Pope Benedict's 'beloved predecessor'

Two years ago John Paul II's name was on everybody's lips. His death on April 2, 2005, though not unexpected, dominated the world media. The hundreds of thousands, indeed millions, who thronged the Eternal City to attend his funeral and perhaps get a brief glimpse of his lifeless body were unprecedented.

Karol Wojtyla, who had described himself when elected 26 years previously as "the man from a faraway country" had become a household name worldwide.

Now Pope Benedict XVI, about whom some expressed surprise and even disappointment when he was elected, has just published a book entitled Giovanni Paolo II, il mio amato predecessore (my beloved predecessor).

The book contains Pope Benedict's homilies and addresses about John Paul II delivered since his death; his appraisals of his predecessor's encyclicals and some personal memories of the Polish Pope.

In these memories Benedict writes about John Paul's rare gift which made him accessible to all without reservation in his personal contacts with people from all walks of life - "when they had personal contact with him, it was as though he had known them a long time; he spoke as a close relative, a friend."

In Pope Benedict's view, John Paul's greatest encyclicals were Veritatis Splendor (1993), Evangelium Vitae (1995) and Fides et Ratio (1998). These encyclicals, according to the Holy Father, "place man in communion with God at the centre".

With regard to those who originally believed that John Paul II, coming from Poland, then a detached, Communist country, "couldn't understand the complicated questions of the Western world", Pope Benedict says that such observations "couldn't be more foolish" because, according to him, Poland, being a country at the intersection of civilisations, dialogue there "plays a more important part than anywhere else".

He described John Paul II as "a true ecumenical Pope, and a true missionary" who was "providentially prepared... to confront the subsequent questions of the Second Vatican Council".

Pope Benedict concludes the part about his personal memories of Karol Wojtyla by referring to the crisis of our time, viz. "that of a God who for many appears to have abandoned mankind". He states that the reply of the Church "can only be: always speak less of oneself and more of God. Witness to him, be a door to him... This is the true substance of the pontificate of John Paul II, that with the passing of years becomes ever more evident."

These words, which according to a columnist in a Catholic weekly, appear "like a eulogy to a saint", confirm what the vast majority of Catholics believe about the great lamented Polish Pope. They also speak a great deal, no less, about the "reserved" theologian from Bavaria who in the short space of two years has proved that he is a worthy successor of the man whose cause for beatification, and later hopefully to sainthood, was concluded last week.