Mission and Missiology in the Pontificate of John Paul II William R. Burrows

he death of John Paul II on April 2, 2005, brought was trying to come to grips with new insights from historical T to an end one of the longest pontificates in Roman research into the life and times of and the development of Catholic history, one that began with the election of Karol Wojtyla the church. During much of that period Catholic scholars were on October 16, 1978. What follows is an attempt to bring into driven underground by papal antimodernist efforts. When their relief the key elements of John Paul’s missiology and theology research emerged as théologie nouvelle before and after World and, in a final section, to question whether his church is able to War II, its leading representatives (men like Karl Rahner and carry on its mission under the terms he set for that task. Yves Congar) found themselves under a cloud of suspicion as Vatican theologians judged that they were espousing Protestant John Paul’s Missiology in Its Catholic Context or modernist conclusions on matters like the evolution of the church and whether present-day Catholic doctrine and practice Three things need to be stressed if Pope John Paul’s missiology regarding office in the church and its structure were binding. is to be seen in its proper context. The first is that his formal While the sought to renew the church’s statement on mission in his (RM, missionary stance, in my judgment the kind of theology that “On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Man- council fathers were drawing upon was inadequate. From today’s date,” December 7, 1990) is not the first or most important place world-church perspective, it was severely limited by its Western to go to understand his treatment of mission. Rather, the full roots and by its lack of in-depth understanding of how things range of his teaching must be taken into consideration. Above all, change when a world Christian perspective is adopted. reduction of mission to verbal proclamation (taking as its key the so-called missionary mandate in Matthew 28:18–20 and Mark Christian Anthropology in Trinitarian Context 16:15) and/or action for sociopolitical liberation (taking as its key the “social mandate” in Luke 4:18–19 [citing Isaiah 61:1–2] or The cardinals who elected Karol Wojtyla (born May 18, 1920) Matthew 25:31–46) will lead one astray. His vision includes both wanted a man who could rule the church with the pastoral but is not limited to them. warmth and depth of Pope John XXIII, reverse the perception of Second, there is ambiguity in a question like, “What is the vacillation on the part of Pope Paul VI, and instill order in a teaching of Pope John Paul II on mission?” The entire point of church that seemed to be fragmenting. Wojtyla was known to be papal or conciliar teaching is (1) not to be new and creative but to a spiritual and learned man, intent on dialogue with the contem- preserve and explicate apostolic teaching that comes to us in the porary world, but also firm in belief that modern reductionism testimony of the apostles, as recorded in Scripture and carried on was exercising undue influence in the post–Vatican II church. For in living tradition; (2) to apply that teaching to new situations; John Paul II, modernity was not simply democracy, abundant and (3) to help the church discern when new teaching and consumer goods, free speech, and free academic inquiry. It also practices are not consonant with apostolic faith.1 produced Nazism, Communism, colonialism, specious genetic Third, we need to consider the authority of papal teaching in theories of race and genetic engineering, indifference to innocent the context of the struggle since Vatican Council II between life, and consumer capitalism unanchored in morality or sound theologians and the papacy over the council’s legacy. Its roots lie anthropology. The Gospel, he believed, needed to be presented in the council’s four autumn sessions from 1962 to 1965, when in terms understandable to moderns, without compromising the scholars (known as periti, “experts” in English) were the princi- need to challenge their assumptions. pal advisers of the council fathers. Two issues are still at stake. According to his biographer George Weigel, John Paul’s The first is, Who makes decisions regarding church order, doc- vision of every human person as a potential actor in the drama of trine, practice, and structure? As Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope salvation is the thread running through his teaching.3 In that Benedict XVI, says in his autobiography, “The role that theolo- vision, the human being and culture can be understood only gians had assumed at the Council was creating ever more clearly from a theological perspective. And at the center of it all is the a new confidence among scholars, who now understood them- drama of the human being engaged in the struggle to grow selves to be the truly knowledgeable experts in the faith and beyond goals set by one’s culture to become the person one is therefore no longer subordinate to the shepherds. For, how could called to be by God. The church’s mission is to help human beings the bishops in the exercise of their teaching office preside over recognize Christ as the one who unlocks that potential. theologians when they, the bishops, received their insights only These themes recur in speeches delivered during dozens of from specialists and thus were dependent on the guidance of international pilgrimages, in words spoken to the millions who scholars?”2 thronged to John Paul’s masses and to the youth congresses that The second issue, from a world mission perspective, is that he loved to attend, and in the addresses to heads of states and most of the insights that gave periti their authority rested on a delegations from academic, political, labor, and cultural groups. century and a half of a particular kind of European theology that For John Paul, these were missionary journeys and discourses. In them he articulated his belief that Christ is the Light of the world and that following Christ entails serving God’s purposes in the William R. Burrows, a member of the Divine Word Missionaries from 1965 to world. 1985, is managing editor of Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, where since 1989 he has coordinated acquisitions in mission, interreligious interchange, Wojtyla’s vision of the human person in his first encyclical, inculturation, and history. He worked from 1972 to 1977 in Papua New Guinea (RH, “The Redeemer of Man,” March 4, 1979), and in an inner-city African-American parish in Chicago while doing doctoral is anchored in conviction that the destiny and mission of human studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School between 1977 and 1985. beings is to participate in the life of Christ and to spread the

January 2006 3 Gospel about Jesus the Christ, of whom the pope says, “The and blood that flow from Christ’s side at Calvary (John 19:34–35). Redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and The “sin against the Holy Spirit” the pope sees as one of “radical of history” (RH 1). refusal to accept this forgiveness,” explaining sin as the state of A second thing to note is that he believes that the church one who closes “oneself up in sin” (DV 46), creating “an impen- entrusted to him “is admittedly not free of internal difficulties etrability of conscience” (DV 47). and tension.” In words whose intent is clear (even though the Part 3 and the conclusion of the encyclical (DV 49–67) grammar is convoluted), John Paul says, “She [the church] meditate on the Spirit as the one through whom new life in the is internally more strengthened against the excesses of self- Christ is given. The critical doctrinal move by the pope for what criticism: she can be said to be more critical with regard to the we think of today as missiology begins in article 53, where he says various thoughtless criticisms, more resistant with respect to the that the Spirit was active “even before Christ,” especially in “the various ‘novelties,’ more mature in her spirit of discerning, better economy of the Old Covenant.” After speaking of the Holy Spirit’s activity “outside the visible body of the church,” he cites Vatican II documents that mention the Spirit’s work in “all This teaching does not, people of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all, and since the ultimate vocation in the pope’s mind, lead of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy to “easy universalism,” Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this Pascal Mystery.”5 Nev- wherein salvation is given ertheless, the goal of church life is to cooperate with the Spirit to willy-nilly to everyone. bring people to worship, the act wherein “the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church . . . [as human and able to bring out of her everlasting treasure ‘what is new and divine, a pilgrim] directed toward and subordinated to the what is old’ [Matt. 13:52], more intent on her own mystery, and divine, the visible to the invisible . . . and this present world to that because of all that more serviceable for her mission of salvation city yet to come, the object of our quest [Heb. 13:14].”6 for all: God ‘desires all men to be saved and to come to the Finally, this teaching does not, in the pope’s mind, lead to knowledge of the truth’ [1 Tim. 2:4]” (RH 4). “easy universalism,” wherein salvation is given willy-nilly to Seeing his papacy as one of combating excessive self- everyone. In part 3 of , for instance, he criticism and novelties is a second key to understanding John acknowledges spiritual warfare, which takes place as the Spirit Paul’s nearly twenty-seven-year pontificate. The numerous in- meets resistance and the works of the “flesh” pull us backward, quiries of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith into the and as modern materialism darkens the mind with its exclusion works of theologians took place under the aegis of John Paul, and of the presence and action of, and even the very existence of, God that work was important to him. (DV 55–56). Redemptor hominis was John Paul’s summation of Christological doctrine. His second “Trinitarian” encyclical, Dives The Pope’s Missiology in Misericordia (DM, “The Mercy of God,” November 30, 1980), is on how the life, work, and teaching of Jesus reveal mercy as Redemptoris missio, John Paul II’s encyclical on mission, is a God’s prime attribute. In that context, mercy is “a special power complex document. It brings together at least three strands of of [divine] love, which prevails over the sin and infidelity of the thinking: from the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peo- chosen people” (DM 4). He places this theme against the back- ples (formerly known as Propaganda Fide, the church’s coordi- drop of God’s forgiveness revealed in the paschal mystery of the nator of missionary activity), from missionary orders, and from death and resurrection of Jesus and the conferral of the Spirit, the pope’s own insights. In this encyclical he is doing at least four who gives the church the power to be God’s instrument in history things: for the forgiveness of sins (DM 5–7). In particular, “ The divine dimension of redemption is put into effect not only by bringing •Validating mission as an essential activity of the church, justice to bear upon sin, but also by restoring to love that creative one in which it proclaims Jesus Christ as the only savior power in man thanks to which he once more has access to the of the world, inviting all human beings to consider the fullness of life and holiness that come from God. In this way, church’s claim that in him is revealed the fullness of redemption involves the revelation of mercy in its fullness” humanity’s nature and potential, providing the means (DM 7, italics in original). of salvation for all (RM 4–11, 46). Running through the Dominum et vivificantem (DV, May 18, 1986),4 on the Holy entire text is a Christocentric Trinitarianism that seeks Spirit, is the third of John Paul’s on the persons of the to correct reductionist understandings of the person Trinity. Taken together, these documents assert the church’s and work of Jesus or that tries to put a Vatican II stamp belief that the Trinity is an essential aspect of faith and not of approval on the possibility that there are other saviors “symbolic” in a merely instrumental or modalist sense of indicat- (RM 5). ing three modes of divine self-revelation. Part 1 of Dominum et •Showing that the kingdom of God is the eschatological vivificantem (1–26) anchors the Spirit as fully divine and essential “end” of mission and trying to correct views of the to the fullness of the paschal mystery. Part 2 (DV 27–48) brings kingdom that teach that it is brought about by (other- into relief the Spirit’s role of convincing humankind of its sinful wise praiseworthy) sociopolitical effort (RM 12–20).7 state, the nature of righteousness, and the truth of the Gospel. •Affirming both the urgency and validity of mission- This account of the Spirit’s activity is developed by the pope in ary work as multifaceted on the human side but, in the framework of John 16:7–11, wherein accepting Christ confers its deepest dimensions, as the work of the Spirit the light of the Spirit, as new life is attained by rebirth in the water (RM 21–30).

4 I NTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 30, No. 1 •Seeing mission in its most proper sense as “directed to fullness of the divine image. The person and Way of Christ is the ‘peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ,’ goal of every human aspiration, and the divine mercy extends ‘who are far from Christ,’ in whom the Church ‘has not healing forgiveness to those who cooperate with grace by saying yet taken root’8 and whose culture has not yet been yes to the call of the Spirit as expressed in Christ—or as expressed influenced by the Gospel”9 (RM 34). in the truest depth of their culture and religious tradition.15

With the exception of one point, the pope’s teaching reso- Final Reflections nates with the Lausanne Covenant (1974). Here I assert their common vision in most essentials, while highlighting a discrep- John Paul II’s teaching and missionary journeys deserve positive ancy that needs to be brought into relief not for the sake of comment. He spoke to more people than any other missionary in controversy but to clarify an important point. history about Christ and the Way of Christ and the Spirit as the I find this discrepancy in the pope’s openness, adverted to Way of salvation for all. But it must also be said that his great above, to the notion that “salvation” can occur without explicit personal gifts made him as much a celebrity as a leader. That faith in Christ and in his positing the work of the Spirit outside celebrity may have reinforced tendencies to imagine that Petrine visible and historic Christianity.10 For many, this “approval” of ministry was one of being bishop directly over the whole church. or positive attitude toward other traditions is tantamount to In fact, the bishop of Rome is one among a collegium of bishops, giving up the fundamental goal of mission. On the one hand, albeit as the first among equals. Those who fault John Paul for not both the pope and Lausanne want to avoid reducing the doctrine better promoting dialogue and collegiality within the church of the Trinity to what historicist exegesis will allow. On the other make a valid point. hand, the pope is willing to expand the interpretation of a verse Pope John Paul seemed more interested in preaching the like Acts 4:12 (“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no Gospel than in seeking to learn from brother bishops (not to other name under heaven given among mortals by which we mention from the laity, religious, deacons, and priests). It will be must be saved”), which he does not see as weakening the ratio- generations from now before we know whether he was correct in nale for mission. exercising his office as he did. While I believe that his theological There is insufficient space to develop and defend the foun- emphases were correct, he seems to me to have attended too little dations of the pope’s soteriology here.11 Suffice it to say that the to discerning whether church structures and institutions were teaching of John Paul II in Redemptoris missio is clear: “God calls adequate to realize his evangelical goals. In particular, the vision all peoples to himself and he wishes to share with them the of John Paul requires several hundred thousand to a million or fullness of his revelation and love. He does not fail to make more men and women dedicated to nurturing spiritual growth himself present in many ways, not only to individuals but also to within the church and reaching out beyond it to manifest the Way entire peoples through their spiritual riches, of which their of Christ. religions are the main and essential expression, even when they Instead, he left a church with far fewer laborers per capita in contain ‘gaps, insufficiencies and errors.’”12 He goes on to say, such traditional roles as diocesan priests and as members of “All of this has been given ample emphasis by the Council and religious orders as priests, brothers, and sisters. Even in Africa, the subsequent Magisterium, without detracting in any way Oceania, and Asia, where vocations to traditional forms of min- from the fact that salvation comes from Christ and that dialogue does istry flourish, it is hard to believe that actual numbers are not dispense from evangelization” (RM 55, italics in original).13 sufficient or that we have the right kind of ministries and minis- Dialogue, indeed, is an integral part of mission, even though ters. In Europe, Latin America, and North America, the down- in most of its forms it does not seek the conversion of the other to ward trend in numbers of ministers per capita is shocking. In Christianity (or, for that matter, to Buddhism or Islam). Why? addition, it is commonly believed that Pope John Paul had Because it leads both parties deeper into an understanding of their common humanity as rooted ontologically in the divine. While each party may be convinced that its own tradition medi- The teaching of Catholicism ates a fuller, perhaps even the only adequate, understanding of and means of attaining life’s transcendent depths and goals, the is that the same Spirit and teaching of Catholicism is that the same Spirit and Word present Word present in creation in creation have been and are active everywhere at all times, not just within Christianity. Other religious traditions develop not have been and are active just as human artifacts but “in a way known only to God” as everywhere at all times. means of drawing humans to God.14 Dialogue promotes the development of a deeper form of conscience and even personhood, according to the pope (RM 58). In saying yes to the call to become disillusioned with traditional religious orders and fa- authenticity addressed to the conscience, a person is saying yes vored “new movement” groups like Opus Dei and Communione to the Word and Spirit of God. Or if one is comfortable with the e Liberazione. Certainly the religious orders, which for centuries expression, one says yes to the “God beyond God,” divinity bore the brunt of missionary work, are in decline. Yet it is hard to beyond the ability, even of Scripture, to conceptualize, revealed believe that the new movements can make up for them. in the heart by the wordless love that is the Holy Spirit. A few statistics bear out the contentions of the previous This, then, is the missiology of John Paul II. On the one hand, paragraph.16 From 1978 to 2003 the number of Catholics in the he sees Christian mission as our cooperation in God’s action in world grew from 757 million to 1.07 billion. To serve 300 million Christ and the Spirit and teaches that this activity has a perma- more Catholics in 2003, there were 15,000 fewer priests. Accord- nent validity. He seeks to defend apostolic teaching in its most ing to the Annuarium Statisticum, women religious declined from robust Trinitarian doctrinal format. On the other hand, his just short of one million in 1978 to 770,000 in 2003. The number soteriology sees salvation as the eschatological realization of the of priest-members of religious orders declined from 158,000 in

January 2006 5 1978 to 137,000 in 2003, and in Europe and North America entire tries—new and old—for mission both within and outside the communities of men and women face extinction over the next church. twenty-five years. Between 1978 and 1996, according to the U.S. John Paul II’s reflections on the nature of discipleship in our Catholic Mission Association, American Catholics in tradition- age show magisterially that mission is not merely a matter of ally defined world mission activities declined from 6,601 to 4,164 extending the numbers and power of the church. Instead, mis- (after which statistics are not comparable because 3,122 person- sion is a multidimensional reality that springs from inner trans- nel in cross-cultural mission within U.S. borders began to be formation. Here, then, we are at the crux of the challenge that counted). While there were 1,753 Catholics per priest worldwide remains after John Paul’s death. How does the church attract and in 1975, there were 2,579 in 2000.17 form hundreds of thousands of young men and women to carry My point is that, while Pope John Paul II was a successful on mission directly and to form lay leaders in a way that pen- missionary in the traveling and preaching dimension of Pauline etrates the gray noise of competing spiritual and secular forces? tradition, he did not draw into service the number of men and Benedict XVI understands the importance of this challenge.18 women needed to put his ideas into practice. More than one Will he succeed in unlocking the storehouse to bring out both critic has pointed out that he was averse to discussing changes “what is new and what is old” (Matt. 13:52) to enable the church that might reverse these trends and that he had relatively little to enter the new areopagi about which John Paul II speaks interest in church administration. At some point, though, the eloquently in article 37 of Redemptoris missio? It cannot be done problem of leadership and ministry needs to be confronted. without men and women willing to give their lives to the task, Volunteer, part-time laity will not suffice. Either the case for and till this reality is faced, John Paul’s missiology and theology celibacy and a male-only presbyterate and for traditional reli- are mostly theoretical. At a minimum, an ecumenical council is gious life needs to be made convincingly, or the church needs to needed that provides a venue for a no-holds-barred discernment reconsider the role of women and the possibility of married of the Spirit’s guidance in the matter of pastoral and missionary priests of both genders, at least in areas of the world where these ministries and that allows for different solutions to problems in changes would be accepted. In addition, many, including my- culturally diverse regions. self, would argue for quite different configurations of minis- Notes 1. See Francis A. Sullivan, Magisterium: Teaching Authority in the Cath- of salvation without an explicit affirmation of faith in Jesus the Christ olic Church (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), pp. 6–23. Sullivan makes can be encapsulated in “conscientization,” a word I borrowed from the point that “indefectibility” from apostolic teaching, something Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, believed from the earliest days, demands that the church is guided 1970; 30th anniv. ed., 2000). Although the word “conscientization” by the Spirit in such a way that it does not stray from teaching the appears in the documents neither of Vatican II nor of the pope, it truth. signals a paradigm for understanding what it means to be a “person 2. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Milestones: Memoirs, 1927–1977, trans. of good will.” I came to a twofold conclusion: (1) that the council’s Erasmo Leiva-Merkakis (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998), p. 133. teaching on other religious Ways should be characterized as “irenic 3. See George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II ambivalence,” by which I mean that it expresses real esteem for (New York: Cliff Street Books, 1999). certain aspects of other religious traditions but also for the teaching 4. The words “Dominum et vivificantem,” taken from the Latin that only in Jesus Christ is God’s self-revelation complete and translation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, mean literally effective for the salvation of the world; and (2) that the way in which “Lord and life-giving”—”[I believe in the Holy Spirit,] the Lord and the council speaks of the action of the Spirit outside the Jewish and giver of life.” Christian covenants can be characterized as a form of conscientization. 5. Quoting from (Pastoral Constitution on the Church Here I extend Freire’s vision of conscientization—as the process of in the Modern World, 1965), 22; see also (Dogmatic coming to radical self-consciousness of oneself and one’s social Constitution on the Church, 1964), 16. milieu—to include attaining a deeper, ontological awareness of the 6. Sacrosanctum concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 1963), 2. self as participating in the structure of existence at the level where all 7. The language of John Paul in and Sollicitudo rei concrete beings share in the ground of being, known by Christians socialis, in my opinion, represents his attempt to use the language of as God the Creator. In their openness to salvation outside historical liberation theology in a framework he considers more biblical, non- Christianity (though not outside Christ, the Incarnate Word), the Marxist, and integrally Christian (see esp. Sollicitudo, 41 and 48). council and John Paul II see the formation of a “good conscience” 8. The pope here cites (Decree on the Church’s Missionary bringing one into the dynamic of the paschal mystery. In its authentic Activity, 1965), 6, 23, and 27. structure, then, “good conscience,” under the guidance of divine 9. Here the pope cites Paul VI, ( grace, develops from within the theonomous depths of the self, “Evangelization in the Modern World,” December 8, 1975), 17–19. saying yes to the divine mystery saving us in Christ, even if one may 10. Article 3 of the Lausanne Covenant affirms that it is God’s will that not know Christ as a person in faith. For “theonomy,” see Paul all be saved but adds that this position does not affirm “that all Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, religions offer salvation in Christ.” Lausanne appears to refer to 1951–63), 3:249–63. Lumen gentium 16, where this idea is raised, subject to the proviso 12. Here (n. 98 in RM) John Paul II cites many of the same texts from that it occurs “in a manner known only to God.” Lausanne stresses Vatican II mentioned in the previous note that I made the object of the invitation of God to all to wholeheartedly embrace Christ and my doctoral studies. expresses longing for the day when all will bow to him and confess 13. For this assertion the pope cites (n. 99) “Paul VI, Encyclical Letter him (art. 3). See James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans, eds., New Ecclesiam Suam (6 August 1964) . . . ; Second Vatican Ecumenical Directions in Mission and Evangelization, vol. 1, Basic Statements, 1974– Council, Decree on Missionary Activity of the Church Ad Gentes, 11, 1991 (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books 1992), pp. 254–55. 41; Secretariat for Non-Christians, Document L’atteggiamento della 11. I explored the basis for this teaching during my doctoral work at the Chiesa di fronte ai seguaci di altre religioni: Riflessioni e orientament su University of Chicago, where I examined four key texts of Vatican II dialogo e missione (4 September 1984). . . .” ( Lumen gentium 22; Ad gentes 3, 7, 9; Gaudium et spes 22; and the whole 14. This thesis is worked out by Jacques Dupuis, S.J., in his three books of Nostra aetate). I concluded that the basis for affirming the possibility on the subject of a Christian understanding of religious pluralism:

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January 2006 7 Jesus Christ at the Encounter of World Religions (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis other points in the missiology of Vatican II and Paul VI and Books, 1991), Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism(Orbis, John Paul II, relating Catholic teaching to Orthodox, Protestant, and 1997), and Christianity and the Religions (Orbis, 2002). I have written Pentecostal approaches to mission. at greater length about this thesis in my essay in a Festschrift 16. Unless otherwise indicated, the statistics cited are from the Central presented to Dupuis in Rome on December 5, 2003, his eightieth Statistics Office of the church in the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae birthday: “Creating Space to Rethink the Mission of Christians,” in 2004 (Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vatican, 2005). In Many and Diverse Ways: In Honor of Jacques Dupuis, ed. Daniel 17. See Bryan T. Froehle and Mary L. Gautier, Global Catholicism: Portrait Kendall and Gerald O’Collins (Orbis, 2003), pp. 211–21. of a World Church (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2003), p. 33. 15. In part 3 of their book Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for 18. See Pope Benedict XVI, “Meeting with Diocesan Clergy of Aosta,” Today (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2004), Stephen Bevans and July 25, 2005, www.vatican.va. Roger Schroeder go into much greater depth on these and many

Bibliographic Suggestions Pope John Paul’s writings are voluminous. Perhaps the best way into (www.pauline.org). For online editions, go to the official Vatican Web them is to read his Acting Person: A Contribution to Phenomenological site (www.vatican.va) and follow icons to the English-language site, and Anthropology (Boston: D. Reidel Publishing, 1979); this is a difficult book from there to “The Holy Father,” which leads to downloadable official but essential to understanding the author. More accessible is his Crossing texts from the pontificate of John Paul II and other recent popes. the Threshold of Hope (New York: Knopf, 1994). Not referred to in the For secondary sources and biographies, see George Weigel, Witness article above, but something that has become the center of attention for to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (New York: Cliff Street Books, thousands of study groups, is his : Human Love in the 1999), and, although critical of the pope, especially of his last years, John Divine Plan (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 1997), a collection of his Cornwell, The Pontiff in Winter: Triumph and Conflict in the Reign of John addresses delivered from 1979 through 1984. For a readable condensation Paul II (New York: Doubleday, 2004). For a superb and readable account of each encyclical, see Joseph G. Donders, ed., John Paul II: The Encyclicals, of how John Paul II’s Vatican functioned, see John L. Allen, Jr., All the 3rd ed. (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2005). The official texts of John Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks (New York: Paul’s encyclicals are available in many editions, but the most reasonably Doubleday, 2004). priced can be found at Pauline Books and Media in Boston

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