FATHER
LIAM SAYS: One of the ways in which the Vatican tries to raise
money is through issuing postage stamps at every opportunity. The Vatican Post Office issued a series of
stamps to mark the year 2000 which, of course, was a Holy Year. So stamps appeared commemorating all the
Popes who had welcomed pilgrims to Rome for all the Holy Years – ever since the
first one in 1300.
Among the Popes featured was the Borgia Pope
Alexander VI who reigned from 1492 to 1503 and who was a notoriously immoral
figure. But he was not altogether
bad. Even today the Jews remember him
kindly as the Ruler – and the Popes were rulers of extensive Papal States – who
welcomed into Rome the Jews who were driven out of Spain by Ferdinand and
Isabella.
When Pope John Paul visited a Synagogue in Rome in
1986 – perhaps the first Pope in history to have visited a Roman Synagogue –
the president of the Synagogue made a favourable reference to Alexander. The Scots also – it is alleged – remain
grateful to Alexander because he helped to found the University of Aberdeen. Blessed John Paul, as he is now, had a very
positive lifelong respect for the Jews.
It is over nine and a half years since the death of
John Paul and thirty-six years since he was elected – the first non-Italian
Pope in four hundred and fifty years. In
1981 a serious attempt was made on his life in St. Peter’s Square. The Sunday following he insisted on
broadcasting a message from his hospital bed when it was still not clear if he
would survive in which he prayed for the two people who were wounded with him
and ’for the brother who struck me down and I forgive him sincerely.’ He spoke slowly and somewhat breathlessly and
was obviously in pain.
In his long pontificate he canonised four hundred
and eighty two men and women and beatified one thousand, three hundred and
thirty eight. Since the Congregation for
the Causes of Saints – The Vatican office that deals with canonisations and
beatifications was set up in 1588 – he had made far more saints than all of the
Popes of the last four centuries put together.
He visited the United Kingdom in May 1982 – a visit
that was in doubt owing to the outbreak of hostilities between Argentina and
the United Kingdom. Among his many
initiatives was the World Day of Peace at Assisi in which he joined with representatives
of other Christian Churches as well as Jewish, Muslim and other world religions
in praying for our tortured world. The
World Youth Day (lasting nearly a week) held every three years or so is
testament to his ministry to young people.
He left a lasting mark on Europe and played a major
role in the largely non-violent downfall of Communism. The end of the Communist regime in Poland
helped to trigger the collapse of Communism elsewhere in Eastern Europe. But Europe has experienced a steady erosion
of religious practice and beliefs. He
encouraged better relationships with other Christians. In January 2000 as part of the services for
the start of the Jubilee Year, the Holy Door in the Basilica of St Paul’s
Outside the Walls was to be opened. The
Pope was flanked by Metropolitan Athanasios (representing the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew) and by Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury who together pushed
open the Holy Door. In April 1994 he
hosted a Holocaust memorial concert in the Paul vI Audience Hall of the Vatican
featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
John Paul sat with the Chief Rabbi of Rome and his congregation. He was the first Pope to pray in a Mosque
which he did in Damascus in 2001. Years
earlier in 1985 he spoke to a crowd of over a hundred thousand young Muslims in
Morocco at the invitation of King Hassan II.
No Pope in more than thirteen hundred years of Islam had ever been
invited by a Muslim leader to do anything like that.
In November 2002 he was invited to address the
Italian Parliament – another first for any Pope. He made over one hundred journeys outside
Italy and visited at least one hundred and thirty countries but was denied the
chance of visiting China and Russia. He
also tried to visit the parishes of his Diocese of Rome. When not away on overseas visits he tried to
visit a parish every weekend and sometimes on the Patronal Feast that fell
during the week. There are three hundred
and thirty three parishes in the Diocese of Rome and he had visited three
hundred and seventeen of them before he fell seriously ill. Before his death hundreds and thousands of
young people converged on Rome. They
wanted to pay their last respects.
Reportedly his last whispered message before he fell unconscious was for
the young: ‘I went looking for you. You
came to me, for that I thank you.’
I
am indebted to Gerald O’Collins – ‘On the Left Bank of the Tiber’
