The extraordinary and enduring friendship between John Paul II and Benedict XVI provides the already rich drama of the late Pope's cause for canonization with a unique dimension unheard of in centuries [if ever, since no enterprising journalist or historian has yet cited a precedent], in the history of the Church's formal recognition of persons who lived in closest imitation of Christ. With his usual insight, Jose Luis Restan sees that...
A friendship beyond flesh and blood
Translated from
January 17, 2011
"You do not have to write the letter at all, for I want to have you to the end", John Paul II told Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the latter approached his 75th birthday and would therefore have to present a mandatory letter of resignation from active service upon reaching canonical retirement age.
"That was the great and undeserved benevolence he showed me from the very beginning... He had placed a great, very cordial, and profound trust in me. As the guarantee, so to speak, that we would travel the right course in the faith", Benedict XVI recalls in the recent interview book
Light of the World.
And so it was until their final handclasp when Papa Wojtyla could no longer speak [on the eve of his death]. This was a friendship for the history books that deserves to be recalled now that we know that John Paul I will be proclaimed Blessed on May 1.
It was a unity, as the Apostle Paul said, that was not born of flesh and blood, but from their mutual faith. There were so many historical and personal differences that could have divided them.
One was Polish, a man of action, the other German, a methodical intellectual. The first was an extrovert and gifted with a sense of theater for grand gestures, the other reserved and mild-mannered.
But Wojtyla sought to have Ratzinger with him almost from the start of his Pontificate. They knew about each other from Vatican II
[though they did not meet at the time] but they got to know each other in Munich during the talks (not always easy) between the German and Polish bishops to seal a historic reconciliation. And when the German cardinal finally agreed to come to Rome in 1982, the Polish Pope made it clear he wanted him nearby to the end.
Personal confidences by Popes are rare
[at least until Light of the World!] but John Paul II wrote that Cardinal Ratzinger was more than just a close collaborator but a trusted friend.
Something united them that went beyond any differences: they were both anchored doubly in the Tradition of the Church and in the world they lived in, a world full of tensions in which wide margins of Christianity on both the right and the left were retreating visibly from the great patrimony of the faith.
But neither one stepped back nor were daunted by the harshness of the times, nor did they resign themselves to facile lamentation of the evils of the time and the torments of a Church still seeking to digest the contents of Vatican II.
Both were men acting freely who had forged their intelligence and the courage of their faith in defying the totalitarian monsters of Nazism and Communism. Both loved beauty as an expression of God's truth and his tender love for man - Wojtyla through the heater and poetry, Ratzinger through music.
Finally, the two shared the mission of revitalizing the tired body of the Church and to bring it into true missionary dialog with the modern world - because that was the great cause of Vatican II, and for their interpretation of it in continuity with Tradition, they both suffered incomprehensions and equivocations from all sides.
This does not mean they agreed about everything, and each knew his place. John Paul II's overwhelming personality and charisma were unique, and on more than one occasion, Ratzinger expressed admiration for that impulsion, as well as for the simple and direct way in which Papa Wojtyla addressed the thorniest issues.
But he has also described the great patience of the Polish Pope, his willingness to listen, and his humility about accepting contrary opinion. One can imagine their conversations over almost a quarter-century
[when they met twice a week, conversing in German], surveying the broad horizons and weighty problems of teh Church!
"Sometimes, we disagreed, but I never disobeyed him", the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says in the interview book
Salt of the earth.
This beautiful friendship needs to be put forward because there have been recent efforts that are stupid but poisonous claiming a rupture between their Pontificates.
It is true that Benedict XVI has had to take care of questions left pending, as no doubt the next Pope will when his time comes. A Pontificate is never a finished work, but only one stage in the Church's pilgrimage through time. And this is an essential claim of modesty that Papa Ratzinger does not fail to mention.
It is also true that circumstances change with growing speed. The Berlin Wall is no longer there, but nihilism has grown in Europe. Liberation theology is no longer a force anywhere, but the global crisis has generated new anthropological challenges. And the fury of Islamist extremist terrorism has erupted in all its violent crudity, along with the rise of anti-Christian persecution in places like India, Pakistan, China and Africa.
The tremendous shake-up that the first part of John Paul II's Pontificate represented was not always translated into constructive channels nor lasting instruction. These are things that only the perspective of time and that the wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit will allow us to discern.
For instance, the distinct way in which Benedict XVI has addressed the tragedy caused by priestly offenses against minors has much to do with this experience at the CDF, where he had to deal with the bitter consequences of ill-advised decisions made by some bishops about these offenses and the offenders, but also with what modern psychology has to say about the pathology of pedophilia. And, of course, by his own particular intelligence. All this produced a sorrowful maturation in him.
But this does not mean that John Paul II was negligently complacent in this regard. He faced the issue squarely when the scandal erupted in the United States [by assigning the primary responsibility for dealing with them to Cardinal Ratzinger and the CDF}, starting a process that his successor has been able to pursue in depth.
Some had thought that Benedict XVI would play politics and deliberately slow down the process of beatification for John Paul II if only to avoid inevitable accusations on the past of the media, or even as a way to personally distance himself, as it were, in view of doubts that have been expressed about some of Karol Wojtyla's personal traits
[specifically, the argument that his 'indifferencee' to the sex abuse scandal and his friendship with Fr. Maciel cast doubt on his personal holiness].
One has to be blind to think that Benedict XVI would allow himself to be intimidated or influenced by such considerations and the malevolence of some who now praise him after having maligned him in the past and who could just as easily switch again.
[For instance, the vitriol from some writers one had previously thought to be diehard 'Ratzingerians' over the next Assisi meeting is simply astounding and incomprehensible for anyone who claims to know and admire the Holy Father!]
The cries of 'Santo subito' have now been partially fulfilled six years later - enough time for the Church to minutely scrutinize every turn in the life of Karol Wojtyla (including, for instance, the letters he exchanged with his old friend Wanda) and to verify the various wonders that the Lord worked in the world through his life.
It was right to proceed so scrupulously so that the verdict of the Church about his personal holiness does not just arise from the passionate belief of the faithful but from the Church's own exigencies for certainty.
"Let us be happy", Benedict XVI said when he added his own personal announcement of the beatification after the Sunday Angelus. One would have to be sick not to rejoice.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/01/2012 14:22]