Acclaimed theologian gives talk on JPII

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
November 16, 2006

The late pontiff’s greatness grew out of his resistance to totalitarianism, according to a noted Austrian theologian.

“For the Nazis and the Soviets, humans were like grains of sand and you could shovel them wherever you wanted them,” said Michael Waldstein. In opposition to this idea, Pope John Paul II “understood the depth of the human person.”

Waldstein, a noted expert of John Paul II and translator of his works, spoke about the late pontiff to more than 100 guests at the Diocesan Pastoral Center Oct. 28.

He began his remarks by exploring the spiritual fatherhood of the pope. Waldstein said the pope had a kind of external historical greatness exhibited in his pastoral trip to Poland in 1979.

The theologian said the highlight of that trip was the final Mass in Krakow, attended by several million Poles, the largest gathering in the history of that country.

“In the pope’s sermon at that Mass, he spoke about what it means for a human being and also for a people to have a history. A history means you have a path towards a goal,” Waldstein said.

The pope claimed Poland’s history stemmed from Christ’s missionary mandate to the Apostles, to make disciples of all the nations. It was the country’s history deeply rooted in Catholicism that the Nazis and Soviets desperately tried to expunge.

By ceaselessly recalling Poland to its cultural and religious inheritance, the pope helped dismantle the seemingly invincible Soviet regime within a decade of his visit.

Waldstein said John Paul II’s resistance to these forms of government stemmed from his understanding of the human person.

Influences on the pope’s theology

The pope expanded this understanding as a young man by studying the writings of St. John of the Cross, a Carmelite mystic and theologian.

Waldstein said the Carmelite imparted two characteristics to the Holy Father’s pastoral method: an appreciation of the beauty of love and a focus on Christian experience.

“John of the Cross had a tremendous sense of the beauty of love. The fact that he expressed it in poetry is not incidental,” he said.

Also, the Spanish saint’s “preaching revolves around what Christian experience is like, how it is worked out in someone who consciously lives as a Christian,” Waldstein added.

These two aspects underpinned the whole of John Paul II’s theology of the body, the theologian claimed, adding that it was no accident that so much of the pope’s language strongly echoed St. John of the Cross’ writings.

Theology of the body is the name attributed to a series of 129 talks given by the pontiff that explored the nature of human relationships with each other and God. The talks were compiled into a book, “The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan.”

“Throughout the pope’s book there is a poetical sensibility which I think comes from his being steeped in the spousal poetry and theology of St. John of the Cross,” Waldstein said, who recently published a new translation of the work.

“It’s not just a work of an acute theological and philosophical intelligence, but a poetical work, too, with all kinds of neat, beautiful, literary features,” he added.

He hoped his translation showed that literary quality.

Also included in the new translation are chapter divisions created by the pope himself, which Waldstein found in some of his papers.

This new schema allows readers to get a sense of the organic layout of the pope’s argument.

After Waldstein’s presentation, he fielded some audience questions and signed some copies of his translation.

The Phoenix Diocese’s John Paul II Resource Center organized the event, hoping it would get the message out about the center’s purpose.

“Part of the mission we have is simply to educate people as to what the center is,” said Katrina Zeno, director of the center. “Its mission is to bring John Paul II’s theology of the body into the catechetical life of the diocese.”

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted shared how personally important carrying on the work of John Paul II is to him.

“I had the privilege of working with John Paul II for nine and a half years in Rome. When he died, I remember feeling this huge, hollow emptiness within me,” the bishop said. “He truly was a spiritual father to me in a profound way, as he was to all of us.”