The Wisdom of John Paul II

John Paul

Description

Contained in THE WISDOM OF JOHN PAUL II are essential excerpts from papal encyclicals, sermons, addresses, and other statements, both formal and occasional, from throughout his Holiness's papacy. They discuss, matters of faith and conscience, and range from the problems of Contemporary Spirituality and Morality to Progress in the Modern World and Human Rights – all informed by the profound wisdom and deep understanding of a man who devoted his life to God and His peoples.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456609894
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Wisdom of
John Paul II
The Pope on Life ’ s Most Vital Questions
COMPILED BY
Nick Bakalar and Richard Balkin
INTRODUCTION BY
Father John White

Copyright © 1995, 2001 by Nick Bakalar and Richard Balkin
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Grateful acknowledgment for permission to translate previously published material by Pope John Paul is made to Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

To Tony and Anne
Sine amicitia vitam esse nullam.

Nick Bakalar is a New York writer and the author of ten other books on a variety of subjects
Richard Balkin is a literary agent, packager, and freelance writer in Amherst, Massachusetts
Father John White is a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
----PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Speech to Interreligious Leaders at Los Angeles September 16,1987



CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Father John White
Note on Citations
CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY
HUMAN RIGHTS
THE LAITY
LOVE
MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY
MORALITY
PEACE
PRAYER
PROGRESS AND THE MODERN WORLD
RICH AND POOR
SUFFERING, DYING, AND DEATH
THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH
WOMEN
WORK
WORLD RELIGIONS
YOUTH
CHRISTIAN LIFE
Chronology of the Life of Karol Józef Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II
Bibliography



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors would like to thank Christopher Lee, Thomas Kelly, and especially Anna Bonta for their research assistance. We were particularly fortunate in having Father John White as an adviser on theological points in the manuscript, as the author of a superb introduction to this volume, and, most important, as a friend. We acknowledge the publishing contribution of St. Paul Books and Media, which publishes all the encyclicals, apostolic letters, and other documents of the Vatican and Pope John Paul II at very reasonable prices. We also indebted to Father Jude of St. Hyacinth Seminary, Beverly Wilson of the St. Hyacinth Seminary Library, and Sister Regina Melican of St. Joseph’s Seminary Library for their assistance in gathering material. And we owe a particular debt of gratitude to the Libreria Editrice Vaticana for allowing us to reprint the Pope’s words. Dawn Davis of Vintage Books was instrumental in helping us put together this Revised Edition.




INTRODUCTION
On October 16, 1978, Karol Józef Wojtyla of Kraców, Poland, was elected His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics, the 262nd successor of St. Peter, and the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years. The newly elected Pope’s compatriot and close friend, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski from Warsaw, is reported to have said to him: “If God has chosen you, God has chosen you to lead the Church into the third millennium.” Later today, January 6, 2001, the Feast of the Epiphany, the Pope will close the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, symbolizing the end of the Church’s Great Jubilee Year celebration of the bimillennium of the birth of Christ. When the Pope kneels in prayer before the giant closed door in the vestibule of St. Peter’s, how stunningly prophetic the words of Cardinal Wyszynski will be shown to have been! Only when historians review the Church’s Great Jubilee Year program, the exhaustive preparations, the astonishing worldwide calendar of events and activities, the apostolic letters, exhortations, and papal sermons, and the overall influence of this commemoration upon his Papacy and the entire papal program of John Paul II will it become clear how deeply did this prophecy of his trusted mentor enter the soul of the Pope.
From the very beginning of his pontificate twenty-two years ago, the approaching turn of the millennium has never been far from the mind of the Pope. Just how central the milestone of the year 2000 and its spiritual significance and potential for a renewed Christianity have been to the Pope’s thinking and teaching can best be discovered in his apostolic letter titled Tertio Millennio Adveniente (Toward the Third Millennium), issued in November 1994. In that seminal document, which announced the formal commencement of the Church’s preparations for the Jubilee, John
Paul reveals that “preparing for the year 2000” should be understood to be the essential “key of my Pontificate.” This is to say that the wealth of more than twenty years of papal teachings, his staggering travel log, the synods of bishops, commemorations of major historical and religious events, must all be seen theologically, as components of a larger providential plan for a revivified Christianity in the third millennium, the marks of which are a deeper devotion to the person of Jesus Christ and a more generous commitment to daily living of his gospel of love. Indeed, so total is the claim made by Jubilee 2000 upon the Pope’s understanding of his own mission, and his overall theological perspective, that even the premier and central religious and spiritual event of the century for the Pope, Vatican Council II (1962-1965), is to be understood as preparation, the most important of all preparations in God’s plan, for the third Christian millennium.
The Pope went on to say in Tertio Millennio Adveniente that all of the Church’s planning and preparation would be shaped by the spirit of the Vatican Council and “expressed in a renewed commitment to apply as faithfully as possible, the teaching of Vatican II,” which gave to the sons and daughters of the Church new encouragement and support for discovering God in their lives, and for using their gifts for the good of their neighbors and communities, and, through a commitment to social justice, the whole world. The Pope then offered a novel analogy that reveals the papal mind concerning the relationship between the Council and the millennium: As the season of Advent is to Christmas, so the Vatican Council is to the Church’s celebration of the Jubilee Year. That is, in some ways, an extraordinary linkage. No wonder, then, that when the Public Broadcasting System recently presented an in-depth profile and analysis of the pontificate of John Paul II, the producers chose to title it John Paul II: The Millennial Pope. Beyond a doubt, the producers got it right.
By any measure, Pope John Paul’s program for the Great Jubilee 2000, now completed, must be judged a dramatic success. His collaboration with the world’s Catholic bishops and the national conferences of bishops in shaping a Jubilee Year consciousness among the Catholic people, creating an awareness of the uniqueness and opportunity of the moment, engaging it through special prayers, liturgical celebrations, community outreach, and justice and peace activities, by all accounts appears to have exceeded even the Vatican’s expectations. All Jubilee Year celebrations, which occur every fifty years throughout the Church’s history, are especially devoted to a proclamation of the mercy of God, the forgiveness of sins, and the need for reconciliation between individuals. Throughout the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, all across the world, diocesan-wide “Days of Reconciliation” were held following extensive advertising and educational campaigns, inviting all Catholics, but especially those who had been away from the Church, to “come home” and to experience the mercy of God. These special days centered on an all-day availability of the sacrament of reconciliation. By all reports these efforts were very successful, particularly here in the United States.
A range of papal projects and activities designed to call particular attention to different segments of the community with special needs, such as the elderly, the sick, the poor; to injustices and inequities around the world, especially the crushing burden of debt upon the world’s poor nations; and to the need for forgiveness and reconciliation between and among people were widely covered by the media. The “Homily of the Holy Father Asking Pardon,” delivered on the First Sunday of Lent, March 12, 2000, asking forgiveness for offenses committed throughout history by “some sons and daughters of the Church,” particularly those offenses directed against the Church’s “older brothers and sisters in the faith,” as the Pope has in the past referred to the Jewish people, and especially for Christian silence in the face of the monstrous evil perpetrated by the Holocaust, became the occasion and inspiration for widespread Catholic soul-searching and reflection. The papal pilgrimage to the Holy Land and visit to Israel in March, which included the Pope’s prayer for forgiveness and reconciliation at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, was a poignant event chronicled around the world. The World Youth Day event in Rome in August attracted some 2 million young participants from every corner of the globe and generated enormous attention to the Jubilee Year and outpouring for the Pope, particularly across Europe and Asia. Special celebrations for the sick, the elderly, the immigrants, and prisoners were exquisitely presented, pointed and inspiring.
Some mention should be made of Pope John Paul’s Jubilee Year effort to invite the wealthy nations of the world to forgive Third World debt and to join the growing movement for a comprehensive plan for global debt relief. At the heart of all Jubilee Year celebrations in the Church’s history is the theme of the forgiveness of debt, which has always included economic and interpersonal as well as spiritual considerations. The jubilee pri