, and seemingly kissing it, was “kissing” those teachings in the book which run contrary to the Catholic faith.

I repeat: if anyone would argue that the Pope was kissing the passages in the book which deny the divinity of Christ, they would be reading his action with the utmost superficiality.

John Paul spent his life in prayer. John Paul saw millions of human beings enslaved and killed. John Paul loved people, individuals, as Christ commanded: “love your neighbor as yourself.”

John Paul did not wish the world to choose sides in a bloody, century-long conflict which might lead to the devastation of huge, fertile regions of the earth, to the loss of limbs and lives of dozens and hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

In his act of kissing the Koran (if he did kiss it), the Pope was kissing a hope.

A hope of peace.

A hope of finding a way to peace even when people disagree.

A hope of finding a way to peace even when people disagree in the most profound way, on essential matters — fighting matters… dying matters…

So I believe that John Paul, in this situation, was right to kiss the Koran.

I believe that, far from being an incident which disqualifies him from beatification and canonization, it reveals the true depth of his sanctity, able to go beyond all commonly accepted limits in a search for God’s will, which has always been — against Satan’s wiles — “peace on earth, good will toward men.”

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But did John Paul actually kiss the Koran?

 To this day, there remains a question mark about what he actually did.

 Here is the photo of that moment, from May 14, 1999:

Some say the Pope was merely bowing toward the book, not kissing it.

From this photo, it is hard to tell, and I myself do not know the truth of the matter.

But at least one authoritative witness says he did kiss the book.

In an interview with FIDES News Service (June 1, 1999), Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid said that he was present on the occasion:

“On May 14th I was received by the Pope, together with a delegation composed of the Shi’ite imam of Khadum mosque and the Sunni president of the council of administration of the Iraqi Islamic Bank. There was also a representative of the Iraqi ministry of religion. ….

“At the end of the audience the Pope bowed to the Muslim holy book, the Koran, presented to him by the delegation, and he kissed it as a sign of respect. The photo of that gesture has been shown repeatedly on Iraqi television and it demonstrates that the Pope is not only aware of the suffering of the Iraqi people, he has also great respect for Islam.”

(Here is the full text of that interview: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=10415)

But was the Iraqi Patriarch really in a position to see that the Pope’s lips actually kissed the book? I do not know.

“But the question is irrelevant,” the Vatican monsignor said to me this evening. “Whether he kissed the book or did not kiss it makes no difference. He bowed toward it. It was a sign of respect. But respect for what? Not for errors. It was respect for a piety toward the ultimate which is presupposed by any religious attitude toward reality. It was a gesture of humility, from a servant of that ultimate and holy reality, which bore witness to the grace that Pope John Paul hoped would touch and transform all those who adhere to Islam, not by force and hatred, but by invitation, by love. And this is why he truly was a great saint, and a great witness to the mysterious will of God for out world, which is not that it become a wasteland, but a garden, not a curse, but a blessing. And for this reason, we were privileged to know him, and will be privileged to call him Blessed.”

—Robert Moynihan