The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

A Life Worth Reading

April 5, 2008

On Tuesday March 4th, I was irresistibly drawn to our local bookstore just to browse the theology section - I make a yearly pilgrimage ! The above book was available with just two copies on the shelf. I found out the next day that Cardinal Dziwisz's book had just been released that very day I purchased it ! Yesterday (a month to the day later) I finished the book, reading it in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed for First Friday.

I can vividly recall the final days of the late Pontiff, but to read those days from the perspective of the faithful secretary of Karol Wojtyla was most illuminating. Dziwisz served Wojtyla as secretary first as Archbishop of Krakow, and later as the Successor of St. Peter in Rome for almost 40 years.

Wojtyla had been one of the professors at Dziwisz's seminary (moral theology in fact). It was as auxiliary bishop that Wojtyla would ordain Dziwisz to the priesthood in 1963. When Wojtyla succeeded to the see of St. Stanislaus, he would summon the young priest to his side and ask him to change direction, a choice that would shape the rest of his life.

Life in Communist Poland wasn't easy. The secret police were everywhere, except that the police weren't exactly secret, Wojtyla would wave at them or bless them as he left his official residence on church business. They would "tail" him, of course, but his driver had the technique down to a tee, a quick dash round a corner, another vehicle would pull behind, effectively blocking the police in pursuit, transfer to another car, and the police were chasing the official limousine with no Archbishop inside !

Wojtyla participated at the Council, Dziwisz accompanied him. The Council made a deep impression on the young prelate - it became his life's mission to implement it as he understood it, first in Krakow as Archbishop and later Cardinal and finally as Pope for the Universal Church. This is a simple retelling of the tale, not an endorsement by any means. Even before his elevation to the papacy, Cardinal Wojtyla was quite the globe-trotter making frequent trips abroad especially to Polish communities of the Diaspora.

Participation at the first conclave of 1978 was quite an event for him; more momentous yet was the sudden death of John Paul I after a pontificate of only 33 days. Cardinal Dziwisz recalls the sudden somber air that came over him, whose tension only increased after he had traveled to Rome again for the second conclave of the year. Dziwisz recalls his own emotion when he saw his friend and colleague in the papal white for the first time.

The biggest hurdle the new pope had to overcome was the sudden enclosure thrown up around him for security reasons. However, he and his closest aides designed some ingenious ruses to escape the strictures of the Vatican and walk about freely in the city. More than 100 times they managed to slip past the Swiss Guard to go skiing. In the beginning they were able to do so completely anonymously until one young boy gazed in amazement and stammered: "It's the Pope !" One of the priests tried to distract the young fellow, but the cat was definitely out of the bag.

Besides these interesting anecdotes there are some serious issues that this book discusses, the fall of the Berlin wall, Communist persecution in Poland, the Solidarity movement, Liberation Theology in South America, the Pope's serious opposition to Marxism.... Reading this fairly short book one begins to realize how much this Pope was engaged in the business of the world, how he shaped the history of mankind during the almost 27 years he was Pope. One example alone: the secret letter to Leonid Brezhnev which, although unanswered, caused the Soviet Union to reflect before invading Poland and eventually decide to cancel the plans altogether. The Vatican had been warned of this by the US intelligence agencies.

The 1981 assassination attempt also figures prominently (as well it might). It was unknown to me that the surgeons who worked to save the Pope's life actually thought he wouldn't make it since he had lost so much blood as one bulletin had ruptured the colon in several place. It was only later that John Paul II reflected that the day, May 13, had coincided with the anniversary of the first Fatima apparition in 1917. The Pope asked for the so-called Third Secret to be brought to him so he might read it. In that message, the Pope who is shot dies. Why did he survive ? He concluded that it was the hand of Our Lady that had spared him and so in homage to her he paid a visit to Fatima one year later to thank her for sparing his life. The bullet was placed in the crown of the statue in the little chapel.

The other event associated with the assassination attempt was the visit to the cell of his assailant. Mehmet Ali Agca had been imprisoned but the Pope wanted to find a way to connect with him, to lead him down the path of forgiveness. He had initially decided to write a letter but then changed his mind and went in person to see him. The camera images show the two in close conversation, almost as though the Holy Father were hearing his confession, the memoirs give a completely different view. Agca was simply stunned, he had one question: "So why aren't you dead ?" Dziwisz recalls:

"But from Ali Agca himself, nothing. All he cared about were the revelations of Fatima. The only thing that interested him was figuring out who had prevented him from killing the Pope. But asking the Pope's forgiveness ? Sorry, not interested !

And he never did, either. He never asked for forgiveness !"

A Life With Karol, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Doubleday, New York, 2008 p 142

As to the motive, John Paul II always believed the orders came from Moscow, a Soviet empire in distress for fear that a Polish Pope might just unseat the lot of them....history will judge that.

Amongst the many controversial things of the Wojtyla pontificate were the various ecumenical activities - three in particular: Assisi in 1986, the visit to the synagogue in Rome, and in the declining years the visit to the mosque in Damascus. Again my purpose is not to engage in the usual Trad polemics here, this is just a review of an important book that gives useful insight and context to events that appear to be troubling. Wojtyla was very much marked by his early life. He grew up with Jews as friends. Religion did not divide them, it was not a source of contradiction, he was a Catholic, they were Jews, but they were childhood friends. The Nazi invasion and subsequent persecution of Jews, the concentration camps - places of mass murder, the hiding of a Jew in their own house throughout the war with the constant threat of death for harboring a Jew, the Soviet invasion and occupation, the lack of religious freedom under Communism all of this shaped his thinking, all of this convinced him that a religious man cannot tolerate these injustices. Indeed justice for all was a constant theme of his pontificate, the events of his early years show why. A country and a man who had seen what war can do - its horrors, the innocent massacred, lives destroyed, starvation - for all this we need peace.

One interesting revelation concerns the Assisi meeting. It has long been held that Cardinal Ratzinger was totally opposed to this meeting, because, it is claimed, it savored of religious indifferentism. Cardinal Dziwisz states the contrary:

"That's why we have to thank Benedict XVI, who, unlike others, did understand John Paul II and always stood by him. And since I'm on the topic, I'd like to contradict the claims of those who said, and still say, that Cardinal Ratzinger didn't agree with the Pope regarding Assisi. That's completely false."

Ibid. p 213

A major part of the life of John Paul II, something which was most visible to all of us for so long, was his life of suffering. The Cardinal pulls no punches as he describes the late Pope's list of physical ailments. Indeed this was perhaps the most poignant part of Cardinal Ratzinger's funeral eulogy. Cardinal Dziwisz closes the account:

"And the end of his homily, Cardinal Ratzinger pointed to the window and said that John Paul II was surely there watching and blessing us. I turned around, too. I couldn't not turn around. But looking up would have been too much for me"

Ibid. p. 259

All in all... a life worth reading !