Dedication to Pope John Paul II

On April 2, 2005, the Catholic Church and all of God’s children experienced a time of grief, sadness and loss when our beloved Pope John Paul II died.

At this moment I have his picture before me. His beautiful blue eyes, which I gazed into when I spoke with him in 1992, are not so clearly visible in this particular photo, yet the peaceful expression on his face reveals his compassionate, love-filled character.

This great man of our time had already taken the steps toward inter-religious dialogue which should be required of all religious leaders. Many instances of his efforts in that area have been recorded. The one which Pope John Paul II made in February of 2000 while he was in Egypt, has special meaning for me, because he told the people that he believed the future of humanity depended on the dialogue between different cultures and religions.

Certainly our Holy Father did not make that statement particularly in regard to the message God has given me, which I have recorded in this book, but his statement nevertheless confirms the need I had expressed for humanity to join together in prayer, and so I knew it should be included here.

Some of Pope John Paul’s further efforts to promote interreligious dialogue are as follows:

• In 1986, leaders from several religions came together in Assisi to pray for peace

• In 1999, 230 representatives from twenty world religions came together to dialogue in the Vatican

• In February 2000, Pope John Paul II traveled to Egypt and prayed at the site where Moses is believed to have received the Ten Commandments

• In March of 2000, a deep chord was struck with the Israelis when Pope John Paul II visited the Holy Land. A profound statement was made by Joseph Alpher, former head of Tel Aviv University, who said, “The message I got from the Pope is that Catholics are interested in looking at their roots in Old Testament Judaism”

• In May 2001, some historic moments were made in Greece and Syria–in Athens, with John Paul’s apology to the Orthodox, and in Damascus, with the first papal visit inside a mosque

• On January 24, 2002, Pope John Paul II hosted the leaders of more than twenty Christian denominations and world religions in Assisi for a second time to pray for peace

• In April of 2003, a meeting took place in the Vatican between Pope John Paul II, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Anthony, Episcopal Bishop William Swing, and Roman Catholic Archbishop William Levada. The three leaders also prayed at the three centers of their respective branches of Christianity—Canterbury, Rome and Istanbul

There are many more instances of inter-religious dialogue in which our beloved Pope John Paul II participated; however, I want to close with two of his statements which most eloquently speak of his desire for unity as well as his respect for other religious traditions.

In an address to the Curia on December 7, 1990, he stated the following:

Human beings may often not be conscious of their radical unity, and when they profess different religions incompatible among themselves, they can feel as if their divisions are insuperable. But all people are included in the grand and one design of God, in Jesus Christ who is united in a certain way with every human being, even if they are not aware of it. Every authentic prayer is called forth by the Holy Spirit who is mysteriously present in the heart of every person.

On September 9, 1998 at a General Audience, he stated the following:

Every quest of the human spirit for truth and goodness, and in the last analysis for God, is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The various religions arose from this primordial human openness to God. At their origins we often find founders who, with the help of God’s Spirit, achieved a deeper religious experience. Handed on to others, this experience took form in the doctrines, rites and precepts of the various religions. Normally, it will be in the sincere practice of what is good in their own religious traditions and by following the dictates of their own conscience that members of other religions respond positively to God’s invitation and receive salvation in Jesus Christ, even while they do not recognize or acknowledge Him as their Savior.

In view of those statements, is it any wonder that millions of people waited in line for twelve to fourteen hours to view and so pay tribute to a future saint, Pope John Paul II? And, in fact on May 13th, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he was setting aside the five-year waiting period called for by church law to allow the immediate opening of Pope John Paul’s cause for sainthood.