Karol Jozef Wojtyla 1920-2005
A good man died tonight...
I am not a Catholic. I am not even Christian, or indeed a theist of any kind. But I know a good person when I see one, and I mourn the loss of such a soul tonight.
The Catholic church is not my favourite organisation. Many of the official lines conflict with my own moral and ethical positions; particularly on areas surrounding sex, birth and death. However, these are old and effectively unchangable tenets of the Catholic dogma, and I don't truly hold John Paul II in contempt for espousing these views.
"Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes." 1987
He was often said to be a conservative traditionalist; rigidly sticking to the ancient ways and reversing much modernisation within the church. On a few select areas this could be deemed accurate, but not overall, certainly not.
Outspoken, passionate, and often practically incendiary in his views; conservative he was not.
The great respect that I hold for this man, who on the face of it stands for something I dislike, organised religion, is born out of his life's work, which I think could be boiled down to - human rights and human responsibilities, a passion that I truly share.
Throughout his 58 years as a priest (he was ordained on November 1st, 1946), he has constantly fought against social injustice, greed, hatred, violence and humanity's disregard for the greater good.
"Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." 1995
As most people know, my main love is for the environment; something he felt very strongly on too. Often he used his voice to carry weight with new environmental initiatives, supporting ecological conservation and the protection of nature from the excesses of man.
On August 25th, 2002, he said the following about human responsibilities, particularly with respect to what I would call our 'guardianship' of the planet...
'ecological vocation' - what a wonderful way to phrase it. In the past, most knew we had to till the soil to survive; but our guardianship runs deeper than that, we have put lifekind in peril and it is our responsibility to bring it back from the brink. He knew that and struggled to let others know - something I feel indebted to him for.
On January 17th, 2001, he said the following about the destructon humanity has caused...
Whilst I may not speak of the environment in terms of the divine intentions, the phrase 'the radical good of life' strikes a chord deep within me. All life is a wonder, a miracle, a gift. To see it as divine does not surprise me. As anyone that has held a newborn in their arms, or witnessed the green mist of the trees in spring will know - life is beautiful.
Most of the truly beautiful people are born, like the phoenix, out of fire. Karol's early life must have contained much pain, by the age of 21 he has lost his brother, his father and his mother - such lost will colour you. He trained secretly as a priest throughout the second world war and aimed to do something good with his life.
He did.
I will finish by saying thank you to a man who understood the word love better than most, and tried to live his life by the golden law that we all fail to achieve: "to thine ownself be true" - uphold your morals, stand by your beliefs, do as you would be done by, and be a good person.
With luck and some good will, hopefully his following wish will be reality one day...
I am not a Catholic. I am not even Christian, or indeed a theist of any kind. But I know a good person when I see one, and I mourn the loss of such a soul tonight.
The Catholic church is not my favourite organisation. Many of the official lines conflict with my own moral and ethical positions; particularly on areas surrounding sex, birth and death. However, these are old and effectively unchangable tenets of the Catholic dogma, and I don't truly hold John Paul II in contempt for espousing these views.
He was often said to be a conservative traditionalist; rigidly sticking to the ancient ways and reversing much modernisation within the church. On a few select areas this could be deemed accurate, but not overall, certainly not.
Outspoken, passionate, and often practically incendiary in his views; conservative he was not.
The great respect that I hold for this man, who on the face of it stands for something I dislike, organised religion, is born out of his life's work, which I think could be boiled down to - human rights and human responsibilities, a passion that I truly share.
Throughout his 58 years as a priest (he was ordained on November 1st, 1946), he has constantly fought against social injustice, greed, hatred, violence and humanity's disregard for the greater good.
As most people know, my main love is for the environment; something he felt very strongly on too. Often he used his voice to carry weight with new environmental initiatives, supporting ecological conservation and the protection of nature from the excesses of man.
On August 25th, 2002, he said the following about human responsibilities, particularly with respect to what I would call our 'guardianship' of the planet...
The human creature feels very little before the wonder of divine Providence, manifested in creation and history... At the same time, he realizes that he is the recipient of a message of love that calls him to responsibility.
People, indeed, are appointed by God as administrators of the earth, to cultivate and protect it. From here stems that which we might call our 'ecological vocation', which in our time has become more urgent than ever.
In a world that is increasingly interdependent, peace, justice and the protection of creation must be the fruit of the common effort of all in pursuing the common good together.
'ecological vocation' - what a wonderful way to phrase it. In the past, most knew we had to till the soil to survive; but our guardianship runs deeper than that, we have put lifekind in peril and it is our responsibility to bring it back from the brink. He knew that and struggled to let others know - something I feel indebted to him for.
On January 17th, 2001, he said the following about the destructon humanity has caused...
Unfortunately, if one casts a gaze over the regions of our planet, one notices immediately that humanity has not fulfilled the divine expectation.
Especially in our times, man has devastated without hesitation plains and forested valleys, polluted the waters, deformed the earth's habitats, made the air unbreathable, disturbed the hydro-geological and atmospheric systems, and turned green spaces into deserts.
One must therefore, promote and support the ecological conversion, which in the last few decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophies we are moving toward.
Conversion must go beyond protecting the physical environment, aiming instead at creating a human ecology which makes the existence of every creature more dignified, protecting the radical good of life in all its manifestations and preparing for future generations an environment closer to that which God planned.
Whilst I may not speak of the environment in terms of the divine intentions, the phrase 'the radical good of life' strikes a chord deep within me. All life is a wonder, a miracle, a gift. To see it as divine does not surprise me. As anyone that has held a newborn in their arms, or witnessed the green mist of the trees in spring will know - life is beautiful.
Most of the truly beautiful people are born, like the phoenix, out of fire. Karol's early life must have contained much pain, by the age of 21 he has lost his brother, his father and his mother - such lost will colour you. He trained secretly as a priest throughout the second world war and aimed to do something good with his life.
He did.
I will finish by saying thank you to a man who understood the word love better than most, and tried to live his life by the golden law that we all fail to achieve: "to thine ownself be true" - uphold your morals, stand by your beliefs, do as you would be done by, and be a good person.
With luck and some good will, hopefully his following wish will be reality one day...
Men and women will once again walk in the garden of creation, working to ensure that the goods of the earth are available to all, and not just to a privileged few.
posted by Orbling at
07:12
9 Comments:
Granted, I despise the church's position on this issue, at least for the main part.
I do believe abstinence is the best method of birth control, and personally, would only have sex with someone I could handle having children with - just in case - condoms break, pills stop working. However, all other forms should be employed widely by anyone enjoying what is a very natural act, and not solely for procreation.
The church's policy on this does indeed cause widespread environmental problems, and this could be seen as hypocritical to their wider aims. But it is a long held church position, more importantly, a widely known one. They can't back down on it without losing face, it comes down to the whole sanctity of marriage and unborn lives argument...
None of us are perfect, including him, and definitely myself. I stated what I objected too, and why I cared for him even so.
I disagree violently with you on a vast array of issues, yet you've been one of my best friends for some years now.
Acknowledge the bad, promote the good.
By
Orbling, at Sunday, April 03, 2005 7:36:00 am
The Catholic Church, better yet the entire world, was well served by the Pope. Yes, he was the leader of the Catholic faith, but this didn't stop him from reaching out to other religions, cultures and people across the globe to promote his idea of a better world.
His life was well spent.
And yet, I am not a Roman Catholic despite most of my father's family being so. My views on most issues are far more liberal than their religion allows.
I do however believe that abstinence is the best form of birth control. That it is our job as parents (and not that of any church) to teach our children about respecting themselves and their bodies.
However, I don't buy into the belief that promoting the use of safer sex methods such as condoms and the pill are equivalent to a stamp of approval for anyone to go out there and just do it ...
I would honestly rather have my child well versed in all of her choices, be it abstinence or "safer" sex ... Someday it will be her decision to make, and I can only hope that I've given her enough information to make the right decision.
I do believe the Catholic Church should rethink some of their antiquated positions on certain issues, but I also believe in their right to promote their beliefs to their followers.
As for me, I choose to not be Catholic ...
By
KC, at Sunday, April 03, 2005 6:59:00 pm
Abstinence is not an answer on it's own, the Catholic policy on this (and indeed the US government's) is of the head-in-the-sand variety.
People are people, sex is the most base of all instincts and it will continue, with ever increasing frequency, whenever one person takes a fancy to another...
Though I find promiscuity too dangerous for my own comfort, I have no problem with people enjoying it with whoever they please, providing it is conducted as safely as they can manage - or they accept the consequences responsibly.
Far from being immoral, condoms are a god send. Especially within an environment where women can not easily refuse their husbands. In the developed world we have finally moved away from the 10+ children families of old - predominantly due to modern contraceptives.
The world can not sustain huge families forever, nor can women be expected to go through pregnancy that often. So many women in the past died effectively from exhaustion, or even committed suicide rather than get pregnant once again. Large families are fun - but a hell of a lot of work and expense.
Contraception helps with these problems, allowing humans their natural instincts, while brining down the birth rate to account for the lack of natural selection which would normally contain our numbers.
Remember - birth control is not only for the unmarried.
Additionally, STD prevention via condoms is pretty much the only way to save us from those diseases. Asking a continent or two not to have sex ain't gonna work...
I strongly oppose GM work of any kind, put simply because a) we don't need it, b) we don't have a sufficient knowledge of the fallout. More specifically, it is misused heavily (or will be in the context of animal GM work), putting our environment in irreversible danger.
As for gender issues, the vatican, and indeed the late pontiff, had a big problem with this in my opinion. A little too stuck in the past, with draconian views on the role of women.
In an odd way it's naive pedestalling, similar to that done by other religions; women give birth and bring up the children - such an important job should be a sole vocation.
Well, I agree it's the most important thing - but the implication that women are fit for nothing more than that, or that women are so fit for that, that they should do nothing else, is ludicrous.
The celibacy of the Catholic church was introduced to increase piety (and to remove the burden of inheritance), perhaps it has brought too much distance between the clergy and womankind.
The role of priests, or similar, in society is an important one, which goes far beyond faith. There were priests in communities long before organised religion came to be. They provided the moral and ethical compass, they were the psychologists, the people you came to with your problems, the shoulder to cry on, in short the glue of a community. There is a reason that catholic priests were called Father, other than the religious significance. This service is still absolutely needed today, it's loss is widely seen and felt. The religious aspects maybe outmoded, but it's a shame that drags the whole package down.
If I was born a hundred, or even fifty years ago, I'm quite sure I would've become a priest. The job is ideal for me, so much so that I considered doing it anyway, but decided I couldn't get away with being an atheist priest. ;)
Perhaps his most lasting legacy will be his bridge-building and integration among the faiths. The normal zealotous position of the Catholic church certainly altered under his rule. For me, the greatest thing the Christian religion ever taught was to love each other. The most fundamental of all Christ's teachings, and one that has been forgotten over the years in the most terrible of ways. John Paul II did his upmost to restore that vision, reaching out and showing the compassion which Christians are supposed to strive for.
Yesterday his requiem mass was held, and a message from him was read out, composed a few days before for such an event. It read:
"It is love which converts hearts and gives peace to all humanity, which today seems so lost and dominated by the power of evil, selfishness and fear: our resurrected Lord gives us love, which forgives, reconciles and reopens the soul to hope."
God knows how anyone will follow that, they should choose well...
Personally I favour Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras. He seems the smartest, most outspoken and most moral option. Very strong in the issues of human rights and such like. Though I think they want to elect someone older who will give power back to the cardinals, less autocratic. :S
A Pope is a monarch of a dispersed kingdom, a silly idea in itself - but when wielded by a good person, it can have a huge positive effect.
The throne of St. Peter is mighty, and lies empty - I wait to hear "habernus papum!" with baited breath...
By
Orbling, at Monday, April 04, 2005 1:40:00 pm
(prepare for stupidity)
The only thing I know about Popes and Catholics (sadly) I learned from Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code.
I'm not going to say anything bad about Cathlolics, even if I don't believe in the same things they do. To each his own. I respect something that has stayed intact, unwavering, for a gazillion years.
I'm sorry for their loss.
Perhaps they should do a criminal background check before allowing new priests into their churches though. Just a thought.
By
Texas Gurl, at Friday, April 15, 2005 8:55:00 pm
Karl whats the hidden agenda with buying JC a present? ;) id be worried if i was jc.
By
Andrew, at Saturday, April 16, 2005 1:59:00 pm
I'm not a Catholic at all, but I feel the loss fairly keenly - that man did a lot of useful things that were unusual for the occupier of his seat - the bad things he did were entirely usual for said occupier, and thus I don't blame him much for those.
Yes, they should do background checks - but that only gets people with convictions, only the tip of the iceberg for such problems. An entirely different tack is required if that problem is ever to be successfully addressed.
Andrew - I don't do hidden agendas - you know me, fairly upfront to the point of people thinking I'm a prat. She seemed interested in something that I consider a useful skill, and it was her birthday coming up so I got her a book. If you were interested in something I wanted to encourage within you, I would do the same for you.
By
Orbling, at Sunday, April 17, 2005 1:48:00 am
Fair enough :)
By
Andrew, at Sunday, April 17, 2005 10:39:00 am
Thanks for the thoughts Steph, I will write something soon. :)
The enneagram test I did was different to the one you did, so I redid it - got a 1.
Type One
The Reformer
The principled, idealistic type. Ones are conscientious and ethical, with a strong sense of right and wrong. They are teachers, crusaders, and advocates for change: always striving to improve things, but afraid of making a mistake. Well-organized, orderly, and fastidious, they try to maintain high standards, but can slip into being critical and perfectionistic. They typically have problems with resentment and impatience. At their Best: wise, discerning, realistic, and noble. Can be morally heroic..
Well that's always what I wanted to be! God knows if I'll ever live up to that definition though. :S
By
Orbling, at Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:29:00 am
Thanks Citrus, always nice to receive a compliment. :)
It may well be very interesting to find out, and I look forward to that time - though if I'm right it'll be particularly uninteresting. With luck I was wrong. ;)
I would suggest you wait though, obviously. I believe in life before death. ;)
By
Orbling, at Tuesday, April 26, 2005 6:00:00 am
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