Donald Wuerl - The Gift of Blessed John Paul II

THE GIFT OF SAINT
JOHN PAUL II

A CELEBRATION OF HIS
ENDURING LEGACY

A CELEBRATION OF HIS
ENDURING LEGACY

Cardinal Donald Wuerl

Archbishop of Washington

Copyright 2011 by Cardinal Donald Wuerl

All rights reserved

Published by The Word Among Us Press
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ISBN: 978-1-59325-249-6
eISBN: 978-1-59325-462-9

Selections from Pope John Paul IIs encyclicals and exhortations taken from the Vatican Web site, www.vatican.va , Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms, 1991, 1986, 1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

Cover design by David Crosson
Front Cover Photo Credit: Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Nigeria, February 1982, Vittoriano Rastelli/CORBIS

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the author and publisher.

Made and printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013948979

by Cardinal Stanislaus Dziwisz

Archbishop of Krakow

Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man)

Catechesi Tradendae (On Catechesis in Our Time)

Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy)

Laborem Exercens (On Human Work)

Familiaris Consortio (The Christian Family in the Modern World)

Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (Reconciliation and Penance)

Slavorum Apostoli (The Apostles to the Slavs)

Dominum et Vivificantem (The Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life)

Redemptoris Mater (The Mother of the Redeemer)

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concern)

Christifideles Laici (The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World)

Redemptoris Custos (On the Person and Mission of St. Joseph)

Redemptoris Missio (The Mission of the Redeemer)

Centesimus Annus (One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Teaching)

Pastores Dabo Vobis (On the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day)

Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth)

Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

Ut Unum Sint (On Commitment to Ecumenism)

Vita Consecrata (The Consecrated Life)

Fides et Ratio (On the Relationship between Faith and Reason)

Ecclesia in America (The Church in America)

Rosarium Virginis Mariae (On the Most Holy Rosary)

Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church)

Pastores Gregis (The Bishop, Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World)

The Petrine ministry of Pope John Paul II was expressed in so many ways during his nearly twenty-seven-year pontificate. His pastoral visits took him around the world to more than one hundred nations, where he was embraced with both reverence and affection. He used his Wednesday audiences at the Vatican and his numerous talks, discourses, and addresses to proclaim the gospel message. In hundreds of parish visits in Rome, he demonstrated the spiritual care of a pastor of souls. Everywhere he exercised his ministry to teach, to lead, to sanctify on a global and local scale.

One vivid expression of the teaching ministry of Pope John Paul II is found in his many encyclical letters and post-synodal apostolic exhortations. Here we find a profoundly spiritual, deeply theological, and engagingly pastoral presentation of the faith of the Church, the gospel imperative, and its implications and application to the circumstances of our day.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington has, over a number of years, written reflections on each of the Holy Fathers encyclicals and those apostolic exhortations that followed one of the Ordinary Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops presided over by Pope John Paul II. It is my pleasure, as one who served our Holy Father as his personal secretary throughout his pontificate, to express appreciation for these reflections on his writings, presented in a volume fittingly entitled The Gift of Saint John Paul II.

May the canonization of Pope John Paul II, which this volume celebrates, be a time for all of us to renew our appreciation for him as we thank God for the gift that this extraordinary priest, bishop, and pope has been and continues to be for the Church.

Stanislaus Cardinal Dziwisz

Archbishop of Krakow, Poland

Personal Secretary to Pope John Paul II

LOsservatore Romano

Pope John Paul II ordained Cardinal Donald Wuerl a bishop on Epiphany, January 6, 1986, in St. Peters Basilica, Rome.

The world watched on Sunday, October 22, 1978, as Pope John Paul II, the 264th bishop of Rome and vicar of Christ, stepped out of St. Peters Basilica to celebrate the Eucharistic liturgy before tens of thousands of people filling St. Peters Square.

The first ever Polish pope and first non-Italian elected by the College of Cardinals since the sixteenth century had caught the imagination and hearts of people from the moment he appeared at the basilicas balcony on the evening of his election six days earlier. What John Paul was to say during his homily would mark the solemn beginning of his ministry as universal pastor of the Church and set the focus of his entire pontificate.

It was an exciting dayone that I will always rememberas I sat there with so many others awaiting what the new pope would have to say in his first Urbi et Orbi (his homily to the city of Rome and to the world).

Open wide the doors for Christ, he announced. The image was a dramatic onethe doors being broken off their hinges to make way for Christ into our hearts and into our world.

I would return to Rome and to that same sagrato, the platform in front of St. Peters Basilica, as Pope John Paul II celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate on October 16, 2003. His health was already failing, and I went precisely because I felt in my heart that this might be the last time I would ever have an opportunity to concelebrate Mass with this holy man whom so much of the world had come to love.

This was not my first visit with Pope John Paul II. In January 1980, as I was completing my service in Rome, he graciously received me in audience, wished me well as I returned to my new ministry in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and gave me his apostolic blessing. Six years later he would call me back to Rome for ordination as a bishop at his hands and my first episcopal assignment as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Seattle, Washington. In the years to come, there would be multiple opportunities to visit with the pope, concelebrate Mass with him in his private chapel, and grow more profoundly aware that he was truly a holy man.