Be Not Afraid

There are many things that that Jean Paul ll accomplished during his 26 year stewardship of the Catholic Church and no doubt many will document them far more poetically than I am capable of. But I want to share one thing very specific thing about his election to the throne of St. Peter and his subsequent stewardship of the Catholic Church that many would consider it prudent (in the interest of remaining politically correct) and best to be forgotten.

“Is the Pope Polish?” was a common expression used in the twentieth century right up to Karol Wojtyla’s election to the papacy when you asked an impossible question. For those of you who cannot remember a time when the Pope was not Polish; let me assure you it was the equivalent of “when pigs fly!” It was commonly accepted wisdom that there was no way under heaven that the Poles could ever produce a Pope. Not those impossibly backward ignorant Poles who were so far down the evolutionary ladder of Western Civilization that they sent their cavalry to face the German Blitzkrieg. Don’t believe me; watch re-runs of All in the Family. Archie goes to town with Meathead’s Polish heritage.

The ascension of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to the throne of St. Peter almost overnight accomplished what was thought impossible. It gave the Poles back their pride and dignity. It inspired them to remember where they came from and who they were so that they could reach out for their future. For it was one of their own who had stood up to the totalitarians and kept his humanity alive and intact as an example to us all when so many others had faltered and bowed under the weight of despair.

It is so easy today to catalogue the contributions of Poles to Western Civilization but those contributions would have remained shrouded in history and thought exceptions to the rule if not for his election and stewardship. I remember remarking to my father a few years after the current Pope’s election to the papacy that I no longer instinctively cringed when I encountered a Russian who asked me if I was Polish because of my colouring. Now I only cringed when I met a Pole who asks me if I am Russian because of my colouring. Oddly enough, my father concurred. So for the first time that either of us could remember; we both understood instinctively how the other felt.

"Freedom is offered to man and given to him as a task. He must not only possess it but also conquer it. He must recognize the work of his life in a good use, in an increasingly good use of his liberty. This is the truly essential, the fundamental work, on which the value and the sense of his whole life depend."

Speech given by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Eucharistic Congress Philadephia, 1976