One hundred years since the birth of a "contemporary"
by Francesco Maruncheddu
In life everything is a gift, everything is grace, which is why the "bouquet" of gifts offered on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Karol Wojtyla's birth could not go unnoticed.
The pontificate of John Paul II began in the wake of the strong spiritual current moved by the Holy Spirit. In those years a change of era had begun and, at the urging of John Paul II, the Church had to leave the calm waters of the port and set out into contemporary history. The Holy Spirit put at the helm of the great exodus a man with a troubled human experience, coming from a nation of Slavic culture, a crossroads of peoples.
The prophetic intuition of an ecumenical Council was born from a man, Angelo Roncalli, who had experienced the innovative ferment of the post-war period as a papal nuncio in Bulgaria and then in Paris.
Having reached the papal throne, the good nature, sanctity of life and "peasant" wisdom of John XXIII had intuited that the soil of the past, bloodied by fratricidal wars, violence and political divisions, had to be plowed and sown with an evangelical spirit. The preparation of the land and the new sowing was conducted with wisdom, patience and a spirit of prophecy by another saint: Paul VI.
Pope Montini completed the Council, inaugurated and opened - as we have seen - by Saint John XXIII and began to implement the great reforms. In the wake of the breath of the Spirit, the Ecumenical Council set sail and, having cast off its moorings, the ship of the Church discovered new terrain, cultural areas, sensitivity for a renewed commitment to evangelization.
On the occasion of Karol Wojtyla's 27th birthday, Card. Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica and Vicar General of the Vatican City, said: «We thank the Lord for having given him to us» and knowing his tender devotion to the Madonna, we entrust her with the task of presenting him with our good wishes in heaven birthday and to express to him all our gratitude for the good he has done for us throughout his life, and above all with the XNUMX years of his pontificate. Where he demonstrated a unique ability to connect directly with the people, sharing the breath and pulse of life.
One of John Paul II's first initiatives was the creation of the Pontifical Council for Culture: culture as a varied quality of human life.
Karol Wojtyla, worker, student, philosopher, poet, theologian, bishop and Pope argued that humanity is the path that allows us to reach God.
In this interview, Cardinal Poupard illuminates the personality of John Paul and the role of the culture of today's men in building a fair and hospitable society.
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Your Eminence, you were appointed Cardinal by Saint John Paul II of whom you were a close collaborator. A memory of her?
I had the opportunity to meet him when he was a young bishop and I was a young collaborator of Paul VI in the Secretariat of State.
As Auxiliary, I then received him on a visit to Paris in 1980 and accompanied him on his historic visit to UNESCO, and in that same year he called me to Rome as pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Believers, succeeding Card. Franz König and then two years later he wanted me in the Pontifical Council for Culture. For John Paul II, a faith that does not become culture is not entirely thought out and lived, he reiterated this throughout his pontificate.
What was it like being around him?
È He was an exceptional man, of great humanity, simplicity and depth. A true "man of the Church", a man of God for men. An “all-sincere” man: he was just as he appeared. I remember the first working lunch together, I immediately noticed his immediacy in asking questions and obtaining information with simplicity. I came from the experience with Paul VI who was different in his ways of doing things, always linked to the awareness he had of his role which led him to always have a very official attitude. Wojtyla remained as he was, he continued to address the professors by calling them "dear colleagues".
You then participated in the Conclave that elected Benedict XVI.
As you well know, nothing can be said about the conclave. On Benedict XVI, yes! With the then Cardinal Ratzinger we arrived in Rome practically together, by will of John Paul II, me to be precise three months before him. When John Paul II created the Council for Culture and called me to take care of it, I immediately told him that I wanted Card. Ratzinger. I said: if there is a cardinal of culture, it is him! I can define him as an always available man, ever since he was a university professor.
You were the "minister of culture" of two Popes. What are the most serious problems for Christian culture today?
I'd say three. The pluralism of cultures, the ideological void, the collapse of the models that transmit values: in the face of all this, the need for the inculturation of the Gospel, for the radicality of the Gospel, taking into account the lessons of history is clear. Culture is the soul of a people, it is where the destiny of the world and the Church is at stake. The Gospel must be rooted in the family, in culture, in politics.
By presenting a new Christian humanism, we must bring a humanism that is a culture of life, of interiority, of dialogue, which creates a universal hope of love.
There are many problems that distance us from the transcendent.
We can therefore present and propose a Christian humanism to the complex problems of our time. Faith gives rise to hope which is the fruit of love, love is stronger than evil, life is stronger than death. The anthropology of Vatican II in Gaudium et Spes speaks of the culture of the person in his integrality, in his interiority, in his openness to God.
