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Churchill, Roosevelt, Reagan & Wojtyla
Rich Galen Monday April 4, 2005
Click here for an Easy Print Version
- I am not certain why I feel as strongly as I do about the passing of Pope John Paul II. I am not Catholic. I am not even Christian.
- Yet, Saturday night I felt moved to walk, through the rain and flood warnings and wind and chill up to St. Mary's, the Catholic church in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia to pay my respects.
- The Easter wreaths were still on the front doors of the church, but I didn't go in, because I am not clear on the rules. So, I walked behind, to a small courtyard where there is a statue of the Virgin Mary with her arm around a child.
- There, I recited the Jewish mourner's prayer; the Kaddish:
Yisgadal, v'yiskadal sh'mey rabbah,
B'almah dee v'rah kheer'usey,
v' yamlikh malkhusei,b'chahyeykhohn, uv'
yohmeykhohn�
May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified
in the world that He created as He willed.
May He give reign to His kingship in your lifetimes
and in your days �
- It is a prayer I memorized as a child and have recited too many times since.
- It is a prayer which does not even mention death; nor the person for whom the prayer is being recited. It is a prayer which speaks to the glory of God. It is a prayer which Pope John Paul II understood and appreciated.
- By the time you read this you will have seen, read, and heard about the numbers surrounding John Paul II. The number of countries he visited. The number of medical problems he encountered. The number of Catholics worldwide.
- But these are the headlines above the story. They are the crawl beneath the video.
- Keith Olbermann, on MSNBC Saturday night, said he remembered the time in Los Angeles when Pope John Paul II was being fawned over by the LA crowd; the singers, the dancers, the actors.
- I had forgotten about this incident, but Olbermann had not.
- The Pope singled out a young man who had been born without arms, but who had learned to play the guitar with his feet and toes. The young man played for the Pope. Oscars, Grammies, Golden Globes meant nothing.
- A boy who had, through no fault of his own, been visited with what should have been a devastating disability. The boy got to play for the Pope. The Pope chose that boy to perform.
- Others have remembered that Pope John Paul II was the first Pope to visit the Jewish Synagogue in Rome. No small matter after some 2,000 years of religious acrimony. Pope John Paul II didn't just do a drop-by. He went there and referred to the Senior Rabbi as "My Elder Brother."
- In the first days of the 21st Century there are many things in classical Catholic teachings with which one might disagree. You can disagree with, but not fault, a person who - like John Paul II - speaks from his heart. And from his soul.
- Before he was elected Pope, John Paul II was Karol Wojtyla of Poland. While he was the Cardinal of Poland, he gave strength and support to the Solidarity movement in Poland which foreshadowed the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.
- Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt defeated the Nazis; Ronald Reagan and Karol Wojtyla, arguably, defeated Communism.
- Pretty good group.
- Most of us go through life barely scanning what others write. Some are lucky enough to add commas and semi-colons and page-breaks to the daily discourse.
- But men like John Paul II, and before him Churchill, Roosevelt and Reagan, fashion the great works of their times and leave the rest of us to ponder how, in some minute manner, we can be more like them.
Oseh shalom beem'roh'mahv, hoo ya'aseh shalom
aleynu� v'eemru:
He who makes peace in His heights, may He
make peace upon us � now say:
- Amen
- On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A very brief explanation of the Kaddish; an amusing Mullfoto from the minor flooding in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday and a remarkable photo of a volcano in Mexico.
--END --
Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen
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