MZ: Pope Francis has said that he thinks of John Paul II as a great missionary of
the Church. It's ironic to think that Popes used to be referred to as prisoners of the
Vatican and here comes John Paul II and in almost 27 years as our Holy Father he traveled
to about 130 different countries, 700,000 miles, the ultimate frequent flier. What drove
him to do that?
CW: I think the same energy and vision that drove Paul. St. Paul began to move as quickly
as he could to the known world of his day. He had to do this on foot, or on horseback,
or in a boat. But why? Because he was driven with the need to tell other people,
"Christ is risen!" This is what he said. These are the words of everlasting life. And I think
John Paul did the exact same thing. He was driven by the same Spirit. From the balcony
when, when he called upon everyone to once again embrace Christ, to that Mass at the
beginning when he said, "Open wide your hearts to Christ," to all of those trips he took,
isn't the message always the same? Jesus loves you. God loves you. He sent you Jesus.
All you have to do is love Him in return. I remember when he first came, his first visit to the
United States, in Boston, and there he was at Boston Common and it had rained but there were just
people everywhere and I remember sitting with Cardinal Medeiros months later
and he was showing us the video of that visit and here is Pope John Paul saying, "God loves you!"
And all these people are cheering. "Jesus loves you!" and they're all cheering. [chuckles]
Cardinal Medeiros said to me, "I say that all the time." [chuckles]. There's something
about having the Pope come and remind you that the message that's being proclaimed is
true, that IS the Gospel of Christ. And I think that was what drove him, that's why
he went, as you point out, to what, 130 countries? All those thousands and hundreds of thousands
of miles because he wanted to confirm the local church. You look at any of the pictures
of him in that Pope Mobile, with him is always the local bishop. The local bishop is head
of that local Church, teacher of that Church, the Pope comes as universal teacher, as head
of the Universal Church, to confirm his brother in the role of guiding God's people. I think
that's what drove him.
MZ: All of our recent Popes have emphasized the importance of evangelization and recently
we've been calling it the New Evangelization. Concerning what you've just spelled out, would
you say that John Paul II could be seen as a Patron Saint of the New Evangelization,
this effort underway in the Church Universal?
CW: I think that would be a very apt designation if we were looking for some subtitle. I think
it should be Saint John Paul II, Saint John Paul the Great, but he is the Patron Saint
of the New Evangelization. He's the one that envisioned this, not a new proclamation, not
a new Gospel, people have been evangelized, but a re-presentation of it that was fresh,
that had energy behind it, that was new in its expression, its method, its ardor; those,
those were the terms he used. Yet he introduced this at a time when I'm not sure most
of the world and certainly most of the Church was, was having the same insight. He began,
all those years ago, by recognizing how the secular hegemony was diminishing the understanding
and impact of faith. And so, he kept calling us, "Renew the faith, spread the faith, be
confident in the faith." That's what the New Evangelization is all about.