Ian Boyne, ContributorIT IS not just the world's one
billion Catholics who have lost their leader. The entire world has lost its finest leader and its most potent moral force. The death of John Paul II would have been tragic in any era, but in one characterised by such a paucity of good leaders, and at a time when the world's only super power has squandered its moral authority and legitimacy, John Paul's
passing is even more tragic and gaping.
John Paul II not only enshrined all the authority traditionally invested in the papacy, but he brought a personal force and dynamism to the office which set him apart from other popes of recent memory. He played a
pivotal part in helping to dismantle one of humanity's oppressive political systems, totalitarian communism, without firing a shot. By helping to destabilise a regime which had once held up to a quarter of mankind in bondage, he has made an indelible mark upon history.
John Paul would have been outstanding at any period in
history, but his greatness has been magnified at a time in world
history which has demanded huge chunks of courage and conscience. While he pulled the shutters on Marxism, he has not, like so many other Christian leaders, simplistically opened the door to neo-liberal capitalism. At a time when so many on the political left have become weary of the struggle and have retreated into their own private worlds, and when the scholar Francis Fukuyama could triumphantly declare the "End of History" at the fall of the Berlin Wall, Pope John Paul remained a potent voice crying out against the excesses of the market, reminding that the survival of the fittest principle could not apply to human societies.
PRO POOR
As a global voice of conscience, he could be expected to rally for the developing countries, calling for debt relief, increased aid from the West and reforms of the Bretton Woods institutions which work against the interest of the Third World. He remained the greatest friend of the world's poor and marginalised. At a time of increased militarism and unilateralism, the pope spoke out against illegal wars such as the Iraq War called by President Bush.
John Paul, whose church has grown enormously in Africa, publicly apologised to African peoples for the church's role in the slave trade and he has done much to mend relationships with the Jewish community. Yet he remained a most persistent advocate of the rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to statehood. With the Muslims with whom his church has historically had a troubled and sometimes violent history, the pope broke new ground by being the first Catholic leader to set foot in a Muslim mosque (in Syria) where he said prayers with the Muslims. The new catechism of the Catholic Church now includes Muslims as part of the salvific community
BRILLIANT INTELLECT
Less known to the masses is the fact that the pope is a first-rate philosopher and a brilliant intellectual. His Fides Et Ratio (Faith and Reason) encyclical remains an impressive document defending the traditional Catholic Thomistic position elevating reason and rationality in apologetics. One of his finest philosophical works has been Salvifici Doloris (The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering) which he later came to incarnate. The most noted Evangelical philosopher today, Alvin Plantinga, calls this work "one of the finest documents (outside the Bible) ever written on this topic; surely required reading for anyone interested in the so-called problem of evil."
John Paul II was perhaps the most loved and admired pope in the church's two thousand year history. He won the hearts of people of all religions, including those vociferously opposed to Catholicism.
The world is a much poorer and darker place today because
of the death of this phenomenal world leader and man of
character, Pope John Paul 11.
