Pope John Paul II's Teachings Through the Years

SIGNPOSTS
(Mostly taken from the biography of the Pope by George Weigel)

"Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take (Jer 31,21, NIV)."

Introduction.  

John Paul II has become a compelling figure by preaching a demanding Gospel, with compassion but also without compromise. 

Convinced that his message is entirely pertinent to us as priests and pastors, allow me to use his major, to my mind, pastoral events and writings as signposts according to the mind of Jeremias.

A millennial theme emerged in the first hours of John Paul II's pontificate. Shortly after his election, Cardinal Wyszynski, the Senior Cardinal from Poland, said to him that he must "lead the Church into the third millennium."

John Paul's inaugural encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, spoke about the time leading up to the year 2000 as a "new Advent" and in Dominum et Vivificantem he intimated that his vision for the Third Millennium is the interpretative key to his pontificate.

October 16, 1978. First Words after his election: 

"I present myself to you all, to confess our common faith, our hope, our trust in the Mother of Christ and of the Church, and also to start anew on this toad of history and the Church, with the help of God and with the help of men."

October 22, 1978. Solemn inauguration of the pontificate: 

"Be not afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ. ... Christ knows 'what is man.' He alone knows it."

January 28, 1979. CELAM General Assembly in Puebla, Mexico. 

The Pope came to the Bishops' Assembly "as a brother to very beloved brothers," who admired what the bishops of Latin America had accomplished in their first two assemblies, at Rio de Janeiro in 1958 and Medellin, Colombia, in 1968. Their great strength lay in the fact that they came to Puebla "not as a symposium of experts, not as a parliament of politicians, not as a congress of scientists or technologists, but as ... pastors of the Church." As pastors, their "principal duty" was to be "teachers of truth," for the truth was the foundation for all truly liberating human action.

The truth entrusted to bishops was "the truth concerning Jesus Christ," ... which was not a theological abstraction, for from it would come "choices, values, attitudes, and ways of behavior" that could create "new people and ... a new humanity" through a radically Christian life. ... That was "the one Gospel," and "re-readings" of the Gospel through ideological lenses made an authentically Christian liberation impossible. Among those "re-readings" was one with which they had become familiar in recent years. It was the image of "Jesus as politically committed, as one who fought against Roman oppression and the authorities, and also as one involved in the class struggles.

March 15, 1979. Redemptor Hominis. 

The year 2000 will be an anniversary with global implications, for Christ had revealed both the face of God and the truth about the human condition: "Through the Incarnation God gave human life the dimension he had intended from his first beginning.

The Incarnation tells us something about God and something about ourselves. Satisfying the "fatherhood of God" and revealing the depths of God's love, the Son of God's birth as a man has also confirmed "the greatness, dignity, and value" of humanity, for "man cannot live without love. He remains ... incomprehensible (to) himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him.

October 3, 1979. First large encounter with young people. 

A call to maturity. Each of them was "approaching that stage in life when you must take personal responsibility for your own destiny." In making decisions, he urged, "look to Christ who is the fullness of humanity." And then, as always from then on with the young, he made an act of faith: "The Church needs you. The world needs you, because it needs Christ and you belong to Christ..."

July, 1979. Brazilian Episcopal Conference. 

An extensive reflection on the Church's distinct character as a religious community, on Catholic social doctrine, and on the imperative of strengthening Catholic unity. An engaged Church, but not a partisan Church; a Church with a special care for the poor, but not a Church espousing class struggle; a Church of and for the people, but a Church with a doctrine and an ordained leadership; a clergy passionate about social justice, but not clerical politicians or revolutionaries; a Church, to put it simply, of Vatican II in its fulness.

November 30, 1980. Dives in Misericordia. 

The encyclical of the love and mercy of the Father. Christ's parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15, 14-32) is a synthesis of the biblical theology of mercy, and demonstrates how the question of a true humanism inevitable opens up the question of God. In John Paul's analysis of this most poignant of New Testament parables, the prodigal son is a kind of Everyman, burdened by the tragedy of the human condition, which is "the awareness of squandered sonship," of one's lost human dignity. The forgiving father, by being faithful to his paternity and going beyond the strict norm of justice, restores to the wayward son the truth about himself, which is the lost dignity of his sonship. True mercy does not weaken or humiliate its recipient. It confirms the recipient in his or her human dignity.

February, 1981. Message to the Bishops of the Philippines. 

Defend religious freedom and other human rights, promote social justice, but do not sell the Church's evangelical birthright for the pottage of politics. Bishops and priests best serve the well-being of society by forming lay Catholics capable of exercising leadership according to the moral standards set by the Church's social doctrine - a dimension of the universal call to holiness. The evangelical role of the laity and their responsibility to for preaching the faith to their neeighbors.

9May 13, 1981. Shooting in St. Peter's Square. 

Mehmet Ali Agca fired at the Pope who fell backward into the arms of his secretary. The pastoral implications of this incident would be seen later when the Pope consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1986, when he publicly thanked the Blessed Virgin in her shrine in Fatima in 1981, and again at the Jubilee of Bishops on October 8, 2000.

September 14, 1981. Laborem Exercens. 

Focus on the nature of work and the dignity of the worker. Through work, men and women participate "in the very action of the Creator of the universe," in fulfillment of God's initial command to "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it." Work is about who we are, as well as what we do and produce. Whether they be agricultural, industrial, post-industrial, or artistic laborers, workers are above all persons, which means that in work, properly understood, human beings are always becoming more, not just making more.

August 6, 1984. Instructions on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation. 

Certain themes in some theologies of liberation are clearly incompatible with Christian orthodoxy. The great biblical image of the Exodus cannot be reduced to narrowly political meanings. Sin should not be primarily located in social, political, or economic structures, but in human hearts. "Good" and "evil" cannot be understood in strictly political categories. Class struggle is not the chief dynamic of history, and using class struggle models to justify violent revolution against "structural violence" does not square with a Christian view of history.

February 11, 1984. Salvifici Doloris. 

Suffering seems to be particularly essential to the nature of man. Contrary to some contemporary conceptions, suffering is not accidental or unavoidable. Suffering is "one of those points in which man is in a certain sense 'destined' to go beyond himself..." There is suffering in the world because there is evil in the world. Yet Christianity affirms the essential goodness of creation. Because evil is "a certain lack, limitation, or distortion of good," suffering is enmeshed with both good and evil, and caught up in the mystery of human freedom. Suffering, in the biblical view, is sometimes a form of punishment, but that punishment is an opportunity for "rebuilding goodness in the subject who suffers,: not a form of divine retribution. The answer to the question of suffering can only be "given in the cross of Jesus Christ."

November 24, 1985. Extraordinary Synod. 

To relive the Council experience and review its implementation. Vatican II is a "grace of God and a gift of the Holy Spirit" that has done great good for the Church and the world. It was a "legitimate and valid expression and interpretation of the deposit of faith as it is found in Sacred Scripture and in the living tradition of the Church.

The Councils's reception has, however, been marked by shadows. Some of them were internal, including "partial and selective readings" of the Council and a "superficial interpretation" of its doctrine. Too much time has been spent over the past twenty years in arguing about the Church's internal management, and too little time invested in preaching God and Christ.

February, 1986. People Power Revolution. 

Notwithstanding the extreme caution shown by Archbishop Torpigliani, Cardinal Sin (and the Philippine Bishops) felt supported and encouraged by John Paul II, because what was championed was the kind of Christian liberation John Paul had been urging since his election. It differed from various Latin American liberation theologies. It was not a class struggle but a broad-based resistance movement against a mendacious, violent, corrupt regime. It insisted on nonviolence. It was religiously inspired and its appeal was explicitly religious and moral, not ideological and political. Pastors, not intellectuals, were in command of the situation, and prudent pastoral responsibility, not the testing of theories, drove the EDSA revolution. It was supported by Catholic renewal movements that were united to the hierarchy and did not imagine themselves to be an alternative "People's Church" over against the "institutional Church." Its inner life, its motivating force, was prpayer.

March 1986. Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation. 

The deepest meaning of liberation is redemption, since in being redeemed we are freed "from the most radical evil, namely, sin and the power or death. Thus human beings learn the true meaning of their freedom in the Gospel's call to communion with God. Totalitarianism is evil precisely because it violates the radical freedom of the human person before the mystery of God, who "wishes to be adored by people who are free."

May 18, 1986. Dominum et Vivificantem. 

This extended meditation on the Holy Spirit completed the Pope's Trinitarian trilogy of encyclicals, which includes Redemptor Hominis and Dives in Misericordia.

Christ's gift of the Holy Spirit is a new way of God's "being with" the world that goes beyond God's self-gift in creation. This is self-giving for the world's redemption, which is carried out in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Meditating on John 16,18 (The Spirit will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, John Paul proposes that the Holy Spirit comes into the world because the world has forgotten its story. The world does not know where it came from, what sustains it, or where its destiny lies, although it assumes that it knows all these things. The sending of the Holy Spirit reveals to the world the truth about itself and its history.

The Holy Spirit, through the Church, must convince the world of sin, precisely so that the world can recognize its need for redemption. The Holy Spirit's work in the world is to reopen consciences so that the world can begin to discover the outlines of its true story. Calling evil and good by their right names is the first step toward conversion, forgiveness, reconciliation, and the rebuilding of communion - within the human family, and between humanity and God. The gift of the Spirit continues to meet resistance in the modern world, just as it did in the world of the apostles. The world's refusal to consider even the possibility of its need for redemption has led to such death-dealing realities of the late twentieth century as the threat of nuclear destruction, indifference to poverty, the disposal of inconvenient life in abortion and euthanasia, and terrorism. On the edge of a new millennium, the Church in the modern world must be, like the Holy Spirit, a "guardian of hope" and an active witness to life against death.

October 27, 1986. World Day of Prayer in Assisi. 

It is difficult how we, as Christians, can insert ourselves into the prayer of others who did not share our faith in the God of Abraham, it remains the case that "being present when another prays, or when many come together to pray, cannot but enrich our own proper experience of prayer." In a world where there is too little prayer, "the unheard of fact that believers of the different religions find themselves together to pray acquires an exceptional value. "What better response can we make to widespread secularism, if not this journey, this mutual encounter, for no other reason tant to speak to God, each in his or her own way?"

The World Day of Prayer came off with only one hitch. Cardinal Arinze had urged that African animists be included among the religious leaders. One of those who came was very old, and was dressed traditionally, which is to say, scantily, in unseasonably cold weather. He fainted, but was revived in time to meet with John Paul during the meal that followed the closing service.

October 1-30, 1987. Synod on the Laity. (December 30, 1988.Christifideles Laici). 

Every Christian is called to a life of holiness in baptism, and for the laity, the call to holiness is "intimately connected to mission." The responsibility given to lay Christians is nothing less than to continue Christ's saving mission in "the world," which is "the place and the means for the lay faithful to fulfill their Christian vocation." The sanctification of "the world" -society, culture, the workplace- is the distinctively "secular"vocation of the laity. In this context, John Paul stresses the importance of the local parish, which is not a coincidental aggregation of Christians who happen to live in the same neighborhood, but "the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and dauthers," The parish should be the "place" where believers gather to strengthen their commitment to their mission in the world, "a house of welcome to all and a place of service to all." "Being the Church" is not something that the laity do on Sunday mornings only, and it is not something that should happen only in a church building. "Being the Church" is something that the laity do in the world all the time, and in every venue of life. Business, the professions, the creative arts, the media, and politics are all venues i which Christians live the universal call to holiness.

Pentcost, 1987 - Assumption, 1988. Marian Year (December 22, 1987. Talk to Roman Curia). 

The title "Mary, Mother of the Church" has profound implications for how the Church should understand itself. Mary was the first disciple, for her assent to the angel's message made possible the incarnation of the Son of God. The incarnation has been "extended" in history through the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Mary's assumption into heaven prefigures the glorification of all who will be saved. Thus Mary produces a "profile" of what the Church is, of how the people of the Church should live, and of what the destiny of the disciples will be.

This understanding of the relationship between Mary and the Church challenges the way many Catholic leaders have come to think of themselves and their powers. The "Marian profile" in the Church is even "more ... fundamental" than the "Petrine profile." Without being divided from it, the "Marian Church" -the Church of disciples- precedes and makes possible the "Petrine Church -the Church of Office and authority. Indeed, office in the Church has no other purpose "except to form the Church in line with the ideal of sanctity alreacy programmed and prefigured in Mary..." The message is unmistakable. Discipleship comes before power, even the apostolically transmitted power to "bind and loose" sins.

February 19, 1988. Solicitudo Rei Socialis. 

John Paul surveys the contemporary world socio-political-economic scene, explores the moral core of "authentic human development," analyzes the moral obstacles to economic and political development, lays down moral guidelines for political and economic reform, and traces the relationship between development and Christian liberation. Reiterating the moral claim of the developing world on the developed world, John Paul II argues that the deterioration of Third World conditions since Populorum Progressio is also due to "undoubtedly grave instances of omissions on the part of the developing nations themselves, and especially on the part of those holding economic and political power. Integral human development requires that Third World countries "reform certain unjust structures, and in particular their political institutions, in order to replace corrupt, dictatorial, and authoritarian forms of governement by democratic and participatory ones.

August 26, 1989. Letter to the Bishops of Poland. 

The Second World War made all people aware of the magnitude ... which contempt for man and the violation of human rights can reach. It led to unprecedented marshaling of hatred, which in turn trampled on man and on everything that is human.... Many people were led to ask whether, after that terrible experience, it would ever be possible to have any certainty again. That question of confidence in the human future remained unanswered fifty years later. Contempt for God had led inexorably to contempt for humanity and for individual human lives. The result was a moral abyss, in which twentieth-century Europe has been reminded of the reality of Satan. The world has a duty to "learn from the past so that never again will there arise a set of factors capable of triggering a similar conflagration. Racism and anti-Semitism have to be rejected completely. Citizens of the new Europe have to learn that "public life cannot bypass ethical criteria." Respect for God and respect for man go hand in hand.

September 25, 1990. Ex Corde Ecclesiae. 

The Catholic University ought to be the repository and defender of "a kind of humanism (that is) ... completely dedicated to the research of ll aspects of truth in their essential connection with the supreme Truth, who is God." To Catholic universities and colleges who were unclear about the distinctive character of a Catholic institution of higher education, the document urged retrieving the idea that the Catholic college or university is part of the mission of the Church. These were institutions "from the heart of the Church," and their life should reflect that. It also tried to rebuild the relationship between Catholic institutions of higher education and bishops, who "whould be seen not as external agents but as participants in the life of the Catholic University." The ideas about the nature and mission of the Catholic university were then concretized in eleven "norms." The most controversial of them in some countries stated that "Catholic theologians, aware that they fulfill a mandate from the Church, are to be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church as the authentic interpreter of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition."

December 7, 1990. Rededmptoris Missio. 

John Paul II's encyclical on Christian mission is a deeply conciliar meditation on the greatest service the Church can provide the world: to tell the world its true story, the story of creation and fall, redemption, salvation, and sanctification. In Redemptoris Missio the New Testament Church meets the Church of the third millennium - for which Vatican II was a providential preparation. To those offended by the very idea that some religions are true and others false, John Paul replies that the Church honors whatever truths are to be found in world religions and cultures. All truths in this world point toward the one great truth about the world, revealed by God in Jesus Christ -the world has come from God and, through the sacrifice of Christ, is destined to be consummated in God, who wills the salvation of all humanity.

June 1-9, 1991. The Pope's Fourth Pastoral Visit to Poland. 

To live freedom nobly. The Polish Church was trying to find its own voice in the new situation of democratic freedom. Few Polish bishops and priests had grasped the concept of the Church in which the clergy were primarily focused on the formation of consciences and public moral culture, leaving the practical application of Catholic social doctrine to an educated Catholic laity. One frequently encountered the idea that democracy meant a suspension of debate over public moral norms. Neither the official Church nor its opponents nor the Solidarity-led government seemed capable of arguing the abortion issue as an inherently public question. Everyone involved debated it as an issue of individual autonomy. This Fourth Visit to Poland was a papal passion in defense of basic human rights. Unfortunately John Paul II found himself in a situation where due to Western democratic influence freedom is defined almost entirely as independence from moral authority.

March 25, 1992. Pastores Dabo Vobis. 

The longest papal document ever written (226 pages) it describes itself as an address "on the formation of priests." To be a priest is not to perform a task or play a role, but to become an alter Christus, a personal continuation of the mediating priesthood of Jesus himself. Ordination does not simply authorize the priest to conduct certain types of ecclesiastical business. It "configures" him to Christ in a unique way. That configuration confers a solemn obligation to serve the Christian community. Service is the way the priest's unique sacramental authority becomes an image of "Christ the Priest." Pastores Dabo Vobis makes priestly training more rigorous by stressing the centrality of spiritual formation and a demanding academic formation in philosophy and theology. Priests who lack intellectual maturity and an ongoing interest in theology will not be able to make the Gospel "credible to the legitimate demands of human reason." Priests should study theology as a discipline "ordered to nourishing the faith," for theology is, at bottom, a means of fostering a deeper personal and communal relationship with Jesus Christ. Theology can "know" many things, but what theology should seek to know above all is Jesus Christ.

October 11, 1992. Fidei Depositum, promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

A beautiful, coherent expression of the unity of faith, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is for "every individual who asks us to give an account of the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Peter 3,15) and who wants to know what the Catholic Church believes." It states its firm conviction of the unity of faith over space and time and confesses the coherence of Christian faith as an explanation of how things are, how things came to be, and how the world's story will be completed. It is a popular instrument by which Catholics can tell their children and their neighbors (and, when necessary, remind their clergy, their religious educators, and, in some instances, their bishops) just what the Catholic Church believes and teaches.

August 12-15, 1993. Fourth International World Your Day in Denver, Colorado. 

A new paradigm of World Youth Days. John Paul II made sure that everyone knew that something was different this time from other World Your Days. As in previous World Youth Days, he reminded the crowd that they had come together as pilgrims, not tourists, but this "stupendous setting in the heart of the United States of America" was not a traditional pilgrimage site. Rather, WYD '93 had come on pilgrimage to the modern world, embodied in a self-consciously contemporary city surrounded by natural splendor. That meant, John Paul said, that he and his young friends were "searching for the reflection of God, not only in the beauty of nature but also in humanity's achievements and in each individual person." The Pope challenged the young to become leaders in the "never-ending battle being waged for our dignity and identity as free, spiritual beings," and to challenge the "culture of death" that tried to crush their desire to live life to the full." "Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places like the first apostles who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of cities, towns, and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel... It is time to preach it from the rooftops."

October 5, 1993. Veritatis Splendor. 

This encyclical addressed "fundamentals of the Church moral teaching." What passes for moral argument on the edge of the 21^st century is too often vast confusion. Terms like "right" and "wrong," "virtue" and "duty" are bandied about with no common understanding of what they mean. The idea that every human being creates his or her own truth -what is true "for me"- is another crucial factor in contemporary moral confusion. John Paul tackles the argument that pastoral sensitivity requires a less sharp-edged sense of the reality of evil and its effects in the complexityies of individual human lives. He argues that recognizing the moral reality of intrinsically evil acts has important public implications for the free society. The truth about the drama of the moral life and about freedom is revealed by the example of those prepared to die rather than do what they know is wrong.

May 29, 1994. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. 

John Paul reviews Paul VI's statements on the question of women and the priesthood. The latter had said that the Church's tradition was a reflection of the "theological anthropology" given to the Church by Christ as part of her "fundamental constitution." John Paul II added to his predecessor's defense of the tradition by noting another biblical fact, which he interpreted in terms of his distinctive feminism: "The fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them." Nonetheless, some had continued to argue that the question of the ordination of women was open to debate or that the Church's tradition was a matter of discipline rather than of doctrine. Thus, John Paul wrote, he had to speak: "Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22,32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by the Church's faithful."

October 1994. Crossing the Threshold of Hope. 

"Threshold" reveals a Pope as a man living the teaching he had laid down in Redemptoris Missio: "The Church proposes; she imposes nothing." For all its appeal, "Threshold" was neither a generic "spirituality" nor popularized philosophy. Rather, it was another expression of Karol Wojtyla's core conviction that Jesus Christ is the answer to the question that is every human life. The answer, he believed, spoke to the depths of the world's fear at the end of a terrible century:

... Someone exists who holds in His hands the destiny of this passig world; Someone who holds the keys to death and the netherworld (cf. Revelation 1,18); Someone who is the Alpha and the Omega of human history (cf. Revelation 22,13) -be it the individual or collective history. And this Someone is Love (cf. 1 John 4,8.16)- Love that became man, Love crucified and risen, Love unceasingly present among men... He alone can give the ultimate assurance when he says, "Be not afraid."

November 14, 1994. Tertio Millennio Adveniente. 

The most developed statement of John Paul II's millennial vision begins with a precise definition of what the turn of the third millennium means: nothing less that the 2,000^th anniversary of the axial moment in history, the Incarnation in human flesh of the Son of God, the Word through whom God the Father made the universe, Christ who is the Face of the Father, the Redeemer of the world, the Revealer of the true face of humanity. Thus the year 2000 is the 2000^th anniversary of the unveiling of true humanism. The Great Jubilee is a preparation for the "new springtime of Christian life; it should be marked with a new spirit of attentiveness. The entire purpose of the Great Jubilee is to get the Church to listen to "what the Spirit is suggesting to the different communities," from the smallest families to the largest nations.

January 16, 1995. Final Mass of Tenth World Youth Day in Manila. 

The Pope did not really say any new message; it did commit the Philippines to its destiny: "Dear People of God in the Philippines, go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth - - - your own world first, families, your communities, and the nation to which you belong and which you love; and the wider world of Asia, towards which the Church in the Philippines has a special responsibility before the Lord; and the world beyond, working through faith for the renewal of God's whole creation..."

March 25, 1995. Evangelium Vitae. 

The encyclical begins with a survey of contemporary threats to the dignity of human life which John Paul II sums up in the phrase "the culture of death.," continues through a biblical meditation on life as a divine gift, discusses the relationship of the moral law to civil law, and explores the ways in which every sector of the Church ought to involve itself in promoting a civilization at the service of life. It argued that democracies risked self-destruction if moral wrongs are legally defended as rights. Democracies that deny the inalienable fight to life from conception until natural death are "tyrant states" that poison the "culture of rights" and betray the "long historical process... that once led to discovering the idea of 'human rights.'" It put an unmistakable imprint on well-traveled ground by the solemnity of its teaching on three specific questions. The direct and voluntary killing of the innocent, abortion, and euthanasia are declared gravely immoral.

March 25, 1996. Vita Consecrata. 

November 15, 1996. Gift and Mystery.