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Monday April 11, 2005 |
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THEY ALL WENt, to
listen to a dead giant
by Angelo Persichilli
(Versione italiana)
THE HILL TIMES
They all
went. Old and young, men and women, people of all race, creed and colour,
revolutionaries, reactionaries, conservatives, progressives, Communists,
anti-Communists. Last Friday, St. Peter’s Square was the United Nations of
humanity. Royals, Presidents and Prime Ministers were there, but not because
they were invited to deliver speeches; but to listen.
And they listened to a speech from a dead giant: Pope John
Paul II. His message was delivered to Presidents and Royals by more than
three million people who, with their presence and with their deafening
silence, made their points loud and clear.
It was the most powerful indictment against the inability of
our world leaders to do their job which is to bring the people together, and
not pit one against another.
Their presence was the stunning proof that the argument
about the obstacles and difficulties to bring people together is wrong and
deceptive.
They, the people of the World, all went, together, to pay
their respects to a person with whom they did not necessarily agree with,
but they had something in common with: the desire for peace.
Leaders talk about peace, but they make war. They preach
love, but they disseminate hate. With their presence, over three million
people told the famous and powerful that the problem between peace and
utopia is not about their religion, race or colour of their skin; the real
problem is them and their greed; the greed of a few, against the rights of
the many.
But they all went; people believing in God, in another God
or no God at all; the Muslim Katami was there, as well as the Methodist,
U.S. President George Bush. And only his frail health stopped Mr. Bush’s
political nemesis, the atheist Cuban President Fidel Castro from being
there. They all have different credos, a different God or no God at all, but
they were paying respect to the person who was looking for similarities not
differences in humanity, who looked for peace not war, and love, not hate.
The Pope was a person who gave people his love and his
beliefs, who promoted openness and principles.
I did not have the honour of ever talking to him, but from
the interviews I have had with many of those who had the good fortune of
enjoying a conversation with him, I heard the same comments: he was a person
who put the individual at the centre of the universe. “I never felt
comfortable with any other person, like I felt with him” the former mayor of
Toronto told me last week. Why? I asked: “Because through his eyes I felt
loved, not judged.”
Colourful, and important, was the answer I received from
former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien: “He definitely was not a person who was
looking at the polls before he was making any decision.”
Many find it hard to define John Paul II, a Pope, they say,
who definitely loved but had many contradictions.
The reality is that there was never any contradiction in
Karol Wojtyla’s personality; the problem rested with the people who tried to
judge him according to their standards, their ideology.
John Paul was an anti-Communist when he accelerated the
demise of the Soviet Union and he became a Communist when he went to Cuba to
meet Fidel Castro.
He was progressive when he was against George Bush’s war in
Iraq, but he became a social Conservative when he, like Bush, stood against
abortion and same-sex marriage.
He was leftist when he fought with the poor in Africa and
South America, but he was under attack when he barred women from priesthood;
he was a man of peace, but not a pacifist.
I believe that Papa Woityla was far ahead of most of us,
still trapped into the logic of left and right, capitalism and Marxism, East
and West. I saw John Paul speaking his mind regardless of any political
ideology other than putting the individual first.
He fought against Nazism, he sought dialogue with the
Muslims and he looked for an opening in China.
He did not like Communism because it was preaching justice
without freedom, he did not like Capitalism because it was preaching freedom
without justice. There is no freedom without social justice, there is no
social justice without freedom.
The world according to John Paul II was not about Fascists,
Communists, Catholics, Muslims, black or white. Pope John Paul II firmly
believed in the dignity of human beings. He travelled all over the five
continents in search of that humanity, in search of the human being. He did
find them. And they all went to Rome to say thank you to him last week, but
also to condemn those who believe that the word "peace" is just a political
gimmick to collect votes, and not a way of life. |
