I had set this aside to translate earlier, but it got pushed down in the endless shuffle of prioritizing, so this post is delayed. it is a much needed corrective for much of the polemics that unnecessarily attend John {aul II's coming beatification.
'Holiness occurs within history':
Benedict XVI defies many critics
in beatifying John Paul II
by Lucio Brunelli
Translated from
January 17, 2011
It was John Paul II ten years ago who explained the meaning of beatifying a Pope. He did so at the ceremony when he beatified two Popes who were very different from each other and, in fact, often held up as opposites: John XXIII and Pius IX.
The first was the Pope of the major Conciliar opening to modernity; the second, the Pope of the Syllabus that condemned the 'errors of modernity'.
John Paul II, proclaiming them Blessed on September 3, 2000, in the same ceremony, explained: "Holiness occurs within history, and no saint is exempt from the limitations and conditioning inherent in our humanity. In beatifying one of her children, the Church does not celebrate any specific historical options achieved by him or her, but rather singles him out in order for his virtues to be emulated and so that he may be venerated in praise of the divine grace which shines from him".
In the same way, Benedict XVI, in beatifying his predecessor so soon, does not mean to celebrate every decision in John Paul II's Pontificate, but rather, the 'heroic' way in which the servant of God Karol Wojtyla lived and bore witness to Christian virtues. Testimony confirmed by his widespread reputation for holiness at the popular level, and sealed by the sign of a miracle duly investigated and certified by the Church.
There is a great lesson of faith and of realism in the capacity of the Church to distinguish the acts of a Pontificate from the holienss of the man who sits on Peter's Chair.
What makes Papa Wojtyla great in the eyes of faith was not primarily his battle to liberate eastern Europe from Communism. Ronald Reagan had a historical role equal to or even greater than the Pope's role, but he is not thereby offered to Catholics as an example to emulate.
The popular perception of the Polish Pope's holiness is in fact linked, above everything else, to the image of the suffering Pope embracing the Cross of Christ: the man who was once called 'the athlete of God', an excellent sportsman, was now a helpless figure, his face and his voice deformed by illness - and yet he lived this experience in a spirit of total abandonment to God, and because of such abandonment, he became in a way more tender and even more capable of embracing all of mankind.
And thus he entered into the hearts of those who up till then had admired him only as a great historical personage and not for what he was, the Vicar of Christ on earth.
[One wonders how different the discourse might be over his personal virtues and personal holiness,if he had not survived an assassination attempt and become the victim of one of the most degenerative of diseases. But obviously, he had the life God meant him to have - and to which he submitted obediently and well - in imitation of Christ.]
It is this personal witness given by John Paul II - "in praise of the divine grace that shines through his virtues' - which Benedict XVI is proclaiming in beatifying his predecessor. It is this Christian witness which will linger over time, a witness that consoles and sustains the faith of the simple folk.
About everything else, historians, both secular and Catholic, will continue to dispute at length. For instance, between now and May 1, one can predict that malicious articles will be appearing in the inernational media that will question Papa Wojtyla's public support for the Leguonaries of Christ, whose founder led a scandalous double life (that it fell to the present Pope as Cardinal Ratzinger to investigate, defying 'silences' and possible connivance in high places).
Others will try to demonstrate that the Polish Pope was so completely focused towards the world that he failed to take note as he should have of the 'filth' within the house of God itself, through the scourge of pedophile priests and questionable financial deals taking place within the Vatican bank IOR.
Perhaps one day, when comparing the two Pontificates, history will conclude that the reformatory actions of Benedict XVI are more decisive and providential for the Church.
But all these considerations only confirm what John Paul II said ten years ago: That when the Church beatifies one of her children who happened to be Pope as well, she does not sanctify every decision he made as Pope, but simply acknowledges with gratitude the work of God made manifest in his life.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/01/2011 20:56]