Throughout the long, sultry Roman morning, the crowd had gathered in St. Peter's Square. Nearly one hundred fifty thousand souls from around Europe an...

Throughout the long, sultry Roman morning, the crowd had gathered in St. Peter's Square. Nearly one hundred fifty thousand souls from around Europe and the planet waited patiently. Then a Pentecostal rumble of languages was hushed suddenly, then given full throat as the familiar, perspex armoured scarlet and white "popemobile" turned into the square, the unmistakable figure of John Paul II standing in the truck bed, right hand raised in greeting and blessing as the weekly audience unfolded. Halfway to the raised dais before the steps of St. Peter's, the chanting of a group of Spanish teenagers overwhelmed the background cheering: "Juan Paul Segundo, premiere in el mundo!" To the obvious dismay of the bullet catchers, the popemobile ground to a halt, and the stooped figure climbed out, touching hands, conferring blessing. Like a rock star? Yes - and no. There was something more - always something more. Later, after the multilingual homily and blessing, I waited with the rest of the "prima fila", the front row, along with some thirty others including the Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See and a Nicaraguan priest on furlough, for my brief moment with the Pope. My friends at the Canadian Pontifical College had briefed me on his deaf ear. He listened to my greetings, smiled brightly enough to edge out the Mediterranean sun, said, "United Church of Canada! Thank you, thank you very much." Then he blessed me. And I felt blessed. Whatever else, John Paul was a man of God...
The personal is political, we're told. In John Paul II's case, the personal was pontifical and political. His personality and his history defined his twenty-seven year pontificate, the third longest since Peter himself. He redefined charisma for the last quarter of the twentieth century, and the dawn of the twenty-first. He translated the role of Bishop of Rome into a religious icon for much of the world, and not the Roman Catholic world alone by any means. For the Star Wars generation, "J2P2" was the Roman Catholic Church. For Protestants who remembered the great reconciler, John XXIII, from whom this pope took his name, along with those of his two immediate predecessors, John Paul II has both built on the foundations of Vatican II - and, in some measure, dismantled them.
Few pontiffs have been more embracing of the wider world, of Protestant and Orthodox Christians, of other faiths, of Christ's poor. Few have been so relentlessly traditional in enforcing Roman doctrine.
Karol Woityla, coming of age in Nazi-occupied Poland, preserving the faith in the Stalinist Eastern block, and ascending to the throne of Peter in a global, secular, plural age, was staggeringly intelligent, multi-faceted, but not so complex as many would make him. Athlete, actor, poet, linguist, theologian - he was all these things, but mostly, he was a priest who sought to do nothing but Christ's will. This meant ensuring the freedom and integrity of the Roman Catholic Church in the late Soviet Empire, and demonstrating that the love of God in Christ is for the whole world, much of which he visited. All the issues that perplex and bedevil Catholic and non-Catholic alike, from priestly celibacy to the ordination of women to birth control have not been part of his agenda. He has left them to his successor and to his church, confident, in his lifetime, in the efficacy of longstanding doctrine.
Seen in that light he succeeded admirably. Later generations are unlikely to credit Ronald Reagan's military spending spree for bankrupting the Soviet Union and causing its implosion half so much as they are to acknowledge the impact of John Paul II's support in 1981 for Lech Walesa's Solidarity Movement and the shipbuilder's of Gdansk in his native Poland.
Then, and through his papacy, John Paul II understood and made use of international media. His was a film clip pontificate, inviting the world to adopt him as a spiritual leader. The moments are legion and legend: his trips abroad, with his trademark kiss of the tarmac; the throngs at every rally; his stoicism in the face of the attempt on his life in the early years, and in the face of Parkinson's in the later; quietly sitting as a participant in the Riva del Garda conference of the World Conference on Religion and Peace; his prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem; his staff surmounted with a poor person's crucifix; his blessings from the balcony of the papal apartment.
He understood that personal exposure, done well, meant influence. He spoke out against the soulless greed of unbridled capitalism, and the deadening hand of totalitarian socialism. He stood with the poor and the marginalized, yet eschewed political engagements for his priests. And in the great balance of life, it must never be forgotten that he was silent in the face of genocide in Rwanda, when his influence might have made a difference, and that his principled but surely debatable stand against birth control continues to exact a terrible price in HIV/AIDS plagued Africa.
Under his leadership, the Roman Catholic Church established a new relationship with Judaism, expressing contrition and forswearing the demonization and oppression of the past. He has led the way in establishing a new Christian relationship with Islam, an exercise which the rest of Christianity is just beginning.
In Canada, John Paul II's pontificate has seen the full membership of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in the Canadian Council of Churches - an historic "first", and clearly in the spirit of John XXIII. But statements like Cardinal Ratzinger's Dominus Jesus are stark reminders that this has been a very Rome centred papacy withal, and it is beyond the ken of the best analysts to foresee the future for which John Paul II has laid the foundation. Irish scholar, statesman and dean of letters, Conor Cruise O'Brien, warned in the 1994 Massey Lectures of a sobering, even dangerous liaison between the conservative Catholicism of John Paul II and fundamentalist Islam.
But now he is dead, and, as was said of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and others, he belongs to history. A new Pontiff reigns in Rome: new, and yet familiar. Joseph, Cardinal Ratzinger, a German national, and now Benedict XVI, is not so much a pope of transition as of continuity. He was John Paul II's "Chief of Doctrine", and, so far, it appears little will change.
Much will depend on this new Pope. John Paul II leaves a high profile house in the eyes of the world, but the domestic affairs of the Roman Catholic Church are in serious disarray, perhaps more so than at any point since the great schism of the 14th century, which saw popes reigning concurrently in both Rome and Avignon.
Benedict inherits the curia of his predecessor. It is conservative, most cardinals having been appointed by John Paul II over more than twenty-five years. This will sit well with much of the global south, if Philip Jenkins is at all accurate in his assessment of the Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity.
European and American Roman Catholics are dismayed, with perceived hopes and aspirations delayed for the unforeseeable future.
On the other hand, Europeans have hardly been overly sensible to religious dogma since the end of the second world war. Witness the late Pope's desire to see the rights of religion enshrined in a European constitution repeatedly, now finally, dashed.
Of greater importance to Federalists is the sense that both John Paul II and Benedict XVI represent in some measure the new Europe. The nature of the European Union was forever changed by the events triggered in part by John Paul II, which saw the end of the old Soviet regime. Benedict is a reminder that Germany is to be a player in the unfolding future.
John Paul II refused to uphold western ambitions when they seemed unjust and imperialistic as in the tragic Iraqi conflict. Benedict XVI takes his name from his early twentieth century predecessor who opposed the 1914-1918 conflict, and sought a peaceful and just Europe.
Both the late pope and the new one have a global perspective and a global reach; both see the world as their parish; both see the human community, regardless of creed or politics, as one global household. Both argue for respect among peoples, religions and nations, and for what the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Jonathan Sacks calls, "the dignity of difference".
Federalists should have worked more with John Paul II; we should certainly find ways to work with Benedict XVI.
So, vale, John Paul II; ave, Benedict XVI. May the former rejoice with the angels; may the latter be on the side of the angels. In the building of a truly new world order we could use a few good saints and a few good Popes.