Remembering Saint John Paul's Gospel of Life

On October 22nd, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates one of the greatest world figures in recent history. The papacy of Saint John Paul "the Great," 1978-2005, surpassed 260 popes except for Pius IX and Saint Peter himself. St. John Paul crisscrossed the world numerous times, bringing the Gospel to hundreds of nations, founded spectacular displays of faith like World Youth Day, and wrote epistles to encourage the faithful and clarify Church teaching.

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Highlights

By Fr. Denis G Wilde, O.S.A.
10/21/2024 (1 month ago)

Published in Christian Saints & Heroes

Keywords: St John Paul II, JPII, John Paul, Pope John Paul II, JPII Feast Day, Pope St John Paul

Several of the 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council (1963-1965) were largely his development and shrift, especially The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes) whose "Joy and Hope" his life and later papacy would display across that modern world.

He used technology well and I recall his grace when a minor technical glitch at Convention Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, during his first visit to the states as pope, caused the microphones to fall silent. After sound was quickly restored, the Pontiff simply joked, deeply and slowly: "E-ven in A-me-ri-ca." The assembled thousands laughed and cheered.

He had a way with youth, cultivated in his easy relations with Polish youngsters in camping and kayaking trips. He was an avid outdoorsman who loved skiing in the high Tatra Mountains near Zakopane; the earth and the Lord of Creation stirred his heart in his writings and dramatic presentations.

St. John Paul's philosophical and theologically advanced academic caliber rooted him in formal and orderly thought for the classroom at Poland's prestigious Jagiellonian University and subsequently the Catholic University of Lublin. His Love and Responsibility (1960) was a milestone advance into Christ-centered married life and early on he framed the focus on "personhood" that would permeate his liturgical, academic and magisterial teaching and activities.

His first papal visits back to his homeland cannot be overestimated in creating the domino fall of the East European communist nations and eventually the Soviet Union itself. The return to Catholic Poland of beloved Karol Wojtyla triggered - peacefully yet powerfully - the spiritual revolution that would change the face of Europe. Christianity returning through Peter!

Among his encyclicals and presentations both in the moral teaching series given orally from the Vatican assemblies or around the world, a triptych of writings stands out: Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life, March 25, 1995), Veritatis splendor (Splendor of Truth, Aug 6., 1993), and Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason, Sept. 14, 1998). Each had a particular function and reflected the mind of the Holy Father following modernist and relativist developments in culture and capitals.

Truth has an intrinsic, unchangeable and honorable status given by the Lawmaker Himself. Faith, reason and science - if all are truly shown and understood - do not contradict. Ever watchful for overall human needs, these three scripturally and traditionally rich documents go far to evaporate deeply held yet mistaken notions of religion, life, human desires and faith while showing the basics of Church teaching as logical, appealing and uplifting.

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Evangelium vitae, the first of the three, creates the strongest connection with faith and morals. In a sense, the other two encyclicals answer the need to point out modern relativism's cafeteria of choices in the public mindset. In modernity, "faith and morals" are easier to "accept" when truth is anchored and honored, rather than subjective conjecture one might "take or leave." Then what we believe and what is scientifically or empirically shown are not entered into as in opposing camps. Science, faith and truth are all gifts we humans enjoy and all are rooted in God.

The Gospel of Life turns the tables on death, which faith and reason - and science - show as inevitable to all. "I have come that they may have life." The incomparable worth of the human person in the order of creation is today met with threats against it. This is the point of departure in the encyclical's opening. Chapter 3 deals with the commandments and the results of violating them, especially "Thou shalt not kill." Reflecting on the billions of abortions worldwide, the Holy Father deals with this issue of violation, the mass slaughter of the most innocent human persons.

In No. 59), he writes: "We are facing an immense threat to life: not only to the life of individuals but also to that of civilization itself. We are facing what can be called a 'structure of sin' which opposes human life not yet born." Saint John Paul foresees the cultural change from pushing abortion as overtly a woman's supposed need to "snuff out a pregnancy" to a mass population control venture that we see ongoing today.

"Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable. The Second Vatican Council defines abortion, together with infanticide, as an 'unspeakable crime'" (58). We are so far from seeing abortion that way today.

"The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved. The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined" (58).

We need to get back to calling abortion what it is, and allow our countercultural insistence draw others' attention, however indignant. Science itself verifies new human life at conception, as the Holy Father later spells out.

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As to our involvement with political features - that is, laws advancing access to abortion and now pushing the legal limit beyond even birth itself: "No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church" (62). Accepting St. John Paul's correct logic, we cannot vote for pro-abortion candidates.

Likewise, in 73, "In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to 'take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it.'" There is no other right so fundamental. On the right to live depends everything else. Social justice begins in the womb.

Many other aspects of the life issue, for those born and unborn, are treated in Evangelium vitae, including condemnation of euthanasia and in vitro test tube genetics. There is also a beautiful paragraph of mercy and consolation (99) for the post-abortive moms and what they suffer as the results of their greatly misguided actions.

Upon departure from Detroit at the end of His second pastoral visit to America, St. John Paul acknowledged: "America the Beautiful, so you sing in one of your national songs. Yes, America, you are beautiful indeed, and blessed in so many ways... yet your greatest beauty and richest blessing is found in the human person... your deepest identity and truest character as a nation is revealed in the position you take toward the human person, the ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones... If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life! ... This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival - Yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those yet unborn. (Sept. 19, 1987)

Let's keep that in mind and honor these prophetic, saintly words as we cast our ballots up to Election Day!

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Fr. Denis Wilde, O.S.A., is a full-time pastoral associate of Priests for Life.