Santo Padre Giovanni Paolo II

Karol Wojtyla was born in 1920 in Poland. In the last 26 years, he presided over the material and spiritual life of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II. His mark on the 20th Century and influence to the 21st is immeasurable.

Lech Valesa of Poland’s Solidarity considers the changes that occurred in Poland, and later, the Eastern European centralized governments as 50 percent the work of the then Bishop Wojtyla, 30 percent the efforts of the Polish people, and 20 percent the maneuverings of the Thatcher-Reagan-Gorbachev troika.

More importantly, since 1978 when he became pope, the Vatican set loose the Restoration to balance what had been perceived as an extremely wild swing to free form 25 years earlier during the Vatican II Council. The ensuing struggle for the soul of world Catholicism affected not only the church itself, but also the political futures of the western democracies and the numerous third world developing countries.

Il Papa was a title conferred on Augustus Caesar, the holy one, who brought peace and prosperity to the Roman Empire. After Constantine, that realm would become Christian, the Holy Roman Empire. The ascendancy later of the Papal Office over that of the Emperor would move the Il Papa title to the seat of the pontiff.

Il Papa Santo Padre Giovanni Paolo II brought to the ecumenical table a sense that the ethical stance of the religious community must play a significant role in the affairs of the State while maintaining a strict institutional separation between the two kingdoms. Our young Covenant Day debaters, in dealing with the issue of same sex marriage, appear to concur with that general principle.

Karen Armstrong, former Catholic nun turn religious historian, warns in a recent interview that the U.S. war on terrorism has become “a religious war, launched in an era of mushrooming worldwide religious fundamentalist revolt against modernity and secularism.” Religion has become a hot topic on the political talk shows, and it is not going away any time soon.

Il Papa Buono (popular appellation to Pope John XXIII) helped frame the dynamic and humanizing relationship of church and society, and into his last breath, he was known to still follow the implications of the Terri Schiavo case in Florida. The faithful should do no less.

The pontiff is dead! Long live the pontiff!

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Vergara is a Social Studies 6th grade teacher at San Vicente Elementary School