Necessary Roughness

Pope John Paul II’s last memoir, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, was published in 2004. Originally written in Polish, it was translated into English by Walter Zięmba. The title comes from the account of the Garden of Gethsemane in Mark (14:42).

This book focuses on the vocation of being a bishop, starting with his own call in 1958 and discussing the people, the liturgy, and the physical elements involved such as sacred chrism (oil), the ring, the pallium, the miter, and the crosier. I liked how the items were in his view reminders of his responsibility rather than indicators of superiority.

Next the Pope details the duties of a bishop. Not only did he have to visit the churches under his wing in Poland, hearing confessions, administering sacraments, officiating confirmation, etc., he also had to defend the Church from the outside harassment of Communist officials. Worship often had to be done in secret, under cover of academic study at the university. A bishop must not only be a student of theology but of other disciplines, he advises, and then Bishop Karol Wojtyla studied metaphysics and phenomenology, discussing and learning much from the physicists in the universities.

Discussing the fatherhood of a bishop, Il Papa writes about cooperating with laity, religious orders, and the presbyterate. He stresses lay vocation, that all people do have a call not to waste the gifts that God has given them. He uses Saint Joseph as inspiration, having to teach Jesus because the Son of God had emptied himself of his divine power and knowledge. He briefly discusses the married priesthood of the Orthodox Churches, giving his arguments for an unmarried priesthood but complements the work of the East. There is no discussion of the churches of the Reformation.

The chapter on Episcopal Collegiality was particularly interesting because it contrasts the bishop in his diocese vs. the bishop in his church, and it discusses the Council Fathers of Trent, Vatican I, and the Second Vatican Council of which he was quite involved. He discusses the College of Cardinals and had to preach for Pope Paul VI. Where the First Vatican Council addressed the primacy of the Pope, Vatican II looks at the responsibility of bishops, and it also focused on religious liberty with local traditions. John Paul II notes that these new things were not to be feared so long as the hearts were united. In light of recent events, perhaps the unity of hearts and faith should have been stressed more as more liturgical liberty was assumed.

The Pope makes some good comments on some of the saints he beatified and canonized during his reign. He also mentions one young Professor Joseph Ratzinger, whom he describes as a churchman “of exceptional theological competence” and “a trusted friend.” Ratzinger was made archbishop of Munich by Pope Paul VI, who also made him a cardinal. The Pontiff would later ask Ratzinger to become prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

I enjoyed reading this book. Pope John Paul II comes across as an extremely humble man. I would have liked to have seen more memoirs concerning his cooperation with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the bringing down of communism in the Eastern bloc. Perhaps that’s in another book. Other than the issues with married priests, there isn’t much discussion on theological principles between churches. The history and the vocational discourses in these 216 pages are good reading, even if your catholicity isn’t Roman.