The Human Person E-Book

J. Brian

• Herausgeber: anna ruggieri
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

In the 20th Century three social revolutions—the industrial, sexual, and technological revolutions—challenged the religious convictions of many. John Paul II’s teaching on the theology of the body was his response to the resulting societal shifts. Fr. Bransfield explores John Paul II’s response to the challenges raised by these revolutions. In this context Bransfield then explores how Theology of the Body leads us to live the fullness of the Christian life.

Leseprobe

The Human Person

According to John Paul II

J. Brian Bransfield

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bransfield, J. Brian.

The Human Person: According to John Paul II / J. Brian Bransfield.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-8198-3394-0 (pbk.)

1. John Paul II, Pope, 1920-2005. 2. Theological anthropology—Catholic Church. 3. Catholic Church—Doctrines. 4. Human body—Religious aspects—Catholic Church. 5. Sex—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.

BX1378.5.B76 2010

233.092—dc22

2010001471

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

We acknowledge and thank those publishers whose material, whether in the public domain or under copyright protection, has made this work possible. Every effort has been made to obtain all the proper permissions. But if we have inadvertently not obtained a required permission, we ask the publisher to contact the editor for proper acknowledgment and compensation.

Cover design by Rosana Usselmann

Cover art: Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Study of Human Proportion: The Vitruvian Man. Ca. 1492. Pen and ink drawing. Accademia, Venice, Italy. Cameraphoto Arte, Venice / Art Resource, NY.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

“P” and PAULINE are registered trademarks of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Copyright © 2010, J. Brian Bransfield

Published by Pauline Books & Media, 50 Saint Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-3491.

Printed in the U.S.A.

www.pauline.org

Pauline Books & Media is the publishing house of the Daughters of St. Paul, an international congregation of women religious serving the Church with the communications media.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 14 13 12 11 10

To Mom and Dad,

In Loving Memory

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Method

Part I: Two Cultures Clash

Chapter One: The Experiences of Wojtyla / The Experiences of the Twentieth Century

A. Formative Experiences

1. Personal Experiences

2. Intellectual Experiences

3. Pastoral Experiences

Chapter Two: The Perfect Storm

A. Climate Change

1. The Three Revolutions at the Center of the Storm

a. The Industrial Revolution

b. The Sexual Revolution

1) The Effect on Women

2) Cohabitation

3) Divorce

4) Fatherlessness

c. The Technological Revolution / Mass Media

2. Catechesis

3. The 2008 CARA Study

4. The Impact on Identity

B. The Forecast

1. The New Evangelization

a. Feliciora Evangelizationis Tempora

Part II: The Theology of the Body, Original Innocence, and Original Shame

Chapter Three: The Beginning

A. The Evolution Debate

B. Preamble of Truths About the Identity of the Human Person

1. Two Creation Accounts

2. Myth

3. The First Account

a. Bara’

b. Ex Nihilo: The World Is Not Reducible to the World

c. Dabar

d. Exitus-reditus

Chapter Four: The Theology of the Body and the Two Creation Accounts

A. “The Beginning”

B. Original Innocence

1. The First Account of Creation

a. The Creative Pause of God

b. The Imago Dei

c. Classical Theology and the Imago Dei

d. Capax Dei

2. The Second Account of Creation

a. Original Solitude

1) The First Meaning of Original Solitude

2) Consciousness

3) Self-awareness

4) Self-determination

5) On the Basis of the Body

6) Subjectivity

7) The Second Meaning of Original Solitude

b. Original Unity

1) The Sleep of Adam / Creation from the Rib

2) The Openness

3) Communion of Persons

4) Rehabilitation of the Imago Dei

5) Procreation

6) The Conjugal Act

c. Original Nakedness

1) To Share the Vision of the Creator

2) Sexual Difference

3) Gift

4) Contraception

5) Gaudium et Spes 24

6) The Body as Part of Imago Dei

7) Marriage

d. Pope John Paul II’s Interpretation of Scripture

Chapter Five: Sin and the Effects of Sin

A. John Paul II on Original Sin: Original Shame

B. The Remote Roots of Temptation

C. The Juncture of Man’s Choice

1. Seven Steps of Sin: The Ritual of Temptation

a. The First Step: Bypass the Family Structure

b. The Second Step: The Innocent Little Question

c. The Third Step: The Lie

d. The Fourth Step: Fear

e. The Fifth Step: The Choice and the Act

f. The Sixth Step: Hiding

g. The Seventh Step: Blame

2. The Effects of Original Sin

3. Saint Augustine’s Notion of Sin: The Wound and the Fever

4. The Desert Fathers

a. The Sin of David

b. The Network: Seven Deadly Sins

c. Vanity and Pride

5. An Image of Sin: Needful Things

6. The Temptation of Christ

Part III: The Theology of the Body, Life According to the Spirit

Chapter Six: Renewing the Image

A. Seven Steps of Grace

1. The First Step: Enter Family Structure

2. The Second Step: Announcement of the Saving Plan

3. The Third Step: Truth

4. The Fourth Step: Do Not Be Afraid—Entrust

5. The Fifth Step: The Choice / Act—Fiat

6. The Sixth Step: The Visitation

7. The Seventh Step: The Magnificat

B. The Efficacious Nature of the Self-gift of Jesus

1. The Cry of Abandonment

2. The Opened Side

3. The Prodigal Son

4. The Good Samaritan

C. Saint Augustine

D. The Sacraments

Chapter Seven: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Beatitudes, and the Virtues

A. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

1. Saint Gregory the Great

2. Habitus

B. The Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes

1. The Ladder

2. Purity of Heart

a. Fear of the Lord

b. Hope

c. Temperance

d. Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

e. Piety

f. Justice

g. Blessed Are the Meek

h. Knowledge

i. Faith

j. Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

k. Courage

l. Fortitude

m. Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst

n. Counsel

o. Prudence

p. Blessed Are the Merciful

q. Understanding

r. Faith

s. Blessed Are the Pure of Heart

t. Wisdom

u. Love

v. Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Other Books on the Theology of the Body

Foreword

It is a great pleasure to introduce The Human Person: According to John Paul II by Reverend J. Brian Bransfield, a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. This work introduces the reader to the fundamental themes in the teaching of the Venerable Servant of God Pope John Paul II on the identity of the human person, the theology of the body, and the mystery of salvation.

Pope John Paul II responded, in heroic fashion, to society’s chronic confusion about the identity and meaning of the human person. In his teaching Pope John Paul II repeatedly emphasized that the identity and vocation of the human person are fulfilled in and through the total gift of self in love. Through detailed analysis and simple explanation, TheHuman Person: According to John Paul II spells out and makes accessible to the general reader the teaching on the gift of self as contained in the theology of the body. From the vantage point of key thresholds in the mystery of salvation such as creation, the fall, and redemption, Father Bransfield explains in uncomplicated language the meaning of concepts central to the thought of the Holy Father such as original solitude, original unity, original shame, and original nakedness. The reader will find in these pages a way to understand more deeply and to express more effectively the teaching of the Church for which our world hungers.

The pages that follow appeal, in an easily understandable style, to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, in particular Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory the Great, as well as to theologians of the twentieth century such as Cardinal Henri de Lubac, Cardinal Jean Daniélou, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The author demonstrates in everyday terms that the teaching of Pope John Paul II is a rendition of unique caliber, which, at the same time, inherits the tradition in all of its original depth.

The human person, marriage, and the family are the first targets of the culture of death. The teaching of Pope John Paul II stands as a resounding response that sets forth the clear defense and affirmation of the inviolable dignity of the human person, and the splendor of marriage and family. A graduate of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Father Bransfield serves as Executive Director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis, and as Assistant General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He carefully identifies the manner in which the teaching of Pope John Paul II serves the central message of the New Evangelization: the civilization of love will emerge only through the culture of life. I commend this volume as a valuable resource to priests, deacons, seminarians, catechists, and to all the faithful.

Cardinal Justin Rigali

Archbishop of Philadelphia

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to the many people who have supported my efforts in writing this book. I am most thankful to Cardinal Justin Rigali, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, for his encouragement of my efforts and his gracious willingness to offer the Foreword to this work. I am very appreciative to Most Reverend Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, to Most Reverend Gregory Aymond, the Archbishop of New Orleans, and to Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus and Vice President of the Washington, D.C. session of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, for their kind and thoughtful words regarding these pages.

This book was written while I served as a professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. I will always be grateful for the invaluable collaboration of my colleagues on the faculty and the attentive support of the seminarians, especially those who participated in the lectures and discussions from which this book arose.

The expert and dedicated staff of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been a source of constant encouragement. In particular, I acknowledge my brother priests at the Conference, most especially Reverend Monsignor David Malloy, the General Secretary, and my colleagues in the General Secretariat and the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis, in particular Mr. Andrew Lichtenwalner. I thank as well those who have assisted with the editing and preparation of this book, including the Daughters of St. Paul and their staff, in particular Sr. Marianne Lorraine Trouvé, FSP; Sr. Maria Grace Dateno, FSP; and Kate Hux. The assistance of Carlos and Elena Tejeda and the generous support of Brian and Joan Gail have gone far to bringing this work to fruition.

On a personal level, I happily express my deep gratitude to the many friends whose support has guided me throughout the preparation of this book. In a particular way, a profound note of thanks goes to Martin and Cynthia Lutschaunig and their sons, Christian, Daniel, and Andrew; to my brother priests Reverend Stephen Dougherty, Reverend Michael Gerlach, Reverend John Pidgeon, and Reverend Eric Gruber; and to Reverend Monsignor Ronny Jenkins for his friendship and example of excellent scholarship.

Lastly, I wish to express my deepest thanks to my family members, to my sister Peggy-Anne and her husband, Michael, my sisters Mary Jane and Paula, and my brother Paul for sharing with me the beauty of family life. Above all, I am forever grateful to my beloved mother and father, who have shared their life and love with me. It is to them and their blessed memory that I dedicate this work.

We wish to express a special word of thanks for the use of the following material listed in this book:

“Autonomous Individualism” by John Kavanaugh. Reprinted with permission of America Press, Inc. © 2007. All rights reserved. For subscription information, call 1–800–627–9355 or visit www.americanmagazine.org.

Excerpts from Athanasius: The Life of Antony and the Letter to Marcellinus, translated by Robert Gregg, copyright © 1980 by Paulist Press, Inc. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com

Excerpts from Of Many Things (May 19, 2008) and Autonomous Individualism (January 15, 2007) reprinted with permission of America Press, Inc., © 2007, 2009. All rights reserved. For subscription information, call 1-800-627-9533 or visit www.americamagazine.org.

Excerpts from Footbridge Towards the Other, Crossing the Threshold of Love, and Mysterium Pashale used by kind permission of Continuum International Publishing Group.

Excerpts from John Cassian: The Conferences, Translated by Boniface Ramsey, OP, copyright © 1997 by Boniface Ramsey, OP. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com

Excerpts from Needful Things by Stephen King, copyright © 1991 by Stephen King. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (U.S.A.) Inc.

Excerpts taken from The Acting Person: A Contribution to Phenome-nological Anthropology by Karol Wojtyla. Published by Springer, copyright © 1979. With kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media.

From SIMPSON. On Karol Wojtyla, 1E. © 2001 Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions.

“Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8–18 Year-Olds-Report” (no. 7251), The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2005. The information was reprinted with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible analysis and information on health issues.

“Of Many Things” by Drew Christiansen. Reprinted with permission of America Press, Inc. © 2008. All rights reserved. For subscription information, call 1–800–627–9355 or visit www.americanmagazine.org.

Permission for “The Family Portrait: A Compilation of Data, Research and Public Opinion on the Family” (2 ed.) granted by The Family Research Council, www.frc.org, 1-800-225-4008, 801 G Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001.

Permission has been granted to use material from The Christian Lives by the Spirit by Potterie and Lyonnet and from The Pursuit of Happiness: God’s Way: Living the Beatitudes by Servais Pinckaers (both published by ST PAULS / Alba House).

Reprinted by permission of the publisher from Abortion and Divorce in Western Law: American Failures, European Challenges by Mary Ann Glendon, p. 11, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, copyright © 1987 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Taken from The Beatitudes: Soundings in Christian Tradition, by Simon Tugwell, published and copyright 1980 by Darton, Longman, and Todd Ltd., London, and used by permission of the publishers.

Taken from Ways of Imperfection: An Exploration of Christian Spirituality, by Simon Tugwell, published and copyright 1985 by Darton, Longman, and Todd Ltd., London, and used by permission of the publishers.

The following titles were used with permission: The Catholic University of America Press. Washington, DC. Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book by St. Augustine, Introduction to Moral Theology by Romanus Cessario, At the Center of the Human Drama: the Philosophical Anthropology of Karol Wojtyla by Kenneth Schmitz, Sharing in Christ’s Virtues: For a Renewal of Moral Theology in Light of Veritatis Splendor by Livio Merlina, translated by William E. May, The Self-hood of the Human Person by John F. Crosby, and Destined for Liberty: the Human Person in the Philosophy of Karol Wojtyla by Jaroslaw Kupczak.

The Gift: Creation by Kenneth L. Schmitz. Published Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Copyright 1982. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. www.marquette.edu/mupress.

Introduction

As Pope John Paul II stepped onto the balcony over Saint Peter’s Square on October 16, 1978, he was a man in the middle. He had assumed the papacy midway between two historic events: the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the beginning of the third millennium of Christianity. Either event, taken on its own, could lead to great uncertainty, confusion, stress, and expectation. Both the world and the Church experienced considerable commotion. John Paul II, the 264th successor to Saint Peter, stepped onto the stage with a smile and a vision.

Although some thirty-five years separated the end of the Council and the millennium, Karol Wojtyla, as pontiff, formed the bridge between these two events. His pontificate embodied both events and united the Council and the new millennium as if they were one continuous dramatic happening. John Paul II’s twenty-six-year ministry on the Chair of Peter was, in a certain sense, the child of the unity between the Second Vatican Council and the third millennium of Christianity. John Paul’s papacy, understood as the interpretation and implementation of the former, and as the preparation for and inauguration of the latter, leads us to understand his teaching as both the bond and the fruit of history itself, which takes the form of the new evangelization.

The millennium represents the accumulation of the energies of humanity’s perennial search for meaning. Humans continually ask fundamental questions about the meaning of their identity and their commitments. Questions slumber along with each person day to day and, at certain times, grow more urgent. The third millennium is quite simply the cry of the world that asks where the meaning of humanity resides after the Enlightenment, the rise of science, and advances in technology. In the face of such realities, what are the meanings of theology, the Church, and faith? The teaching of the Second Vatican Council is the Church’s anticipation of and response to man’s search-filled cry at the dawn of the third millennium. Catholic identity in the contemporary era is a witness to the encounter of these two cries: the questions of the world and the response of the Church. This book attempts to be a witness, to express the tonality of both cries, which build together to form the continuing event of the new evangelization.

Method

Among the many contributions John Paul II made to the new evangelization, the theology of the body occupies pride of place.1 The catechesis on the body was one of the early projects John Paul took on as pontiff. In his Wednesday audiences in Rome from 1979 to 1984, he delivered a relatively brief catechesis on this topic to pilgrims from around the world. The theology of the body as a catechesis on Genesis is a novel contribution of the Holy Father to the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, philosophy, and spirituality. The teaching, however, is not an island that can be separated from the wider teaching of John Paul and the teaching of the Church in general. In fact, the theology of the body is adequately understood only within that wider orbit of teaching.

This book is not intended to simply be a commentary on the theology of the body. Instead, the teaching of John Paul will be presented in various sections and then discussed. Additionally, particular categories of John Paul’s teaching will be related to the teaching of the Church and to the thoughts of theologians. The purpose of the book is to help readers more easily understand what the theology of the body is all about.

The work consists of three parts:

Part I: Two Cultures Clash considers the factors that shaped the culture of Karol Wojtyla’s early life, and contrasts these with the formation of secular culture in the West.

Part II: The Theology of the Body, Original Innocence, and Original Shame analyzes Wojtyla’s teaching on the theology of the body in original innocence and under original sin.

Part III: The Theology of the Body, Life According to the Spirit continues the theme concerning “life according to the Spirit,” and relates this to the call of the Second Vatican Council for the renewal of moral theology.

Audiences approach the theology of the body with varying degrees of theological background. Some have very little familiarity with theology or Church teaching. Others know one specific area within theology. The theology of the body easily puzzles many audiences, from the novice to the advanced:

Indeed, it is no doubt true that the Talks [The Theology of the Body ] would tax the ability of an audience hearing these ideas for the first time … for the talks make little concession to their hearers… One finds in the Talks the result of years of prolonged meditation upon the deepest aspects of the Christian faith. And so, they are meant to be reread—and reread—for insights that are at once fresh and profound.2

Because readers who seek out the teaching of John Paul have varying backgrounds, this book explains even basic concepts in his teaching to allow the central teaching to be more easily understood. This book will clarify important concepts and terms, presenting them in slow motion. It will also relate these concepts to the wider teaching of John Paul and the teaching of the Church. John Paul’s teaching is not a random topic that he simply chose to speak about when he became pope. His work is a strategic development that responds immediately to humanity in crisis.

Pain fills the cry of the third millennium. The pain reverberates from a deeper place: the very identity of the human person. Every day, thousands of people in the United States have their personal information stolen and become victims of identity theft. The thieves steal identity for financial gain, and it can take years to repair the damage. Yet, a far more horrific identity theft has been under way for decades. The theft is not economic but cultural. Human nature is robbed of its dignity and reduced to a mere expression of instinct or business acumen. The anguish of people today flows from several factors. No simple diagnosis has sufficed from a sociological perspective to explain the predicament of humanity in the postmodern age. The prescription of a quick fix brings only further injury.

In remedy, Church teaching and theology seek to reassert true human dignity. Theology typically speaks of the identity of the human person in three distinct periods: in original innocence, before the fall; in sin after the fall; and in the life of grace after sin, which aids man in the battle with sin. In times past, theologians spoke about the human person by using abstract philosophical and theological language. John Paul followed the three-part structure and used traditional language. Yet, he added something. He formulated the traditional truths in an accessible way. This book will trace John Paul’s categories through each of the three traditional stages, and refer to the works of theologians to further explain the theological locus as it serves the central mystery.

The first chapter explores one of the remote sources of the theology of the body and the new evangelization, namely, the experiences that shaped its foremost herald, Karol Wojtyla. His experiences are divided into three general groups: personal, intellectual, and pastoral. The picture emerges of a man whose life was formed by remarkable experiences that prepared him on both an internal and an external level to proclaim the culture of life. In themselves, these events were commonplace. But the way in which they came together was quite rare. Karol Wojtyla was a man who suffered many things that could have soured another. But he turned them to his spiritual profit, and they uniquely qualified him to advance the new evangelization as a dramatic response to the signs of the times.

Meanwhile, throughout the twentieth century various factors were forming contemporary culture. Chapter 2 considers the perfect storm formed from three revolutions—the industrial, the sexual, and the technological. Each of these had a significant detrimental impact on catechesis and the sense of Catholic identity. The secular culture that developed contrasted greatly with the life of the young Wojtyla.

Chapter 3 traces John Paul’s teaching alongside that of the tradition regarding the identity of the human person based on the first account of creation in Genesis. Chapter 4 continues this analysis by focusing on the second account of creation. This chapter presents in detail John Paul’s innovative teaching on the theology of the body and the identity of the human person.

Chapter 5 explores John Paul’s teaching on the fall of man and the consequences of original sin for man’s identity, including the nature of temptation and the effects of sin. Chapters 6 and 7 present the teaching on redemption and life in the Spirit, which is God’s response, in his Son, to human sin. These chapters discuss how God responds point-for-point to temptation, and how the Son of God’s action on the cross is the efficacious response from which the Holy Spirit draws the new measure of love. This measure of love forms the basis for the renewal of moral theology that the Second Vatican Council called for. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, the life of virtue, and the Beatitudes are presented as the culmination of the theology of the body and the basis for turning from the culture of death to the culture of life.

Part I

Two Cultures Clash

Chapter One

The Experiences of Wojtyla / The Experiences of the Twentieth Century

A. Formative Experiences

A person gains firsthand experiences in the first third of human life, lives from experience in the second third, and in the final third loves the experiences that have been lived. Experience forms humans, and they are continuously invited to weigh and evaluate their formation. History, in one sense, is a collection of experience. Anticipation is the hope for a fuller experience. Adventure is the high point of experience. Nostalgia is the hunger for the high point.

Candidates seeking employment or a political office need to show what they have achieved. Experience shapes a person’s identity. Education, training, redirections, and mishaps as well as successes testify to a nominee’s character and suitability. Karol Wojtyla brought to the papacy a personal identity that was formed from a diverse background even before his well-documented professional and pastoral abilities.1 His resume may be broadly divided into three sets of experiences: his personal experiences, his intellectual experiences, and his pastoral experiences. These experiences cross-pollinated and coalesced in a unique way to forge a singular depth within the man who would become Pope John Paul II.

1. Personal Experiences

From the widest perspective, Wojtyla’s personal experience consisted in being a son of Poland. This nation has a rich national identity built from a history often marked by invasion and tragedy. Situated between Europe and Russia, Poland was often trampled by foreign armies.2 Repeated enemy incursions and occupation of their homeland have led the Polish people to develop a culture of resistance to foreign forces that transcends mere rebellion on a military level.3 Resilience sprouts from the very soil of Poland. Each of its sons and daughters bears an irrepressible resourcefulness. The Polish people have been formed to be recalcitrant, strong, and robust in dealing with hardship. The Polish identity, so durable and lasting, should never be underestimated.

Wojtyla’s personal history mirrors the history of his country. Karol was born in the town of Wadowice on May 18, 1920, to Karol and Emilia (née Kaczorowska) Wojtyla. His father, a deeply religious man, fought in the Polish army and earned a commendation in World War I. He retired from military service soon after Poland regained independence on November 11, 1918. Karol had an older brother, Edmund, born August 28, 1906. A sister named Olga, born in 1914, died only a few weeks after her birth.

The future pope’s first formations were in the context of marriage and the family. He was raised in an interim period of peace in Poland. The Wojtylas were well versed in competition and excelled in the arts. Their younger son participated in activities ranging from family life, schooling, and sports to Saturday folk nights at a local park, singing and reciting poetry around a bonfire.4 Besides his affection for sports and the outdoors, Karol developed a devotion to the theater. But his personal life, like that of his nation, was to lose its peace in short order.

Aside from the influence of his family life, Karol was formed by suffering, both on a personal and national scale. Karol’s mother died on April 13, 1929, at the age of forty-five, when Karol was only eight years old. His older brother, Edmund, a medical doctor, died at the age of twenty-six on December 5, 1932, from septic scarlet fever contracted from his patients.5 Karol was then twelve years old. He and his father moved to Krakow in 1938 as Karol took up university life6 and continued his theater activities. Within the year, the German blitzkrieg scarred Polish cities and towns with bombs beginning on September 1, 1939.

The Nazis closed the university and would allow only trade skills to be practiced and learned.7 Karol and Poland had fallen under the first of two totalitarian regimes. The young Wojtyla worked at a quarry and later at a chemical factory.8 His theater interests took on a new perspective. He wrote poetry, relying heavily on the themes of Polish history and the spiritual life. He participated in a secret underground theater known as the Rhapsodic Theater. This was a “theater of the spoken word” that kept alive and passed on the integrity of Polish history and tradition.9 The participants relied upon words and gestures rather than props, costumes, and scenery. Besides being cumbersome, such items, if found, would have made the players liable for deportation to the Nazi death camps.

Amid the pain of family loss and the darkness of war, a light arose in the form of a layman, Jan Tyranowski, a local tailor. He was a man of intense faith who introduced Karol to Carmelite spirituality through the writings of Saint John of the Cross.10 Tyranowski also introduced Karol to the writings of Saint Louis de Montfort. The influence of faithful lay persons became a third level of formation for Karol. The future pope first learned of the laity’s mission in the Church not through academic theory but through eyewitness encounter. His later apostolic exhortation Christifideles Laici (“Christ’s Faithful People”) did not spring as much from theological research as it did from the lives and witness of dedicated women and men like Tyranowski.

As Poland’s suffering continued, Karol’s reached a final height when his father died of a heart attack on February 18, 1942. Karol Wojtyla, now twenty-one, had lost his entire immediate family and had seen the Nazis overrun his homeland.11 When the war ended on May 7, 1945, the Nazi regime gave way to the tyranny of Soviet communism. The Soviets brought an era of Stalinist terror to Poland, with secret accusations, violence against human dignity, the obscuring of Polish history and identity, and oppression of the Church.12

These early losses had a deep impact on Karol, for that which is experienced earliest lasts longest. The deep sensitivity he would show as pontiff to suffering persons, even to the plight of entire nations and cultures, was forged in his own suffering. His eyes and expressions seemed to draw forth and convey extraordinary kindness for the sick and the abandoned. Kindness came naturally to Wojtyla. It was formed in his identity from his earliest personal experiences.

2. Intellectual Experiences

Amid his early losses, Karol turned to the laity, and these men and women pointed him toward the life of the intellect, his fourth layer of formative experience. Wojtyla’s intellectual experiences flourished in a life that, despite early pain and hardship, was both vibrantly athletic and devoted to academic study. His academic records, which even show his excused absences from class, are included in The Making of the Pope of the Millennium: Kalendarium of the Life of Karol Wojtyla.13 As a young student, he spoke on behalf of his secondary school graduating class in 1938. His obligatory service in the military was postponed after his graduation. Later that year he entered the Jagiellonian University, studying Polish philology in the humanities department. He remained at the university until World War II broke out in September 1939.

With his studies abruptly ended, Karol went to Krakow with his father and began his fifth formational experience, the hard work of a daily laborer. The young Wojtyla worked in a chemical factory and a quarry in the Solvay works near Krakow from 1940 to 1944. His service as a laborer exempted him from exportation to Germany for forced labor. During these years, the religious influence of his father, and later Tyranowski, was fundamental to Karol’s life.14 In addition, the influence of priests and friends led Karol to study theology. During the Nazi occupation he began clandestine studies in the department of theology at the Jagiellonian while still working at Solvay.

Karol’s formation followed an unpredictable path. His identity was molded early on by seven sources essential to his faith: marriage, the family setting, the experience of loss and solidarity in the face of national persecution, the strategic influence of dedicated laity, the importance of the intellectual life, the daily work of rigorous labor, and prayerful theology. He was naturally led from those seven formative experiences to theology. This is the early culture of Karol Wojtyla, which formed the man who became John Paul II.

The first targets of the Nazis were not the Polish political, military, or business leaders. Even the Nazis knew that to undermine a people’s identity one must first undermine their culture. To do this they attacked Polish intellectuals. The first professionals the Nazis deported were university professors, those who could pass on the historical and cultural identity of the Polish people.

Karol Wojtyla responded to the Nazis by participating in the covert Rhapsodic Theater that sustained the identity of Poland by performing plays essential to its history.15 In trying to become an actor, he wrote several plays and performed in many more. It wasn’t merely chance that drew him to the theater. His attraction for it emerged spontaneously from his experiences of marriage, family, loss, laity, intellectual life, hard labor, and prayerful theology. The stage became the eighth layer of his formational matrix. Meanwhile he began thinking about the priesthood. The influence of religious individuals such as his father and Tyranowski, along with priests he had known from a young age, drew him to it. In October 1942, a year after his father died, Karol entered the clandestine seminary of the Archdiocese of Krakow to study for the priesthood.16 By now the seeds of what would emerge as his personalist philosophy were sown deeply in his soul. While in the seminary he studied philosophy, which added a further dimension to the developing sense of culture and his appreciation for identity.

Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Krakow on November 1, 1946, by the Cardinal Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha.17 After ordination he was assigned to parish ministry and was later sent to Rome for graduate studies at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Wojtyla completed his doctoral studies in theology on June 14, 1948, and earned the first of two doctorates. His dissertation, Doctrina di fide apud S. Ioannem a Cruce, was published in English as Faith According to Saint John of the Cross.18 After returning to Poland he completed his habilitation thesis, which would give him the credentials to teach at the university level. It was titled An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethics on the Basis of the System of Max Scheler, and with it, Wojtyla earned a second doctorate in 1954 from Jagiellonian University.19 He joined the faculty of the Catholic University of Lublin in October 1954, where he served as professor of ethics.

He taught at Lublin until 1957 and held the ethics chair even after he ascended to the See of Krakow. His lectures while teaching at Lublin include topics such as “Ethical Act and Ethical Experience,” “Good and Value,” and “The Problem of Norm and Happiness.”20 He did not intend his Lublin lectures to be published. Nevertheless, a German edition was published in 1981,21 and a Polish text was released in 1986.22 The texts are Wojtyla’s notes and synopses for the classes.23 Even as Holy Father, John Paul still held the chair in the department of Christian philosophy at Lublin. He would even serve as reader for student papers and meet with professors for discussion.24 He continued to hold the chair until his death on April 2, 2005.25

Wojtyla’s Lublin lectures constitute a major contribution to the field of ethics. The Lublin experience forms a central dimension to Wojtyla’s identity. The encounters in the lecture hall allowed him to give considerable attention to what various philosophers thought about the nature of human action and identity. He thus had a professional formation that added to his previous personal experiences.

3. Pastoral Experiences

Simultaneous with his intellectual experiences, Wojtyla gained pastoral experience as a parish priest, university chaplain, auxiliary bishop, and archbishop of Krakow. He brought all of his early formation and culture to his service as a diocesan priest. His early formation in his family, his experiences of loss, the guidance of laity toward intellectual riches, his exacting work as a laborer, and his theological work had been honed in the seminary and offered at ordination. Now Wojtyla brought that rich experience to his pastoral service of the Church in Poland. In 1948 he was assigned as curate at the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady in the village of Niegowi.26 He was transferred to Saint Florian’s Parish in Krakow in 1949, where he also served as chaplain at Jagiellonian University.27 On September 28, 1958, just a month shy of his twelfth anniversary of priestly ordination, he was ordained auxiliary bishop of Krakow.28

His thoughts and teachings as pastor arose not only from his rigorous academic investigation but also from the lived experiences of ordinary people. Besides his regular interaction with his flock, he had a special ministry to some 200 married couples. Together they would go into the mountains for prolonged weekends, and Wojtyla would form discussion groups to talk about the challenges of married life. This group of married couples came to be known as Srodowisko, a term first suggested by Wojtyla himself in the 1960s. Many continued their friendship with the young bishop in later years. George Weigel notes that this group was one of many “networks of young adults and young married couples with whom Father Wojtyla worked” that “evolve[d] into networks of intellectual conversation.”29 Wojtyla, writing as John Paul II, made reference to this group in Crossing the Threshold of Hope.30 His book Love and Responsibility flowed directly from questions that arose in these discussions with young married couples.31 His pastoral ministry was well grounded in an avid awareness of and concern for his flock. His method was always to meet persons, ask them what they were experiencing, and then to proceed from that knowledge.

Bishop Wojtyla participated in the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. He was appointed archbishop of Krakow on January 13, 1964, and created cardinal in 1967.32 In 1972 he published a 400-plus-page book on the implementation of the Council, later translated into English as Sources of Renewal.33

Even a brief overview of Karol Wojtyla’s experiences and background reveals several avenues that enabled him to give prolonged thought to the nature of the human person and identity, and their importance in the formation of culture. As he was passing through these experiences, other events were in motion as well. An extensive storm was forming, one which this young man from Poland would be called upon to engage.

Chapter Two

The Perfect Storm

A. Climate Change

Karol Wojtyla brought his appreciation for experience and culture to the papacy. As Pope John Paul II he noted, “We need to reflect on the dynamics of contemporary culture in order to discern the signs of the times which affect the proclamation of the saving message of Christ.”1 The “dynamics of contemporary culture” are the factors that interact to form the experience that contemporary man undergoes. Pope John Paul II gazed on contemporary culture from the vantage point of his experiences, united with the charism of his office. John Paul listened, as he did with his early experiences of loss, the pain of his nation, the people of Krakow, and the married couples he led into the mountains. He discerned the signs of the times, not just of Poland, or of Europe, but of the world, and in particular, of America.

For the United States, the signs of the times reflect a radical shift in cultural mores in a relatively short period of time. Peter Kreeft reports that a survey of high school principals in 1958 found five main problems among students: 1) not doing homework, 2) not respecting property, 3) leaving lights on and doors and windows open, 4) throwing spitballs, and 5) running through the hallways. The results of the same questions in a survey only thirty years later, in 1988, found drastic changes. The top five problems facing school administrators in 1988 were: 1) abortion, 2) AIDS, 3) rape, 4) drugs, and 5) fear of a violent death, murder, guns, and knives in school.2 Little more than ten years later, on April 20, 1999, violence in the American classroom reached a horrific level when two students massacred twelve fellow students and wounded twenty-three others at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Kreeft notes that from 1955 to 1995 there was a 500 percent increase in violent crime and a 5,000 percent increase in teenage violent crime.3

While the statistics are vivid, the classroom is not the only locus of pain. The American home has been under attack for decades. The change in the rate of divorce in the last hundred years is staggering. Research has shown that the rate of divorce in the United States leapt from 5 percent of all marriages in 1867 to more than 50 percent in the early 1990s.4 In the forty-one years between 1960 and 2001 the divorce rate almost doubled.5 “Since 1975, more than one million children have been affected by divorce each year.”6 “The picture remains grim after 2000: a 50 percent chance of divorce would mean that half of all marriages are expected to end in divorce before the marriages break up through death.”7 Recently, Elizabeth Marquardt, in a pioneering national study, has found “close to half of first marriages still end in divorce.”8 The effects of divorce on children are particularly painful. Children of divorce are more likely to suffer from emotional difficulties such as major depression, low self-esteem, and higher risk of suicide.9 The pain and violence that many American young people experience must find an outlet.

Pain is often expressed in promiscuity. The amount of sexual content on television programs increased from 67 percent in 1998 to 77 percent in 2005.10 In 2006, Meg Meeker writes, “40.9 percent of girls fourteen to seventeen years old experience unwanted sex, primarily because they fear that their boyfriends will get angry.”11 Promiscuity has lasting effects. As Meeker writes, “one in five Americans over age twelve tests positive for genital herpes.”12 Teenagers were five times more likely to have herpes in 2002 than they were in the 1970s.13 The Centers for Disease Control reported in 2008 that at least one in four teens in the United States. has a sexually transmitted disease, or STD.14 Studies indicate that the higher adolescents’ exposure to graphic sexual content in songs, movies, and magazines, the more likely teens are to have sex.15 Each year 15.3 million Americans contract a new sexually transmitted disease.16 The relation between teen sex and psychological trauma and distress is greatly underrated.17 One in eight teenagers is clinically depressed, and rates of completed suicides among teens increased 200 percent from the early 1990s to 2002.18

The causes of the growing pain and violence range from the immediate to the remote. Each indicator needs attention. The new evangelization must track the pain to its earliest roots if the healing is to be a cure rather than just an anesthetic. The alienation and the violence of our times causes deep-felt pain in our very identity. The later twentieth century, despite all its progress, saw a simultaneous deconstruction of the sense of personal identity that affected even devout Catholics.

1. The Three Revolutions at the Center of the Storm