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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mansur_london.html
John Paul has been inspiration to world
SALIM MANSUR, For the London Free Press
2003-10-29
This month of October belonged to John Paul II, Pope of the Catholic Church and Vicar of Christ on Earth. On Oct. 14, 1978 the archbishop of Krakow, Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, was locked into a conclave with other princes of the church in the Vatican - the second time they had done so in two months.
In August of that year, the conclave elected Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice as Pope John Paul I, following the death of Pope Paul VI. Luciani's death, barely a month after his election, brought the cardinals together in October. At 6:15 p.m. on Oct. 16, a white plume of smoke arose from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, announcing to the crowd in St. Peter's Square the election of a new pope. Then Wojtyla emerged from the conclave to greet the world as Pope John Paul II.
That October conclave made history. For the first time in 455 years, a non-Italian cardinal was raised to the seat of Peter as the 264th Bishop of Rome. Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, the primate of Poland, greeted the new Pope by suggesting that providence elected him to lead the church into the third millennium, and the world wondered what difference such ancient habits of belief made to living.
These past 25 years have seen a whirlwind of events. Yet the one motif that connects these events - wars, natural disasters, the demise of the Soviet Union, and revolutions in communications, medicines, arts and sciences - is the yearning for freedom of individuals and nations, and the relentless expansion of freedom's frontiers.
John Paul II has shown how ancient habits of thought matter, how faith in a transcendent order stands for the difference between chaos of existence and tranquillity of living in dignity.
He is a much-travelled public figure, seen by more people than any contemporary political leader, and he has gone farthest in his ecumenical mission to meet and talk with Christians and people of other faiths.
For Muslims - as I am one among many struggling with our faith in a merciful God when the political reality is in an abysmal condition of poverty and self-inflicted torment - this Pope's voice, if they choose to hear it, is a balm in their troubled world.
In 2000, John Paul made a jubilee pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and there renewed the message of peace and justice among Jews, Christians and Muslims.
He travelled to Mount Sinai in Egypt, and recalled Moses's encounter with God as he received the law. "But what is this law?" the Pope asked, and answered, "It is the law of life and freedom."
In May 2001, the Pope visited Damascus, and at the Ommayad Great Mosque, he responded to those who welcomed him with words and gestures befitting the Apostles. He prayed for compassion as he reminded Christians and Muslims worldwide of their common bonds through Mary, mother of Jesus, hailed in the Koran as "chosen above the women of the world" (III:42).
The marvel of John Paul is how effortlessly he has combined his pastoral role as the pontiff, the bridge between the profane and the sacred, and that of a teacher. The 1993 encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor, or The Splendor of Truth, revealed the profundity of his apostolic teachings.
Here, he confronted the perennial problem of those cynically disregarding the moral basis of creation, as did Pontius Pilate in dismissively saying, "Truth? What is truth?"
In the moral confusion of our time, the Pope answered that freedom, without truth, is licence for chaos, and truth is not relativism, nor inconsequential. John Paul has striven to embody the meaning of truth being love, born out of faith in and as witness to Jesus.
In this striving for truth, John Paul has been an inspiration beyond his mortality.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Wednesdays. Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
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