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Code: ZE05040901

Date: 2005-04-09

What World Leaders Say About John Paul II

"A Good Father to All of Us"

ROME, APRIL 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Throughout the week, praise for the person of John Paul II came from many corners, including the political realm. Below is a sampling of what world leader said about the late Pope.

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Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, president of Italy

"He has transmitted hope and fidelity to all of us. He has sculpted consciences with values that give meaning and dignity to people's lives and to human society. John Paul II believed in the force of the spirit and has witnessed, with his indomitable courage and serenity in suffering, the fortitude that enables us to affront any obstacle, to work for good in every circumstance. He will continue to live in our hearts, in our acknowledgment of his testimony and of his example. He has been a true apostle for peace in the whole world. Italy, Rome -- his diocese that is congregating in St Peter's Square -- cry for the loss of a father, for a loved person."

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Aleksander Kwasniewski, president of Poland

"A great Pope -- our most outstanding fellow countryman, the Holy Father, a good father to all of us, believers and nonbelievers, followers of different religions -- is no more."

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Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister of Italy

"We are grateful to him for the tireless and difficult work he carried out unstintingly against all forms of totalitarianism, violence, oppression and moral degradation, all in the name of the values of the Catholic Church, which are the supreme values of human dignity and solidarity."

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George W. Bush, president of the United States

"Pope John Paul II was, himself, an inspiration to millions of Americans, and to so many more throughout the world. We will always remember the humble, wise and fearless priest who became one of history's great moral leaders. We're grateful to God for sending such a man, a son of Poland, who became the Bishop of Rome, and a hero for the ages."

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Gerhard Schröder, German chancellor

The Pope had "influenced the peaceful integration of Europe in many ways. By his efforts and through his impressive personality, he changed our world."

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Lech Walesa, former Polish president and Solidarity leader

"I think we shall keep discovering how much the Holy Father worked for us and struggled for us. He spoke to us through his illness and through his suffering served to the very end.

"Without him there would be no end of communism or at least -- it would have come -- much later and the end would have been bloody."

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Shimon Peres, vice premier of Israel

The Pope "embodied the best that is within all mankind as well as the commonness of humanity. ... His actions and statements transformed relations between the Catholic and Jewish faiths, and made a fundamental impact on the struggle against anti-Semitism."

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Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian leader

"We will miss him as a distinguished religious figure, who devoted his life to defending the values of peace, freedom and equality."

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Fidel Castro, president of Cuba

"Humanity will preserve an emotional memory of the tireless work of His Holiness John Paul II in favor of peace, justice and solidarity among all people."

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Mohammad Khatami, Iranian president

"It is with extreme sadness that we hear of the passing of the leader of the world's Catholics, His Holiness Pope John Paul II, who commanded the three paths of religious learning, philosophical thought and poetical and artistic creativity."

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Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary-general

"Quite apart from his role as a spiritual guide to more than a billion men, women and children, he was a tireless advocate of peace, a true pioneer in interfaith dialogue and a strong force for critical self-evaluation by the Church itself."

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Gloria Arroyo, president of the Philippines

"He was a holy champion of the Filipino family and of profound Christian values that make everyone of us contemplate ... what is just, moral and sacred in life."

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Vicente Fox, president of Mexico

"John Paul II was an exceptional man, his legacy will transcend generations."

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Jacques Chirac, president of France

[History] "will retain the imprint and the memory of this exceptional sovereign pontiff, whose charisma, conviction and compassion carried the evangelical message with unprecedented resonance on the international stage."

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Tony Blair, prime minister of the United Kingdom

"The world has lost a religious leader who was revered across people of all faiths and none. He was an inspiration, a man of extraordinary faith, dignity and courage."

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Mary McAleese, president of Ireland

"His trust in the future, his never-wavering commitment to the worth of each human life and his witness under the burden of personal suffering constituted a sign of great value in the modern age."

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Levy Mwanawasa, president of Zambia

"To the departed Holy Father, I say we believe that it is not your wish to mourn you in our grief but to celebrate the achievements you humbly made to realize and emulate your life. But if you see tears rolling in our eyes, it is because we cannot bear saying farewell dear father."

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Armando Guebuza, president of Mozambique

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza described the death of John Paul II as an "irreplaceable loss" for the Mozambican people, because of the Pope's "tireless collaboration and dedication to the promotion of human and social development."

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Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, president of India

"The demise of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II was received with deep shock and profound sorrow, by the people of India who considered him a champion of world peace and harmony. His was an endearing voice of reason against all forms of intolerance, inhumanity and injustice. His ceaseless efforts to advocate the cause of human values will always be remembered as the beacon of hope against the daunting challenges of today's world."

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Álvaro Uribe, president of Colombia

The new generations that have only known one Pontiff, who today experience his loss, have in His Holiness a model of democracy, solidarity, of fighting without giving in. A model of peace and love, without exception or hate.

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John Howard, prime minister of Australia

"The Pope was an inspirational leader not only to 1 billion Catholics around the world but he was an exemplar of the Christian life for all Christians."

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Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil

"The death of Pope John Paul II profoundly saddens the Brazilian people. His three visits to Brazil are still remembered with vivid emotion. ... Brazil feels sorrowful for the loss of one of the men who positively marked the course of contemporary history."

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Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet president

"I mourn his loss. We knew it was coming to this. What can I say -- it must have been the will of God. He acted really courageously. His devotion to his followers is a remarkable example to all of us."

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José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission

"Europeans will never forget his fight for peace and human dignity."

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General Musharraf, president of Pakistan

"The Pope had rendered incredible services for peace, had brought people closer belonging to different faiths."

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Olusegun Obasanjo, president of Nigeria

"Pope John Paul II was not only the leader of Catholics around the world, including Nigeria, but also showed commitment and courage in his quest for mutual tolerance, harmony and unity among the world's religions."

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Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic

"I consider John Paul II to be one of the most outstanding personalities of the whole 20th century. He was a wise and sensitive man, who dedicated his entire life to the ideals of love to man, ideals of human kindness, humility, helping the weak ones, peace, human freedom, dignity, and responsibility. In a fundamental way he influenced the struggle for democracy in the countries of the Communist bloc and it was also his merit that these countries live in freedom again."


Yet in so many ways they missed the most impressive facts about the life and witness that was Pope John Paul II. He became the great man he was because he lived each day for the Crucified One. He was what he was because he was in intimate communion — through the sacraments of the Church and through a deep mystical prayer life — with the immeasurable love of his Savior. He was what he was because he practiced each day, to an extraordinary degree, the death to self that all Christians are called to in order to become vessels for the divine. And as a consequence the divine shone magnificently in him. There was no gap in him between the Christianity he preached and the life he lived. The real source of his strength and influence was neither his character nor his personality, nor was it his acting ability; it was the Pascal mystery. Even those who had no religion found a Christ presence in him, something they would never have expected and couldn't name or define, something immeasurably beyond the greatness of this great man. Those who encountered him saw it, felt it, though not all could afford to accept what was implied by it. When the newly minted pope dramatically appeared before millions of his fellow Poles for the first time in 1979 and told them “Be not afraid,” the communist leadership — the cultural elites of that time and place — were terrified. The pope’s presence signaled the beginning of the end for their hold on power and for communism in Europe. North American elites have worked long and hard to establish a secular hegemony in the United States and Canada. Along the way they have managed to make Christian voices largely irrelevant to our cultural discussions and have entrenched stereotypes to depict the Catholic Church as a rigid, authoritarian, medieval institution dying of its own calcification and quite unable to speak to the modern experience. Those stereotypes were this past week undone. John Paul II is the bright face of modern Catholicism, a face beautiful to behold, and a face no face of secularism can begin to compete with. Perish the thought, but could this beautiful human face, the face of radical Christianity, be the future? A good friend of mine, a discerning media watcher and Catholic priest, in reflecting on the remarkably positive coverage the pope has received, predicts that the knives for John Paul and the Church will be unsheathed again within mere weeks. Of course, it isn't the respect and love shown John Paul II that is so intolerable to the secular elites, any more than it was for Poland’s communist overlords in 1979. It is the counter-cultural message he preached so boldly and embodied so magnificently. Behind the face and presence of John Paul was another face and presence. And it is that face which may yet bring an end to the cold and selfish consumerism, the degraded and dehumanizing Culture of Death which the Holy Father so despised in the West. What the media can’t afford to talk about, but what it is plain to anyone with eyes to see, is that John Paul’s so-called “charisma” didn’t belong to him. He was a radical disciple of Jesus Christ. His mystical prayer life and deep understanding of the truths of the Catholic faith allowed Christ’s own love and “charisma” to become manifest through him. And this is the source and reason for the perplexing phenomenon before us, the tear-filled adulation of millions of people — young and old, of all races and religions — for this 84-year-old pontiff of what we have been told for decades is a dying institution. John Paul’s project, Christ’s own project, did not end with the fall of Soviet communism. With that great fall the real enemy simply came into view and the rest of the Holy Father’s life was dedicated to diagnosing and uprooting it. This has been the real project, a project he is surely still actively involved with from beyond this world. The secular elites have a problem and, after this past week, it will be hard to put the cat back in the bag. Who will now believe that the face of Catholicism is the face of the Mafia, or some version of al Qaeda or the Taliban as the slander goes? We can no longer believe that the face of modern Catholicism is the face of a fading past; it has been seen by millions; it is full of light and love and grace. It was seen in the face of Pope John Paul II in life and in the faces of the thousands upon thousands from Poland and around the world who attended his funeral in Rome and attended funeral services in his honor around the world. It was a face wondrous to behold. J. Fraser Field is Executive Officer of the Catholic Educator’s Resource Center and the principle author of the CERC Blog. He publishes a free bi-weekly email newsletter on faith and culture and is active with the Catholic Civil Rights League.