Weekend News: What the Two Pope Johns Could Teach Us
Two Pope Johns were canonized by the Catholic Church over the weekend: Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II. As opposed to some stories reported on the weekend, this one got a fair amount of coverage before the weekend, during the weekend. But it's worth digging a little deeper into the stories of these two popes who shaped the world the world in which we live in ways few understand today. Most of us have vivid memories of John Paul II who reigned as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005, perhaps less so of John XXIII, who died in 1963, before many of us were born. While we don't have time here to plumb the depths of their influence on our lives today, here are two items that should interest all of us.
First, both did their utmost to improve relations between Christians and Jews, really to heal wounds, some of which existed for centuries. Pope John XXIII saved Jews during World War II and, as Pope, changed words of the Catholic liturgy that referred to the "perfidy" of the Jewish people, in the course of clearly teaching that the Jews were not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. John Paul II, who as a young man witnessed Jewish friends carted off to death camps in his native Poland during the war, extended this effort to heal past wounds with a visit to the Holy Land where he famously appeared at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, perhaps the most public event of his efforts to improve relations between Christians and Jews. Both men succeeded in their efforts.
For us, whatever our religious beliefs and backgrounds, this effort should remind us that our country's founding was based on a Christian understanding of the Natural Law with its roots in Judaism, an understanding shared by both Christians and Jews that persists to this day. If we want to improve our shattered economy and tattered morality, we could do not better than to re-kindle an understanding of the Natural Law, the basis of the concept of "rule of law" the concept to which most Americans give much lip service, but which most of us would be hard pressed to define.
For example, if you think "rule of law" means enforcement of the existing laws and regulations on the books right now you're way off base. Remember that Hitler's Nazi party came to power through popular elections, and immediately changed the laws of Germany to suit their political objectives, one such change being the evil laws passed against Jews. Enforcing such evil laws cannot be considered an example of rule of law, can it? No, rule of law must refer to something beyond any country's existing laws and that something is Natural Law. Christians and Jews - those who actually know the founding principals of their faith and traditions - understand this. We can thank our Founding Fathers and those who supported their efforts for a country that was founded on Natural Law, even if we've tragically strayed from that original understanding. And we should all hope that we return to this understanding, the sooner the better.
Besides improving relations between Christians and Jews, both men were outspoken opponents of war. Two simple instances of their efforts to oppose violence in the pursuit of political ends would be John XXIII's encyclical "Pacem in Terris" (peace on earth) and John Paul II vociferous opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq. "Pacem in Terris" was addressed to "all men of good will" not just Catholics, and was published in the midst of the Cold War, two years after the erection of the Berlin Wall and mere months after the Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world close to nuclear war. John Paul's opposition to the invasion of Iraq proved not only morally correct - even in the face of opposition by some prominent Catholics, by the way - but prescient in pointing to the "collateral damage" done innocent people killed in the war, followed by the violence and chaos that now haunts the Iraqi people, ironically not least of all the Christians of Iraq who have been the special object of violence and murder by Islamist elements.
We had the privilege of visiting and praying at the graves of both of these sainted popes when we visited Rome a few years ago. Both are men worth knowing better, if only for their tireless, life affirming work in healing wounds of the past and avoiding those we seem to continuously bring upon ourselves.
First, both did their utmost to improve relations between Christians and Jews, really to heal wounds, some of which existed for centuries. Pope John XXIII saved Jews during World War II and, as Pope, changed words of the Catholic liturgy that referred to the "perfidy" of the Jewish people, in the course of clearly teaching that the Jews were not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. John Paul II, who as a young man witnessed Jewish friends carted off to death camps in his native Poland during the war, extended this effort to heal past wounds with a visit to the Holy Land where he famously appeared at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, perhaps the most public event of his efforts to improve relations between Christians and Jews. Both men succeeded in their efforts.
For us, whatever our religious beliefs and backgrounds, this effort should remind us that our country's founding was based on a Christian understanding of the Natural Law with its roots in Judaism, an understanding shared by both Christians and Jews that persists to this day. If we want to improve our shattered economy and tattered morality, we could do not better than to re-kindle an understanding of the Natural Law, the basis of the concept of "rule of law" the concept to which most Americans give much lip service, but which most of us would be hard pressed to define.
For example, if you think "rule of law" means enforcement of the existing laws and regulations on the books right now you're way off base. Remember that Hitler's Nazi party came to power through popular elections, and immediately changed the laws of Germany to suit their political objectives, one such change being the evil laws passed against Jews. Enforcing such evil laws cannot be considered an example of rule of law, can it? No, rule of law must refer to something beyond any country's existing laws and that something is Natural Law. Christians and Jews - those who actually know the founding principals of their faith and traditions - understand this. We can thank our Founding Fathers and those who supported their efforts for a country that was founded on Natural Law, even if we've tragically strayed from that original understanding. And we should all hope that we return to this understanding, the sooner the better.
Besides improving relations between Christians and Jews, both men were outspoken opponents of war. Two simple instances of their efforts to oppose violence in the pursuit of political ends would be John XXIII's encyclical "Pacem in Terris" (peace on earth) and John Paul II vociferous opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq. "Pacem in Terris" was addressed to "all men of good will" not just Catholics, and was published in the midst of the Cold War, two years after the erection of the Berlin Wall and mere months after the Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world close to nuclear war. John Paul's opposition to the invasion of Iraq proved not only morally correct - even in the face of opposition by some prominent Catholics, by the way - but prescient in pointing to the "collateral damage" done innocent people killed in the war, followed by the violence and chaos that now haunts the Iraqi people, ironically not least of all the Christians of Iraq who have been the special object of violence and murder by Islamist elements.
We had the privilege of visiting and praying at the graves of both of these sainted popes when we visited Rome a few years ago. Both are men worth knowing better, if only for their tireless, life affirming work in healing wounds of the past and avoiding those we seem to continuously bring upon ourselves.
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