The Tablet April 9, 2005

The Legacy of Pope John Paul II

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Lent 2005 will be one that I will not soon forget. It truly was for me an experience of the Paschal Mystery, that is, an experience of death and resurrection, not only in the liturgical cycle, but also in my personal life. As you know, in February I lost my mother in a sudden and unexpected death. Just last week, I lost a friend of 35 years, one whom I knew since my first priestly assignment. And now, the death of John Paul II adds to my experience of the Paschal Mystery. In the last two months, I have experienced the natural tendency to remember the significant events in the lives of the persons who have died, especially in relationship to myself. Memories of our loved ones stay with us and at the time of death we gather them together as the last legacies of those whom we love, since we wish to preserve our memories for the future.

At this time, I thought it appropriate for me to share with you my own personal memories of John Paul II, which are numerous over these past 26 years. World Youth Days, where young people excitedly greeted the Holy Father, were events that anyone who experienced them can never forget. His warmth and his understanding of youth is truly a part of his great legacy. I observed his visits to the United States from near and far, perhaps most significantly the one to the Archdiocese of Newark in 1995, the day after which he visited the Diocese of Brooklyn. His Vespers Service at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, the Mass at Giants Stadium in a thunderstorm, and the Mass the next day at Aqueduct Race Track in the blazing sun that seemed to dry the mud, are experiences that one cannot easily forget.

There were numerous meetings at the Vatican in which I participated, mostly with the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People, of which I am a member, where the Holy Father addressed us as a small group. Each person had an opportunity to personally greet him and have a picture taken with him. The lunch with the Holy Father on my first ad limina visit as an auxiliary bishop of Newark was a time when the humor and humanness of the Holy Father were very evident. The memories of those encounters, as well as the pictures, will remain with me forever.

There are two additional occasions that I will never forget; they form especially cherished memories of John Paul II. Soon after I was named Bishop of Camden, I had an opportunity to visit Rome and pay my respects to the Holy Father to thank him for entrusting me with the responsibility of a diocese. I was able to celebrate morning Mass with him; several priests and seminarians studying in Rome from the Diocese of Camden were with me.

We were ushered into his private chapel, where we spent some time in silent prayer as the Pope finished his meditation. It was clear from the intensity of his prayer and his concentration that truly he was communing with God. At the celebration of the Mass, at which I was the only bishop, I was able to stand next to him for the liturgy; it was truly a memorable occasion. I have a wonderful picture of the Pope and myself giving the last blessing at the Mass. It is something I will treasure for the rest of my life, but the memory of how he celebrated the liturgy, when I had the opportunity to observe him so closely, showed the depth of his love for the Eucharist and his understanding of its true meaning.

The last time I met the Holy Father was this past October when the bishops of the New YorkProvince made our "ad limina" visit to Rome. That meeting will also be a significant memory that I will hold of him. Each bishop had an opportunity to personally meet with the Holy Father. I sat next to him alone in the room. He had the name of our Diocese and my own. With his characteristic humor, as much as he could muster in his debilitated state, he said "Brooklyn" with his wonderful accent. It brought a smile to his face.

Then, as difficult as it was for him to breathe, and certainly talk, he asked very short questions to which I responded regarding the situation in our Diocese. He asked about family life, vocations, our priests, religious and other subjects that I cannot recall at this time. But what was clear was that he had a pastor's sense and wanted to know specifically how the local Church in Brooklyn and Queens was doing. He was a pastor through and through, from the beginning of his priestly ministry to his last days as Pope. His concern was for the people of God. He was a true pastor, a true universal pastor of God's Church. That memory will be with me forever.

Each one of us, I am sure, has some personal memories of the Holy Father, even if they were witnessing him from afar or even viewing of him on television in the many reports and documentaries made of his travels and public appearances. This is the time to recall them, to fix them as part of our memory, because they truly show our love and respect for him as they bring those precious moments to life again.

The legacy of John Paul II, however, beyond his charisma and even his personal holiness, will lie in the vast body of teaching that he has left the Church. Over these 26 years he developed a body of teaching that is unparalleled in the history of the papacy, beginning with his first encyclical to his last letter to priests on Holy Thursday that he directed from his hospital bed in GemelliHospital. His great intellect produced a remarkable consistency in thought.

Pope John Paul was a natural philosopher, perhaps the greatest Catholic philosopher of our time. He had a deep understanding of theology. His teaching was clear. He always began his writings with an understanding of man in his true nature, emphasizing his dignity. There would follow an explanation of how man is saved by Jesus the Redeemer, who has a special relationship with every human person who ever lived. From that basic insight and teaching, he developed a consistent body of thought that will lead us into this new millennium.

It was his special role in the history of the Church in the world to lead the Church and the world into a new millennium. He did it with grace and style. For years to come, philosophers and theologians will study his writings carefully to draw from them all the wisdom he wanted to impart to the world.

Perhaps most significantly, in these last several weeks, he taught us the dignity and Christian meaning of human suffering, as he did in the Apostolic Letter, "Salvifici Doloris." I end quoting a few lines about death which he gave witness to as he faced it with courage and understanding.

"Death is often awaited even as a liberation from the suffering of this life. At the same time, it is not possible to ignore the fact that it constitutes as it were a definitive summing-up of the destructive work both in the bodily organism and in the psyche. But death primarily involves the dissolution of the entire psychophysical personality of man. The soul survives and subsists separated from the body, while the body is subjected to gradual decomposition according to the words of the Lord God, pronounced after the sin committed by man at the beginning of his earthly history: 'You are dust and to dust you shall return'. Therefore, even if death is not a form of suffering in the temporal sense of the word, even if in a certain way it is beyond all forms of suffering, at the same time the evil which the human being experiences in death has a definitive and total character. By his salvific work, the only-begotten Son liberates man from sin and death."

The ultimate putting out into the deep is the passage from death to life, and this understanding is truly the legacy of John Paul II.