10 Ways for Families to celebrate Catholic Schools

Catholic Schools Week is not just for kids. Here are 10 ways for parents to participate in the annual celebration of Catholic education:

1. Write a note of appreciation to your children’s teachers.  Thank them for the attention and energy they give your children every day, as well as for their dedication to Catholic education.

2. Write a letter to your parish priest, thanking him for supporting the Catholic school that is preparing your children for a bright future.

3. Write a letter to your representatives in the U.S. Congress and state legislature to let them know why Catholic education is important to you and your community.  Send a copy of your letter to your school principal.

4. While you’re at it, write a thank-you note to that special teacher from your own Catholic school days who had a significant impact on your life.

5. Donate books or other learning materials to the school library.  If you can, ask the school if they need books on certain subjects or for particular grade levels.

6. Set aside time for family prayer for all those who contribute to the success of your children’s school, including students, teachers, staff, benefactors and volunteers.  Add a prayer for vocations to continue the Catholic education tradition in your community and throughout the country.

7. Volunteer to help plan and carry out Catholic Schools Week activities.  Whether you are able to contribute a little time or a lot, your effort helps make the week special for all.

8. If, through your work or volunteer activities, you learn of a need in the community that students at your children’s school can help fill, recommend an ongoing service project.  Better yet, volunteer to organize it.

9. Join in the fun!  Gather the entire family—from younger siblings to grandparents—and participate in the week’s events at your children’s school.

10. Extend a special invitation to your friends and neighbors who might want to learn more about the value of Catholic education.  

Catholic Schools - A + for America

The theme for Catholic Schools Week 2011 celebrates the fact that Catholic schools are an added value (“a plus”) for the nation. Because of their traditionally high academic standards and high graduation rates, all supported by strong moral values, Catholic schools and their graduates make a definite contribution to American society. 

Each year we celebrate Catholic Schools Week beginning on the last Sunday of January (this year January 30 - February 5).  Our parish and school begins our celebration with a Pancake Breakfast and Open House in our school / parish hall.  In addition, there will be a Mass on Friday, special activities for students and teachers, a skating party and LOTS of fun!  

The logo designed for this year's celebration of Catholic Schools displays the words “A+ For America, Catholic Schools” beneath a stylized banner of stars and stripes in red and light blue.  “Historically, Catholic schools are known for their high level of academic achievement, moral values and high graduation rates,” said Karen Ristau, president of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). “What may not be as widely recognized are the outstanding successes recorded by students of low-income families and students from the inner city. That’s certainly a plus for many portions of the American population.” 

Marie Powell, executive director of the Secretariat of Catholic Education at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, noted: “This year nearly 30 percent of the nation’s 2.1 million Catholic school students come from minority populations. Enrollment of students who are not Catholic has increased to 14.5 percent, an indication that many diverse families seek the benefits of a quality education with moral underpinnings.”

The 7,094 Catholic elementary and secondary schools make up 44.4 percent of all private schools in the United States.  A Catholic-school education is available in all regions of the nation. Urban schools represent 30.7 percent of the total, suburban 36.5 percent, rural 20.5 percent and inner- city schools 12.3 percent. The five states with the highest student enrolments are California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio.

Our parish school of Saint Andrew the Apostle currently educates 110 students in grades kindergarten through 6.  We have a dedicated and skilled faculty that puts the needs of each student first.  If you've ever attended our 6th grade graduation ceremony, the excellent education our children received is evident as they speak with poise and eloquence in front of their parents, siblings and peers.  

We are SO blessed to have a parish school here in our parish, and we invite YOU to have your children join us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas - the Angelic Doctor

St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church, is the patron of all universities and of students. Today, January 28th, is his feast day!  He was born toward the end of the year 1226.  He was the son of Landulph, Count of Aquino, who, when St. Thomas was five years old, placed him under the care of the Benedictines of Monte Casino.  His teachers were surprised at the progress he made, for he surpassed all his fellow pupils in learning as well as in the practice of virtue. 

When he became of age to choose his state of life, St. Thomas renounced the things of this world and resolved to enter the Order of St. Dominic in spite of the opposition of his family.  In 1243, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Dominicans of Naples.  However, displeased with his decision to join the Dominicans, some members of his family resorted to all manner of means over a two year period to break his constancy and convince (or force) him to leave the order.  They even went so far as to send an impure woman to tempt him.  But all their efforts were in vain and St. Thomas persevered in his vocation.  As a reward for his fidelity, God conferred upon him the gift of perfect chastity, which has merited for him the title of the "Angelic Doctor". 

After making his profession at Naples, he studied at Cologne under the celebrated St. Albert the Great.  Here he was nicknamed the "dumb ox" because of his silent ways and huge size, but he was really a brilliant student.  At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed to teach in the same city.  At the same time, he also began to publish his first works.  After four years he was sent to Paris.  The saint was then a priest.  At the age of thirty-one, he received his doctorate. 

At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King, St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined.  In 1261, Pope Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach, but he positively declined to accept any ecclesiastical dignity.  St. Thomas not only wrote (his writings filled twenty hefty tomes characterized by brilliance of thought and lucidity of language), but he preached often and with greatest fruit.  Pope Clement IV offered him the archbishopric of Naples which he also refused.  He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa Theologica", unfinished, for on his way to the second Council of Lyons, ordered there by Pope Gregory X, he fell sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274. 

St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time.  He was canonized in 1323 and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V. 

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

 

Saint Thomas Aquinas

The Conversion of Saint Paul

Paul’s entire life can be explained in terms of one experience—his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus.  In an instant, he saw that all the zeal of his dynamic personality was being wasted, like the strength of a boxer swinging wildly.  Perhaps he had never seen Jesus, who was only a few years older.  But he had acquired a zealot’s hatred of all Jesus stood for, as he began to harass the Church: “...entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment” (Acts 8:3b).  Now he himself was “entered,” possessed, all his energy harnessed to one goal—being a slave of Christ in the ministry of reconciliation, an instrument to help others experience the one Savior. 

One sentence determined his theology: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5b). Jesus was mysteriously identified with people—the loving group of people Saul had been running down like criminals. Jesus, he saw, was the mysterious fulfillment of all he had been blindly pursuing.

From then on, his only work was to “present everyone perfect in Christ. For this I labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me” (Colossians 1:28b-29).  “For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and [with] much conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5a).

Paul’s life became a tireless proclaiming and living out of the message of the cross: Christians die baptismally to sin and are buried with Christ; they are dead to all that is sinful and unredeemed in the world.  They are made into a new creation, already sharing Christ’s victory and someday to rise from the dead like him.  Through this risen Christ the Father pours out the Spirit on them, making them completely new.

So Paul’s great message to the world was: You are saved entirely by God, not by anything you can do.  Saving faith is the gift of total, free, personal and loving commitment to Christ, a commitment that then bears fruit in more “works” than the Law could ever contemplate.

Roe v. Wade anniversary : Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The Catholic News Agency published a wonderful article which asks why abortion, after 38 years, continues to be such an issue in our nation and why we, as yet, have not changed this so-called "right to abortion."  The article follows:

Roe v. Wade anniversary :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

 Abortion is an extremely difficult topic.  Most people would imagine that, as a priest, I have personally dealt with people who have, after difficult and serious decision, felt that an abortion was the only way "out" of a difficult situation.  Priests counsel and assist many people who are suffering in life, and those who suffer after an abortion is most likely included.  A number of years ago I was trained as a "Rachel's Vineyard Priest."  It can be a wonderful time of healing and and forgiveness.  It is always a difficult and gut-wrenching decision.  

There are two groups of people who know how difficult this decision is for them.  First there are the sidewalk counselors who stand outside abortion centers - in rain and snow, sun and storm - to witness to the sanctity of life and encourage people to pause, just for a moment, to consider the seriousness of their decision and how it will ultimately cause them great harm (emotional and, perhaps, physical as well).  Many of us probably saw the recent news story about Dr. Kermit Gosnell of Philadelphia.  He was a doctor who performed abortions - catering to minorities, immigrants and poor women - who was charged with 8 counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and 7 babies who were born alive, but whom he allegedly killed with scissors.  

Dr. Kermit Gosnell

The news reports say that Dr. Gosnell made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could.  According to the Philadelphia district attorney, his patient, Karnamaya Mongar, died in 2009 when she was overdosed with anesthetics.  He added that patients were "subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society."  At the time his clinic was raided by health authorities, a high-school student without training or a license was administering anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics.  Dr. Gosnell has been the subject of numerous malpractice suits, including another woman who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus.  

This most recent case is just one in a long list of patients who have died or been severely injured during an abortion.  It reminds us that abortion is anything BUT safe - the mother's life it in danger.

The other group of people who know the difficulty of the decision to have an abortion is the people who work there.  For many years Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion, has taught its employees to reassure women that it's just a bunch of cells, or that they have no feeling - that this is a simple and safe medical procedure.  But now, the truth has been told.

There is a new book entitled "Unplanned" written by Abby Johnson, who is a former Planned Parenthood Director.  The following is an excerpt from the book in which she explains her conversion from pro-choice activist to pro-life activist, as she watched an abortion being performed live on an ultrasound.  CAUTION: THIS DESCRIPTION MIGHT BE TOO GRAPHIC FOR SOME YOUNGER READERS:

At first, the baby didn’t seem aware of the cannula. It gently probed the baby’s side, and for a quick second I felt relief. Of course, I thought. The fetus doesn’t feel pain. I had reassured countless women of this as I’d been taught by Planned Parenthood. The fetal tissue feels nothing as it is removed. Get a grip, Abby. This is a simple, quick medical procedure. My head was working hard to control my responses, but I couldn’t shake an inner disquiet that was quickly mounting to horror as I watched the screen.

The next movement was the sudden jerk of a tiny foot as the baby started kicking, as if it were trying to move away from the probing invader. As the cannula pressed its side, the baby began struggling to turn and twist away. It seemed clear to me that it could feel the cannula, and it did not like what it was feeling. And then the doctor’s voice broke through, startling me.

“Beam me up, Scotty,” he said lightheartedly to the nurse. He was telling her to turn on the suction — in an abortion the suction isn’t turned on until the doctor feels he has the cannula in exactly the right place.

I had a sudden urge to yell, “Stop!” To shake the woman and say, “Look at what is happening to your baby! Wake up! Hurry! Stop them!”

But even as I thought those words, I looked at my own hand holding the probe. I was one of “them” performing this act. My eyes shot back to the screen again. The cannula was already being rotated by the doctor, and now I could see the tiny body violently twisting with it. For the briefest moment the baby looked as if it were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then it crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then it was gone. And the uterus was empty. Totally empty.

This is the truth of what happens inside the clinics where abortions are performed.  As people who believe that every life is sacred as a reflection of God, we can no longer push this issue aside and soothe our conscience by saying that it is one issue among others when we vote each year.  Abortion is not just one issue among many important issues during an election, it is THE issue - most others have legitimate differences of opinion on how to deal with important matters - differences which are not immoral.  However, abortion is an intrinsic evil that can NEVER be justified - that has now legitimate "differences of opinion."  Abortion intentionally kills a developing child in the womb of its mother.  There are currently 1.3 MILLION abortions each year in the United States alone.  Multiply this by the 38 years of legal abortion and we can estimate that nearly 50 MILLION children have been aborted - and this doesn't count the two states that refuse to report their abortion numbers to the federal government.

50 MILLION abortions.  

It is a number to big too comprehend, 

and too big to ignore.

Anniversary of Roe v Wade - Day of Penance and Prayer

In February 2002, the Catholic Church established that throughout the United States, January 22^nd would be observed as a day of prayer and penance against abortion:

“In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass 'For Peace and Justice' (no. 22 of the 'Masses for Various Needs') should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.”

                       – General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373

 Why a Day of Prayer and Penance?

In the U.S., the date of January 22^nd as the Day of Prayer and Penance is significant because this date marks the anniversary of the deplorable Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the U.S. throughout all nine months of pregnancy. The Roe v. Wade decision legally established in the U.S. that most laws against abortion in the United States were unconstitutional, for privacy rights reasons, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Because abortion is immoral and intrinsically evil, we as faithful Catholics are obligated to teach against this grave evil. This is to be worked towards certainly through social and political actions; however, as an issue of faith, the weapons of prayer and penance are of significance:

“Filled with this certainty, and moved by profound concern for the destiny of every man and woman, I repeat what I said to those families who carry out their challenging mission amid so many difficulties: a great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer.

Jesus himself has shown us by his own example that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil (cf. Mt 4:1-11). As he taught his disciples, some demons cannot be driven out except in this way (cf. Mk 9:29).

Let us therefore discover anew the humility and the courage to pray and fast so that power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit: the walls which conceal from the sight of so many of our brothers and sisters the evil of practices and laws which are hostile to life. May this same power turn their hearts to resolutions and goals inspired by the civilization of life and love.” - Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, no. 100.

Ideas for Observing the Day of Prayer and Penance

There are multiple ways of observing this national day of prayer and penance. Of course, as noted above, the Mass for Peace and Justice is to be celebrated on the day of prayer and penance. However, there are many actions in which individuals and groups can engage to observe the day:

• Peacefully praying outside of an abortion clinic
• Fasting
• Praying a rosary or chaplet for the unborn
• Praying for those who have been wounded by abortion
• Visiting and praying before the Blessed Sacrament
• Reading and reflecting on Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae in full
• Becoming involved with the pro-life group in your town or area OR
  Go to the March for Life on Monday in Washington, DC
  

Pope Blesses Lambs for Pallium on today's Feast of St. Agnes

Inside the Pope's Daily Life

Ever wonder what it was like inside the Papal Apartment - or what the Pope's daily life was like?  Watch this CatholicTV.com program and find out...

Saint Anthony of the Desert

Saint Anthony was born in the year 251, in Upper Egypt.  Hearing at Mass the words, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor,” he gave away all his vast possessions — staying only to see that his sister’s education was completed — and retired into the desert.  He then begged an aged hermit to teach him the spiritual life, and he also visited various solitaries, undertaking to copy the principal virtue of each.

To serve God more perfectly, Anthony retreated to a ruin, building up the door so that none could enter.  Here, the tradition says, the devils assaulted him furiously, appearing as various monsters, and even wounding him severely; but his courage never failed, and he overcame them all by confidence in God and by the sign of the cross.   One night, while Anthony was in his solitude, many devils scourged him so terribly that he lay as if dead.  A friend found him in this condition, and believing him dead carried him home.  But when Anthony came to himself he persuaded his friend to take him back, in spite of his wounds, to his solitude.  Here, prostrate from weakness, he defied the devils, saying, “I fear you not; you cannot separate me from the love of Christ.”  After more vain assaults the devils fled, and Christ appeared to Anthony in His glory.

Saint Anthony’s only food was bread and water, which he never tasted before sunset, and sometimes only once in two, three, or four days.  He wore sackcloth and sheepskin, and he often knelt in prayer from sunset to sunrise.

 

His admirers became so many and so insistent that he was eventually persuaded to found two monasteries for them and to give them a rule of life.  These were the first monasteries ever to be founded, and Saint Anthony is, therefore, the father of cenobites of monks.  In 311 he went to Alexandria to take part in the Arian controversy and to comfort those who were being persecuted by Maximinus.  This visit lasted for a few days only, after which he retired into a solitude even more remote so that he might cut himself off completely from his admirers.  

He is said to have survived until the age of a hundred and five, when he died peacefully in a cave on Mount Kolzim near the Red Sea.  Saint Athanasius, his biographer, says that the mere knowledge of how Saint Anthony lived is a good guide to virtue.

It official - Blessed John Paul II

Vatican announces beatification of Servant of God John Paul II
(from RadioVaticana.org)

On Friday the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints published the decree for the beatification of the late great Servant of God John Paul II. Below we publish the full text of the decree:

Beatification: Sign of the depth of faith and invitation to a fully Christian life
The proclamation of a Saint or of a Blessed by the Church is the fruit of putting together various aspects regarding a specific Person. First, it is an act which says something important in the life of the Church herself. It is linked to a “cult”, i.e. to the memory of the person, to his full acknowledgment of him in the awareness of the ecclesial community, of the country, of the Universal Church in various countries, continents and cultures. Another aspect is the awareness that the “presentation on the altars” will be an important sign of the depth of the faith, of the diffusion of faith in the path of life of that person, and that this sign will become an invitation, a stimulus for us all towards a Christian life ever more profound and full. Finally, the sine qua non condition is the holiness of the person’s life, verified during the precise and formal canonical proceedings. All this provides the material for the decision of the Successor of Peter, of the Pope in view of the proclamation of a Blessed or of a Saint, of the cult in the context of the ecclesial community and of its liturgy.

John Paul II’s pontificate was an eloquent and clear sign, not only for Catholics, but also for world public opinion, for people of all colour and creed. The world’s reaction to his lifestyle, to the development of his apostolic mission, to the way he bore his suffering, to the decision to continue his Petrine mission to the end as willed by divine Providence, and finally, the reaction to his death, the popularity of the acclamation “Saint right now!” which someone made on the day of his funerals, all this has its solid foundation in the experience of having met with the person who was the Pope. The faithful have felt, have experienced that he is “God’s man”, who really sees the concrete steps and the mechanisms of contemporary world “in God”, in God’s perspective, with the eyes of a mystic who looks up to God only. He was clearly a man of prayer: so much so that it is from the dynamism of his personal union with God, from the permanent listening to what God wants to say in a concrete situation, that the whole of “Pope John Paul II’s activity” flowed. Those who were closest to him have been able to see that, prior to his meetings with his guests, with Heads of State, with Church high officials or ordinary citizens, John Paul II would recollect himself in prayer according to the intentions of the guests and of the meeting that was to come.

1 – Karol Wojtyla’s contribution to Vatican II Council

After Vatican II, during the pontificates of Paul VI and of John Paul II, the manner of presentation, and thus of self-presentation of the papacy, has become quite expressive. On the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of the pontificate of John Paul II, the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs published in 2004 a book entitled Go forth in the whole world. Giancarlo Zizola, a “vaticanist”, remarked on the fact that “the papacy has conquered its citizenship in the realm of public visibility, breaking away from the siege of worship marginalisation where it had been kept by decree of secular society, in the name of a militant vision of the liberal tenet of Separation of Church and State” (p. 17). A German historian, Jesuit Klaus Schatz, speaking of Paul VI and of John Paul II, underlined the meaning of the “papacy on the way” – thus in conformity with Vatican II – more in the manner of a missionary movement than as a static pole of unity. Schatz refers to the manner of interpreting the papal mission as a challenge to “confirm the brothers in the faith” (Lk 22, 32), in a way tied to structural authority, but with a strong spiritual and charismatic hint, in link with the personal credibility and rooted in God himself.

Let us pause a moment to consider Vatican II. The young archbishop of Cracow was one of the most active Council Fathers. He made a significant contribution to the “Scheme XIII” which was to become the Pastoral Constitution of the Council Gaudium et Spes on the Church in the Modern World, and to the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium. Thanks to his studies abroad, bishop Wojtyla had a concrete experience of evangelisation and of the mission of the Church, in Western Europe or in other continents, but above all of totalitarian atheism in Poland and in the other countries of the “Soviet Block”. He brought all this experience to the Council debates, which were certainly not like drawing-room conversations, extremely courteous but void of contents. Here was a substantial and decisive effort to insert the Gospel’s dynamism into the conciliar enthusiasm rooted on the conviction that Christianity is capable of furnishing a “soul” to the development of modernity and to the reality of the social and cultural world.

All this was to be of use in preparing for the future responsibilities of the Successor of Peter. As John Paul II said, he already had in his mind his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, and brought it to Rome from Cracow. All he had to do in Rome was to write down all these ideas. In this encyclical, there is a wide invitation to humankind to rediscover the reality of Redemption in Christ:
Man (…) remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer "fully reveals man to himself". (…) man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly "expressed" and, in a way, is newly created. (…) The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must "appropriate" and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. (n° 10)
This union of Christ with man is in itself a mystery. From the mystery is born "the new man", called to become a partaker of God's life, and newly created in Christ for the fullness of grace and truth. (…) Man is transformed inwardly by this power as the source of a new life that does not disappear and pass away but lasts to eternal life. (…) This life, which the Father has promised and offered to each man in Jesus Christ (…) is in a way the fulfilment of the "destiny" that God has prepared for him from eternity. This "divine destiny" is advancing, in spite of all the enigmas, the unsolved riddles, the twists and turns of "human destiny" in the world of time. Indeed, while all this, in spite of all the riches of life in time, necessarily and inevitably leads to the frontier of death and the goal of the destruction of the human body, beyond that goal we see Christ. "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me... shall never die". (n° 18)
2 – “Totus Tuus”, trust in Mary Mother of God

The life of John Paul II was totally devoted to the service of the Lord, by the intercession of the Mother. His motto was “Totus Tuus”, whether for the good of the Church or for that of man who is the way for the Church (Redemptor Hominis, n° 14). This is the “raison d’être” of the international Apostolic Voyages, the daily meetings with people, with those in charge of ecclesial communities, with cardinals and bishops, with the Heads of other Churches and Christian communities, the Heads of other religions, and with the laity. This is equally true of the written documents of the Pope, the diplomatic relations of the Holy See with the States and International Organisations. The deep conviction of the value of Vatican II – not only on the necessity but also about the possibility, by the Church, to bring the Gospel of Christ and build on it the experience of the Church as a vibrant and energising inspiration of the vision and mechanisms of the modern world – this has always been the Pope’s conviction.

In 1989 the “Berlin Wall” fell, but on the international level, one could feel the destructive force of the commercial mechanisms and of the particular economic and ideological interests, ever more anonymous, bringing injustice and marginalisation to all peoples – even of certain social groups in well developed countries –, and in particular, one could perceive how human life has been devalued. In his many International Apostolic Voyages in the various continents, the Pope voiced the Gospel of Christ and the Church’s preoccupation. He wrote it in a more systematic way in the encyclicals: Laborem Exercens, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Centesimus Annus; and also Evangelium Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Fides et Ratio; and the encyclicals dealing directly with life and the apostolate of the Church, like Dominum et Vivificantem, Redemptoris Missio, Ut Unum Sint, Ecclesia de Eucharistia.

3 – The Iraq war and the “peace offensive”

Sometimes, as in the case of the efforts to avoid war between the United States and Iraq, there is a real “peace offensive” not only in order to save people’s lives, but also to bring to a halt the growth of hatred and of the insane ideas about civilisation clashes, or about the new phenomenon of world scale terrorism. Thus, the New Year address to the diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, and the unforgettable February 2002 with the series of meetings of the Pope with diplomats of “first category”: J. Fischer (7^th Feb.); Tarek Aziz (14^th Feb.); Kofi Annan (18^th Feb.); Tony Blair (22^nd Feb.); José Maria Aznar and the envoy of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran (27^th Feb.); and finally, because of the humanly unbearable situation, the decision to send Cardinal Etchegaray on a special mission to Baghdad (15^th Feb.) and Cardinal Pio Laghi to Washington (3^rd – 9^th March). The “February of the Pope” came to a conclusion with the meeting of Cardinal J.L. Tauran with the 74 ambassadors and diplomats from the entire world; as the Secretary for the Relations with the States, the “Minister for Foreign Affairs” of the Pope, Cardinal Tauran made an appeal in order to avoid war, and called to mind all that the Pope had said in his “peace offensive”.

4 – Year 2000 Jubilee: a historical reality to remember the coming of Jesus of Nazareth

The current task of John Paul II was centred on the pastoral and life of the Church: the Bishops’ Ad limina visits from the entire world, the Wednesday audiences and the Sunday meetings with the faithful for the Angelus, the pastoral visits of Roman parishes. All was done to promote the proclamation of Christ, to bring closer to our knowledge His Person and the fact that “the words that Christ has said when he was about to leave the Apostles tell us about the mystery of man’s history, of one and all, the mystery of humankind’s history. Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is an immersion in the living God, “in the One who is, who was and who will be”. Baptism is the start of the encounter, of unity, of communion, and of this earthly life is but a prologue and an introduction; fulfilment and fullness belong to eternity. “This world’s figure is fading away.” We must therefore find ourselves “in the world of God”, in order to reach the goal, to come to the fullness of life and of man’s vocation” (Cracow, 10^th June 1979).

“This was precisely one of the things that John Paul II wanted most: to explain clearly that we look to Christ who comes; of course, to the One who came, but even more to the One who comes, and that, in this perspective, our faith keeps us oriented towards the future. In this way, we are really capable of presenting the message of faith, in a new manner, in the perspective of Christ who comes,” (Benedict XVI, Light of the World).

The Great Jubilee of Redemption, in the Year 2000, was not for John Paul II a “pretext” for pastoral action, but first and foremost a historical reality reminding us of the coming of Jesus of Nazareth and everything that this historical event has brought, viz. Redemption, the Testimony of the Love of God unto the Cross and Resurrection, the life of the early Church, the path of salvation accomplished by the Saviour by which He has introduced his Church as a sign and an instrument of internal unity with God, as well as that of the human family. The Year 2000 Jubilee reminds us of the Holy Land, the land of Jesus, and of Rome, the place of apostolate of the Successor of Peter, the bond of authenticity of the message and of the unity of the ecclesial community. This message has been reformulated in the Apostolic Letters Tertio Millenio Adveniente and Novo Millennio Ineunte. But, for the Pope, what mattered most was the personal thanksgiving and that of the entire Church to our Lord Jesus and the encounter in faith with the One who has loved to the end, who has saved us and remains a sign so sorely needed in a world that is becoming increasingly deaf, while trying to organise its life as if God did not exist, thus erring without identity and without meaning.

5 – Attention to the Youth and the meaning of WYD

John Paul II used to evaluate the results of the international Apostolic Voyages with his collaborators, to identify what was well done, and to see to the changes for the coming voyages. After the voyage in Poland in 1991, the Pope noticed that, during the Mass in Warsaw, in the farthest parts, the young people came and went away, drank beer or coca-cola, and came back. “It was not like this during the previous voyages, he noted, there has been a change in the society’s mentality. It is not worth looking at the “first places”. The VIP are always seated in the same manner, but the “margins” are important and worth our attention.” It is worth noting that the Pope did not use the word “crowd”: he has always seen and paid attention to “people”. He was very attentive to the role of the laity in the life and mission of the Church. It is quite meaningful that, when he was still University chaplain in Cracow, he exploited a brief period of “political thaw” in 1957 to organise – in collaboration with the archbishop of Wroclaw, Boleslaw Kominek – a symposium in the city for more than 100 university students from all Poland (for the first time since decades!) precisely on the theme “The role of lay people in the Church” (and that was years before Vatican II!). Later, during the summer vacations, he organised spiritual exercises at the place of the Ursuline Sisters of the Roman Union in Bado Ślaskie for a slightly smaller group of the participants of the symposium of Wroclaw, precisely to promote the “formation of the laity”.

With the creation of the World Youth Days, the Pope gave his support to various forms of activity of the lay people in the life and mission of the Church, thus paving the way to the very meaningful initiatives, some years later, during the pontificate of Benedict XVI: the holding in September 2010 in Korea, of an important Congress for the lay Catholics of Asia; the meetings of African bishops who are ever more encouraging the lay people to hold positions of responsibility in the sectors of evangelisation, social activity and in the Church’s educational sphere; the significant presence of lay Catholics in the continental Mission of Latin America.

Reviewing his pontificate, Benedict XVI makes a note of the generation changes on a world scale, and comes to the same conclusion as his predecessor, namely that “times have changed”. Meanwhile a new generation has come, with new problems. The generation of the late sixties, with its own peculiarities, has come and gone. Even the following generation, more pragmatic, is ageing. Today, one must ask: “How can we cope with a world that threatens itself, and in which progress becomes a danger? Should we not start all over again from God?” (Light of the World). So Benedict XVI makes an appeal “that a new generation of Catholics may rise, people inwardly renewed who would commit themselves in politics without any inferiority complex” (an idea oft repeated by the Pope, namely in the Message for the 46^th Social Week of Italian Catholics, 12^th October 2010). He goes on to call for a new generation of good intellectuals and scientists, attentive to the fact “that a scientific perspective that ignores the ethical and religious dimension of life becomes dangerously narrow, just as a religion would, if it were to refuse a legitimate contribution of science to our understanding of the world” (London, St. Mary’s College, 17^th September 2010); the Pope calls for a “new generation of committed Christian laypeople capable of seeking, with competency and moral rigor, solutions of sustainable development” (7^th September 2008).

6 – The simplicity of John Paul II’s prayer

When we recall what John Paul II has accomplished, the “big events” are mixed with the remembrance of simple moments of prayer, which have been a source of surprise even to his collaborators. I’ll mention only two, coming from two different periods of his life. In the seventies, I was students’ chaplain at the Catholic University in Lublin. At the beginning of the academic year, the then Cardinal of Cracow came to take part in the Eucharist at the university church, in the official inauguration of the big Hall, and for lunch. After that, the Cardinal was ready to return to Cracow. The Rector of the University, Fr. Krapiec, accompanied him to the car, but stopped to chat with another guest, so much so that they were late to arrive at the car. But lo! The Cardinal had “disappeared”! The ten seconds they waited seemed like ten centuries. The Rector, accustomed to having everything under control, did not know where the Cardinal could have gone to. He asked me: “Where is Wojtyla? The Cardinal has disappeared! Where is he?” With a slight mocking smile, I took some time before answering him, just to tease him a bit. Then I told him: “He has probably gone to the church.” There we went, and sure enough, we found the Cardinal, kneeling in prayer in front of the Way of the Cross.

The other recollection was in 1999, during his seventh Apostolic Voyage in Poland. It lasted for 13 days, with 22 stops in the programme, from the North to the South of the country. A programme well beyond the physical capabilities of the Pope. One of those days, there was to be – according to the programme – the blessing of the Sanctuary of Lichen, the Eucharist in Bydgoszcz, then a meeting with the university people, the liturgy of the Sacred Heart, in link with the beatification of Fr. Frelichowski in another city, in Torun, then back to Lichen for the overnight stay. A more than busy day! Thus, after dinner, the papal suite went to bed immediately. But the Pope just locked himself in the chapel for a long, a very long moment of prayer. There remained only three of us: Bishop Chrapek, in charge of the visit planning for the episcopate; myself, as “assistant”, and the famous Camillo Cibin, head of the Vatican security. At last the Pope came out of the chapel to go to his bedroom. Cibin said to me: “Father Andrea, bring me a chair. But one that is hard, made of wood, not a sofa, two cups of coffee, strong coffee, and an apple.” All this was to help him wait all night at the door of the Pope’s bedroom, which was not totally closed, to ascertain if the Pope – not only tired but also advanced in years – was breathing normally or if he had any need of assistance. The personal holiness of the Pope was something over and above the esteem he enjoyed among his closest collaborators, and that was quite significant.

7 – The Will of John Paul II

John Paul II was conscious of the fact that we are experiencing a very trying moment in history, that the Successor of Peter has the duty to confirm in the faith, but he was equally conscious of the fact that the most important aspect was to depend on God. The will he wrote in 1979, and which he modified every year, during the spiritual exercises, gives us a powerful testimony of this. From the 24^th February to the 1^st March, he wrote:

“24.II – 1.III.1980. During these spiritual exercises, I reflected on the truth of Christ’s Priesthood in view of the Passage which is, for each of us, the hour of our own death. For us, parting from this world – to be reborn in the next, the world to come, eloquent sign (he adds the word decisive above it), is the Resurrection of Christ. (…) The times we live in have become unspeakably difficult and worrying. The life of the Church has also become difficult and tense, a characteristic trial of these times – for the faithful and for the pastors. In some countries (like the one which I read about during the spiritual exercises), the Church finds herself in a time of persecution equal to that of the first centuries, maybe more, according to the degree of cruelty and hatred. Sanguis martyrum – semen christianorum. Furthermore, so many innocent people have disappeared, even in this country where we are living…
Once again I wish to entrust myself totally to the Lord’s grace. He will decide when and how I am to end my earthly life and my pastoral ministry. In life as in death, Totus Tuus, through the Immaculate. By already accepting this death, I hope that Christ give me the grace for this last passage, that is (my) Pasch. I equally hope that he renders it useful for this more important cause I try to serve: the salvation of human beings, the protection of the human family, in all nations and among all peoples (among these I am thinking in particular of my own earthly country), useful for those who, in a special way, have been entrusted to me, in the Church, for the glory of the same God.”

On the 5^th March 1982, he added: “The attempt on my life, on 13.V.1981, has confirmed, in a certain way, the accuracy of the words written during the 1980 spiritual exercises (24.II – 1.III). I feel even more deeply that I am completely in the Hands of God – and I remain constantly available to my Lord, entrusting myself to Him in His Immaculate Mother (Totus Tuus).”

Then, on the 17^th Marche of the Jubilee Year 2000, number 3: “As for every year, during the spiritual exercises, I read my will of the 6.III.1979. I continue to maintain the provisions contained in it. What has been added, at that time and during the following spiritual exercises, constitutes a reflection of the difficult and tense general situation which has marked the eighties. Since the autumn of 1989, this situation has changed. The last decade of the past century was free of the previous tensions; this does not mean there were no new problems or difficulties. In a special way, may the Divine Providence be praised for this, in that the so-called “cold war” period has ended without violent nuclear conflict, a threat which weighed on the world during the previous period” (words underlined by the Pope himself).

8 – An essential aspect of the new Blessed: “God is the foundation of all our efforts”

This is again an essential aspect, if one wishes to understand more deeply the personality of the Church’s new Blessed, Karol Wojtyla – John Paul II. The foundation of all the efforts of our life is in God. We are covered by divine love, by the results of Redemption and Salvation. But we must help people to become deeply rooted in God himself; we must do everything possible to create personal and social attitudes rooted in the reality of God. This requires patience, time and the ability to see everything through the eyes of God.

The last, brief pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II in Poland, more specifically in his “small country”, in Cracow, Wadovice and the Way of the Cross (of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska), showed a determination, but also a spiritual acuity “in the process of maturation in time” so that all humankind, especially the ecclesial and Christian community, can understand more fully some of the fundamental aspects of faith. Since the beginning of his pontificate, in 1978, John Paul II often spoke in his homilies of the mercy of God. This became the theme of his second encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, in 1980. He was aware that modern culture and its language do not have a place for mercy, treating it as something strange; they try to inscribe everything in the categories of justice and law. But this does not suffice, for it is not what the reality of God is about.

9 – Entrusting the world to Divine Mercy

Later on, the Pope took some steps to finalise the process of Beatification of Sr. Faustina Kowalska, and the canonisation (2000). The whole ecclesial community was brought to feel the closeness of the person so intimately linked to the message of Mercy; this facilitated the development of the topic for John Paul II, showing the reality of Divine Mercy in the many contexts around the world, in various continents, of humanity today.

Finally, in August 2002, in Lagiewniki, where Sr. Faustina lived and died, John Paul II entrusted the world to Divine Mercy, to the unlimited trust in God the Merciful, to the One who has been a source of inspiration, but also of strength for his service as Successor of Peter. “It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Spirit of Truth, who leads us on the ways of Divine Mercy. By convicting the world “concerning sin, righteousness and condemnation” (Jn 16, 8), he reveals at the same time the fullness of salvation in Christ. This convicting concerning sin is doubly related to the Cross of Christ. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit enables us, through the Cross of Christ, to recognize sin, any sin, in the dimension of evil which it contains and hides. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit enables us, again through the Cross of Christ, to see sin in the light of the mysterium pietatis, i.e. of the forgiving and merciful love of God (cf. Dominum et vivificantem, 32). Thus, the “convicting concerning sin” also becomes a conviction that sin can be forgiven, and that man can recover the dignity of a beloved son of God. The Cross is in fact the most profound humbling of God before man. The Cross is like a touch of eternal love on the most painful wounds of man’s earthly existence” (Dives in Misericordia, 8). This truth will always be brought to mind by the cornerstone of this Sanctuary, extracted from Mount Calvary, in a certain way under the Cross on which Jesus Christ conquered sin and death. (…) How much the world is in need of the mercy of God today! In every continent, from the depths of human suffering, a cry for mercy seems to rise. In those places where hatred and the thirst for revenge are overwhelming, where war brings suffering and the death of innocents, one needs the grace of mercy to pacify the minds and the hearts and make peace spring forth. In those places where there is less respect for life and human dignity, one needs the merciful love of God, in whose light we see the ineffable value of every single human being. Mercy is needed to ensure that every injustice may find its solution in the splendour of truth. So today, in this Sanctuary, I solemnly wish to entrust the world to Divine Mercy. I do so with the burning desire that the message of God’s merciful love, proclaimed here through Saint Faustina, may reach all the inhabitants of the earth and fill their hearts with hope. May this message spread from this place to our beloved homeland and throughout the world. May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled: from here has to come out “the spark that will prepare the world for his final coming” (Homily in Lagiewniki, 17^th August 2002).

Thus did the last months in the life of Pope John Paul II, marked by suffering, bring his Pontificate to its fulfilment.