Witness to Hope

by George Weigel

  107.The Swiss theologian whom John Paul intended to create a cardinal, Hans Urs von Balthasar, once contrasted the ease with which the early Christian centuries spoke of this “spousal” relationship with the difficulties that contemporary men and women had with it. See Balthasar, “Mother Church,” in In the Fullness of Faith, pp. 92–93.]

  108.See “Declaration on the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood,” in Vatican Council II: More Post-Conciliar Documents, Austin Flannery, OP, general editor (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1982), pp. 331–345.

  109.For extensive bibliographies of the debate in the United States and western Europe, see BenedictM. Ashley, OP, Justice in the Church: Gender and Participation (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1996).

  110.Details of the development of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and John Paul’s comments are taken from the author’s interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, January 18, 1997. The national bishops’ conferences represented at the CDF consultation prior to the completion of Ordination Sacerdotalis were from England and Wales, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Spain, as well as from the Slavic countries, Africa, and Asia, according to Cardinal Ratzinger.

  111.Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 2, in OR [EWE], June 1, 1994, p. 1.

  112.Ibid., 3, in ibid., p. 1.

  113.Ibid., 3, in ibid., p. 2.

  114.Ibid., 4, in ibid., p. 2.

  115.“Presentation of Letter,” in ibid., p. 2.

  116.These reactions to Ordinatio Sacerdotalis are reported in “Nuances and Defiance Follow Papal Letter,” The Tablet, June 11, 1994, pp. 749–750.

  117.See OR [EWE], November 22, 1995.

  118.Author’s interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, January 18, 1997.

  119.“Reply to the ‘Dubium’ Concerning the Teaching Contained in the Apostolic Letter ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,’” OR [EWE], November 22, 1995, p. 2 [emphasis in original].

  120.CDF’s official commentary, “Concerning the Reply of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Teaching Contained in the Apostolic Letter ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,’” may be found in OR [EWE], November 22, 1995, pp. 2, 9.

  121.Cited in Andrew Brown, “Pope Accused of Abusing Power,” The Independent, December 2, 1995, p.8. Lash’s article was originally published in The Tablet.

  122.Celestine Bohlen, “Catholics Defying an Infallible Church,” New York Times, November 26, 1995, p. E3.

  123.Peter Steinfels, “Vatican Says the Ban on Women As Priests Is ‘Infallible’ Doctrine,” New York Times, November 19, 1995, p. 13.

  124.Cited in Tom Roberts, “Dulles Urges Bishops to Enforce Papal ‘No,’” National Catholic Reporter, July 26, 1996, p. 6. The full text of Dulles’s lecture, “Pastoral Response to the Teaching on Women’s Ordination,” may be found in Origins 26:11 (August 29, 1996), pp. 177–180.

  125.“Tradition and the Ordination of Women,” Origins 26:6 (June 27, 1996), pp. 90–94. The final version of the CTSA statement may be found in Origins 27:5 (June 19, 1997), pp. 75–79. The response of the staff of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine to the CTSA statement may be found in Origins 27:16 (October 2, 1997), pp. 265, 267–271.

  126.On the relationship of the virtue of justice to the debate over women’s roles in the Church, see Ashley, Justice in the Church.

  127.This public perception was, of course, informed not only by the press but by theologians. Even a member of the International Theological Commission, an advisory body to CDF, misstated the nature of the Pope’s teaching when he wrote that, “In his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis of 13 May 1994, Pope John Paul II declared that he had no authority to change the Church’s tradition of ordaining only men to the priesthood.” [Hermann Josef Pottmeyer, “The Pope and Women,” The Tablet, November 2, 1996, p.1435.] This, of course, framed the question as an issue of personal papal assertiveness. What John Paul had actually written in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis was, to repeat with a clarifying emphasis, “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.” [Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 4.] There were, in other words, constitutive elements of the Church that popes—or anyone else—simply could not change; this was a question of the nature of the Church, not of papal fiat.

  128.Author’s interview with Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, December 7, 1997; “Holy Father May Visit Zagreb and Sarajevo,” OR [EWE], August 10–17, 1994, p. 12.

  129.These texts are reprinted in OR [EWE], September 14, 1994, pp. 1–4.

  130.Vittorio Messori tells the story of how Crossing the Threshold of Hope came to be in his editor’s introduction to the book, from which these details are drawn.

  131.John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 222.

  132.On this theme in Threshold, see Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “God in John Paul II’s Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” Communio 22 (Spring 1995), pp. 107–112.

  133.The largest hard-cover sales were in the United States (1.2 million) and Italy (957,000). Hard-cover sales were considerably smaller in the United Kingdom (145,000), France (250,000), Germany (200,000), and Spain (300,000). [Sales figures are from a memorandum to the author from Emanuela Canali, November 25,1998. Royalty information is from the author’s interview with Joaquín Navarro-Valls, December 16, 1998.]

  134.See Roberson, The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey, 5th ed., pp. 15–19. The implications of this are taken from the author’s interview with Father Roberson, March 3, 1997.

  135.Author’s interview with Ronald G. Roberson, CSP, March 3, 1997.

  136.Ibid.

  137.John Paul II, Letter of the Pope to Children in the Year of the Family. This brief document has no paragraph numbers.

  CHAPTER 19

  Only One World: Human Solidarity and the Gospel of Life

  1.John Paul’s address to the extraordinary consistory may be found in OR [EWE], June 22, 1994, pp. 6–8 [emphasis in original]. The background to the consistory is drawn from Luigi Accatolli, When a Pope Asks Forgiveness: The Mea Culpas of John Paul II (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1998), pp. 55–67.

  2.John Paul II, “Angelus for Trinity Sunday,” OR [EWE], June 1, 1994, p. 8.

  3.John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 1, in Miller, Encyclicals.

  4.John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 23.

  5.See ibid., 3.

  6.See ibid., 4.

  7.Ibid., 6 [emphasis in original].

  8.Ibid., 7.

  9.Ibid., 10–12 [emphasis in original].

  10.Ibid., 23.

  11.Ibid., 23.

  12.Ibid., 25.

  13.Ibid., 24 [emphasis in original].

  14.Ibid., 33 [emphasis in original].

  15.Ibid.

  16.See ibid., 34.

  17.Ibid., 35 [emphasis in original], citing Dignitatis Humanae, 1.

  18.Ibid., 36.

  19.Ibid., 37 [emphasis in original].

  20.Ibid., 40, 42, 44, 46, 49–50, 52.

  21.Ibid., 55.

  22.Ibid. [emphasis in original].

  23.Author’s interview with Father Richard John Neuhaus, March 1, 1997.

  24.See Thomas J. Reese, SJ, Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 229.

  25.For a concise summary of the Calvi/IOR affair, see ibid., pp. 206–207.

  26.Author’s interview with Cardinal Edmund Szoka, September 4, 1996.

  27.See Reese, Inside the Vatican, p. 209.

  28.Author’s interview with Cardinal Edmund Szoka, September 4, 1996.

  29.APSA, as it is universally known in Rome, handles the Holy See’s investments (including its pension fund) and manages the Holy See’s rental properties and payroll.

  30.Author’s interview with Cardinal Edmund Szoka, September 4, 1996. For documentation on the meeting of the presidents of national bishops’ conference, see OR [EWE], April 15, 1991, p. 10.

  31.“Co
nsolidated Financial Statements of the Holy See: Year 1995” (Rome: Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, 1996).

  32.One such point was the 7 billion lire annual subsidy the Holy See was paying to cover the deficits of the Italian newspaper Avvenire, which reflected the views of the Secretariat of State, in the late 1970s. The subsidy was in the Holy See budget, which was one of the reasons the budget couldn’t be published. John Paul II asked a simple question: “Why are we doing this?” The practice was changed, Avvenire now gets no subsidy from the Holy See, and the Vatican’s consolidated financial statement could be published. [Author’s interview with Joaquín Navarro-Valls, December 18, 1997.]

  33.Author’s interview with Cardinal Edmund Szoka, September 4, 1996.

  34.Various conspiracy theories notwithstanding, these papal donations to support Solidarity never involved the recycling of U.S. government funds through the IOR. American support for Solidarity families during and after martial law was open, with resources coming from the government-funded National Endowment for Democracy, from congressional appropriations to help Solidarity, and from the AFL-CIO. These funds were directed to a Polish priest in Paris who used them to buy food and medicines, and then had the supplies shipped by truck to St. Martin’s Church. All of these funds were publicly accounted for by the public, quasi-public, and private organizations involved. [Author’s interview with Jan Nowak, August 19, 1998.]

  35.Raymond De Souza, “At 77, Pope Still Connects with Youth,” National Catholic Register, August 31-September 6, 1997, pp. 1, 10.

  36.Author’s interview with Ambassador Henrietta T. De Villa, March 25, 1997.

  37.Ibid.

  38.On Ramzi Yousef: Dale Russakoff, “Deliberations Begin in Jet Bomb Plot Case,” Washington Post, August 30, 1996, p. A3; John Mintz, “Men in Papal Bomb Plot Termed Close to Bin Lade,” Washington Post, August 22, 1998.

  39.John Paul II, homily at the beatification of Peter To Rot, OR [EWE], January 25, 1995, pp. 8–9. Details of the life of Peter To Rot may be found in ibid., p. 9.

  40.Memorandum to the author from Monsignor Peter J. Elliott, September 18, 1998.

  41.See Paul Gardiner, SJ, “Love Was Soul of Mary MacKillop’s Virtues,” OR [EWE], January 25, 1995, pp. 1, 12.

  42.John Paul II, homily at the beatification of Mary MacKillop, in ibid., pp. 1–2 [emphasis in original].

  43.“Pope’s Radio Message to Chinese Catholics,” OR [EWE], January 18, 1995, p. 1.

  44.See Joseph Krahl, SJ, “China,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3, pp. 598–599.

  45.Author’s interview with Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz, November 22, 1997.

  46.Ibid.

  47.Author’s interview with Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, March 19, 1997.

  48.Author’s interviews with Archbishop Claudio Celli, January 20, 1997, and Cardinal Jozef Tomko, November 14, 1996. Celli said that, when certain letters to the Pope from PCA bishops can be publicly released, “the world will be astonished at the passionate fidelity to the Holy Father” of many of these men.

  49.Jonathan Mirsky, “Pope to Paper over Rift by Meeting Chinese Catholics,” The Times, January 10, 1995,p. 11. The headline suggests considerable confusion in London.

  50.John Paul II, ad limina address to the Bishop of Taiwan, OR [EWE], August 30, 1995, pp. 3, 6 [emphasis in original].

  51.John Paul II, “Message to the Church in China,” OR [EWE], December 11, 1996, p. 8.

  52.“The Pope Asks for Freedom for the Church in China,” Vatican Information Service VIS 980514 (410), May 14, 1998.

  53.“Archbishop Tauran on Holy See’s International Relations,” Vatican Information Service VIS 980515(890), May 15, 1998.

  54.See Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “The Problem of Threats to Human Life,” OR [EWE], April 8, 1991, pp. 2–4.

  55.“Pope Asked to Reaffirm Sacredness of Human Life,” OR [EWE], April 8, 1991, p. 1.

  56.There had been internal Vatican discussion about the possibility of a Synod of Bishops on life issues, to conclude with a Synodal statement and an apostolic exhortation. Some argued that such a process would give any papal document on life issues more credibility. The argument was not persuasive to those who thought that John Paul already occupied the world’s most authoritative pulpit and who doubted that a Synod’s conclusions (which would hardly be surprising, in any case) would add any further authority to what he would say. [Author’s interview with Cardinal Jan Schotte, CICM, March 14, 1997.]

  57.See John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 5.2, in Miller, Encyclicals.

  58.Ibid., 20.2, 18.5, 18.3.

  59.On the relationship of Evangelium Vitae to the nineteenth-century papal critique of democracy, see Russell Hittinger’s contribution to “The Gospel of Life: A Symposium,” in First Things 56 (October 1995), pp. 33–35. I am also indebted to Professor Hittinger for an earlier, unpublished draft of this article, “A Brief History of Papal Prudence.”

  60.See John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 57.4, 62.3, and 65.4, in Miller, Encyclicals.

  61.See, for example, “Why the Encyclical Was Delayed,” The Tablet, April 1, 1995, p. 432.

  62.Author’s interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, September 20, 1997.

  63.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2267. For the Catechism’s discussion of the traditional moral rationales for capital punishment, see the two preceding paragraphs, 2265 and 2266.

  64.John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 56.2, in Miller, Encyclicals.

  65.For an exploration of this and other controverted questions in Evangelium Vitae, see Choosing Life: A Dialogue on Evangelium Vitae, Kevin Wm. Wildes, SJ, and Alan C. Mitchell, eds. (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1997).

  66.John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 73.1, in Miller, Encyclicals [emphasis in original].

  67.Ibid., 73.3.

  68.For a discussion of the moral ground of the Pope’s position on legislative responsibility in unsatisfactory circumstances, see Robert P. George’s contribution to “The Gospel of Life: A Symposium,” pp. 37–38.

  69.Cited in “Bishops Praise Pope’s ‘Hymn to Life,’” The Tablet, April 8, 1995, p. 467.

  70.Cited in ibid.

  71.See, for example, Richard A. McCormick, SJ, “The Gospel of Life,” America, 172:15 (April 29, 1995), pp. 10–17. For a bibliography of commentaries on Evangelium Vitae, see Miller, Encyclicals, pp. 788–789.

  72.It certainly spoke to the concerns of the more than 10,000 Dutch men and women who, by 1998, had taken to carrying anti-euthanasia “passports” that read: “I request that no medical treatment be withheld on the grounds that the future quality of my life will be diminished, because I believe that this is not something that human beings can judge. I request that under no circumstances a life-ending treatment be administered because I am of the opinion that people do not have the right to end life.” [Steven A. Ertelt, “Dutch Carry Cards That Say: Don’t Kill Me, Doctor,” Pro-Life Infonet Digest, October 20, 1998.]

  73.Author’s conversation with Pope John Paul II, March 20, 1997.

  74.The encyclical could also be read as a critique of the Holy See’s own diplomatic practice, although it was surely not intended as such. One American commentator, Russell Hittinger, pointed out that the Holy See had supported a UN-sponsored “Convention on the Rights of the Child” which sometimes abused the language of human rights with the same corrosive effect as did politicians and jurists who defended abortion and euthanasia as rights. Articles 12 and 13 of the Convention had eroded the natural moral authority of parents by defining “the child’s right to express an opinion in matters affecting the child and to have that opinion heard,” and “the right to seek, receive, and impart information through any media.” As one critic put it, the Convention had declared it a human rights violation for a parent to tell an eight-year-old to just turn the television off and go to bed. Yet the Holy See had supported a Convention whose flaccid use of “rights” was conceptually linked to the crisis of “rights-talk” identified in Evangelium Vitae and
the problems the Holy See had fought so vigorously at Cairo. Hittinger hoped that Vatican policy would eventually catch up with the encyclical. [See Hittinger’s essay in “The Gospel of Life: A Symposium,” p. 35.]

  75.John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae 65.2, 65.3, in Miller, Encyclicals.

  76.“The Only Rock of Our Age,” The Independent, January 12, 1995, p. 15.

  77.The biblical text is John 17.21. John Paul II had been struck by the appositeness of John XXIII’s last words for years. On October 8, 1983, he quoted John XXIII’s on his deathbed: “‘I offer my life,’ he said, ‘for the Church, continuation of the Ecumenical Council, peace in the world, union of Christians… My earthly day is ending; but Christ lives and the Church goes on with her task; souls, souls, ut unum sint, ut unum sint.…’ Those were his last words uttered on this earth.” [John Paul II, Prayers and Devotions, ed.Bishop Peter Canisius Johannes van Lierde, OSA (New York: Viking, 1994), p. 213; the original text is in L’Osservatore Romano, October 9, 1983, pp. 1, 5.]

  78.According to Cardinal Cassidy, John Paul submitted a draft text for the review of the Pontifical Council. The Pope had written the draft personally, in Polish, through his new dictation-and-editing system, and then had it translated into Italian for review and comment. Speculations and reports to the contrary notwithstanding, Ut Unum Sint was not a curial draft to which John Paul II added certain personal reflections. [Author’s interview with Cardinal Edward Cassidy, September 5, 1996.]

  79.John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 56.1, 57.1, in Miller, Encyclicals.

  80.Ibid., 61. Here, John Paul was quoting the apostolic letter issued three weeks before, Orientale Lumen [Light from the East], which marked the centenary of Leo XIII’s Orientalium Dignitas and celebrated the Eastern Christian heritage as a patrimony common to the entire Church, with which Western Christians must become more familiar. “Every day,” the Pope wrote, “I have a growing desire to go over the history of the Churches, in order to write at least a history of our unity and thus return to the time when, after the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Gospel spread to the most varied cultures and a most fruitful exchange began which still today is evident in the liturgies of the Churches.” [Orientale Lumen, 18, in OR (EWE), May 3, 1995.]