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ohn Paul II was outspoken on the issues of his era — from international events to medical and social controversies. He was a prolific writer and speaker. By the time of his 26th anniversary as pope, in October 2004, John Paul had given 3,288 planned speeches during trips in Italy and around the world, and had authored 14 encyclicals, 14 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 44 apostolic letters, and 29 motu proprio (papal documents), as well as numerous books, letters, homilies, messages, and other talks.
''Today, as never before, the Church has the opportunity of bringing the Gospel, by witness and word,
to all people and nations. I see the dawning of a new missionary age, which will become a radiant day
bearing an abundant harvest, if all Christians, and missionaries and young churches in particular,
respond with generosity and holiness to the calls and challenges of our time.''
to all people and nations. I see the dawning of a new missionary age, which will become a radiant day
bearing an abundant harvest, if all Christians, and missionaries and young churches in particular,
respond with generosity and holiness to the calls and challenges of our time.''
DEC. 7, 1990: Encyclical ''Redemptoris Missio (The Mission of Christ the Redeemer)''
''We would like to reach out our hands and open our hearts in this moment, to all people and to those who are opposed by whatever injustices or discrimination — whether it has to do with economy, life in society, political life, or the freedom of conscience and just religious freedom. We must reach out with all means to them, that all forms of injustice manifest in our times he rejected by public opinion. We wish our ministry to be a ministry of love, we wish it to be so in its every expression and manifestation.''
OCT. 17, 1978: First ''Urbi et Orbi'' message
''A true family cannot be constituted by the tie of two men or of two women, and even less can there be attributed to such a family the right of adopting children who are without family. A grave damage is done to these children, because in such a 'substitute family' they find not a father and a mother, but 'two fathers' or 'two mothers.'''
FEB. 20, 1994: Angelus message
''Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.''
MAY 22, 1994: Apostolic letter ''On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone''
''As Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place...Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator and Lord, and look to Abraham as our common father in faith.''
MARCH 23, 2000: Speech at Yad Vashem
''If globalization is ruled merely by the laws of the market applied to suit the powerful, the consequences cannot but be negative. These are, for example, the absolutizing of the economy, unemployment, the reduction and deterioration of public services, the destruction of the environment and natural resources, the growing distance between rich and poor, unfair competition which puts the poor nations in a situation of ever increasing inferiority. While acknowledging the positive values which come with globalization, the Church considers with concern the negative aspects which follow in its wake.''
JAN. 22, 1999: Apostolic Exhortation ''Ecclesia in America (The Church in America)'' |
''No word has the power to change the reality of things: procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth ... No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined ... It is true that the decision to have an abortion is often tragic and painful for the mother, insofar as the decision to rid herself of the fruit of conception is not made for purely selfish reasons or out of convenience, but out of a desire to protect certain important values such as her own health or a decent standard of living for the other members of the family. Sometimes it is feared that the child to be born would live in such conditions that it would be better if the birth did not take place. Nevertheless, these reasons and others like them, however serious and tragic, can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.''
MARCH 25, 1995: Encyclical ''Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)''
''We must ask ourselves whether there will continue to accumulate over the heads of this new generation of children the threat of common extermination, for which the means are in the hands of the modern states, especially the major world powers. Are children to receive the arms race from us as a necessary inheritance? How are we to explain this unbridled race?... It is the human dimension of peace that tends to vanish in favor of ever new possible forms of imperialism. It must be our solemn wish here for our children, for the children of all the nations on earth, that this point will never be reached.''
OCT. 2, 1979: Address to the United Nations General Assembly
''In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery, reason experiences its limits, the heart, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in adoration and unbounded love.''
APRIL 17, 2003: Encyclical ''Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist in its Relationship to the Church)''
''Like you, I too have been deeply grieved by the fact that priests and religious, whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives in the sight of God, have themselves caused such suffering and scandal to the young. Because of the great harm done by some priests and religious, the Church herself is viewed with distrust, and many are offended at the way in which the Church's leaders are perceived to have acted in this matter. The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. To the victims and their families, wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern.''
APRIL 23, 2002: Address to the cardinals of the United States |
''A disconcerting conclusion about the most recent period should serve to enlighten us: side-by-side with the miseries of underdevelopment, themselves unacceptable, we find ourselves up against a form of superdevelopment, equally inadmissible, because, like the former it is contrary to what is good and to true happiness. This super-development, which consists in an excessive availability of every kind of material goods for the benefit of certain social groups, easily makes people slaves of ''possession'' and of immediate gratification, with no other horizon than the multiplication or continual replacement of the things already owned with others still better. This is the so-called civilization of 'consumption' or 'consumerism,' which involves so much ''throwing-away'' and 'waste.' An object already owned but now superseded by something better is discarded, with no thought of its possible lasting value in itself, nor of some other human being who is poorer. All of us experience firsthand the sad effects of this blind submission to pure consumerism: in the first place a crass materialism, and at the same time a radical dissatisfaction, because ... the more one possesses the more one wants, while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled.''
DEC. 30, 1987: Encyclical ''Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (The Social Concern of the Church)''
''The Marxist solution has failed, but the realities of marginalization and exploitation remain in the world, especially the Third World, as does the reality of human alienation, especially in the more advanced countries. Against these phenomena the Church strongly raises her voice. Vast multitudes are still living in conditions of great material and moral poverty. The collapse of the Communist system in so many countries certainly removes an obstacle to facing these problems in an appropriate and realistic way, but it is not enough to bring about their solution. Indeed, there is a risk that a radical capitalistic ideology could spread which refuses even to consider these problems, in the a priori belief that any attempt to solve them is doomed to failure, and which blindly entrusts their solution to the free development of market forces.''
MAY 1, 1999: Encyclical ''Centesimus Annus (On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum)''
''Public authority must redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing on the offender an adequate punishment for the crime. ... In this way authority also fulfills the purpose of defending public order and ensuring people's safety, while at the same time offering the offender an incentive and help to change his or her fulfills and be rehabilitated. It is clear that, for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.''
MAY 30, 1995: Encyclical ''Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)'' |
It was just four years into his papacy that John Paul set the rapid pace of canonizations into motion, when he streamlined process so martyrs were automatically beatified. Of the 482 saints he has named, 402 — more than 83 percent — were martyrs.
While the large number has caused some to wonder at the ''rush'' to canonize, some of the specific choices have stirred controversy, including a nun who was born Jewish and a Mexican peasant who may not have existed.
The pope himself explained the number of canonizations in an address to cardinals on June 1984:
''Sometimes it is said today that there are too many beatifications. ... The Gospel is so diffused in the world and its message has so deeply taken root that it is precisely the large number of beatifications which reflects in a vital manner the action of the Holy Spirit and the vitality that He causes to spring forth in the domain the most essential for the Church, that of holiness. For is in fact the Council that has spotlighted in a special way the universal call to holiness.''
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was condemned to a slow death in a starvation bunker. His captors, impatient with his slow death, ended his life with a lethal injection.
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The pope sparked controversy when he canonized a Carmelite nun named Edith Stein. Stein was born Jewish, converted to Catholicism, and was put to death at Auschwitz in 1942. Jews argue that Stein was not a Christian martyr, since she was killed because of her Jewish background. Another controversial saint was Juan Diego, a 16th-century peasant beloved by millions of Mexicans. Some scholars speculate that Diego, who was associated with the ''miracle of Guadalupe,'' never existed.
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