JOHN PAUL II
CCEE: “sign of hope for Europe””John Paul II was a sign of hope both for Europe and for the whole world”, said Cardinal Peter Erdo, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and President of the CCEE (Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences), underlining the importance of the beatification of Pope John Paul II, in particular for the European continent. On 1st May, said Cardinal Erdo in an interview with Vatican Radio, “through his beatification, we received a great encouragement, because our continent too, which is one of the richest in the world, has a need for hope. In our wish to renew also our European consciousness, we have a need for his teaching and his encouragement, and for this we are grateful to the Holy Father Benedict XVI for this wonderful Beatification that gives us encouragement”. The beatification of John Paul II, pointed out the President of the CCEE, was “an expression of the unity of the Church, a visible unity, because John Paul II truly is not Blessed with ‘limited effect’: ever since the start of his Pontificate he had drawn the attention of the whole world and afterwards he was esteemed throughout the world. So the importance of his personality is already universal”.Italy: “a secure point of reference””In an often disoriented world, he represented a secure point of reference, a prophet who never ceased to point out the way of a trustworthy hope, of a love within everyone’s reach”. So said the Italian bishops in a press release issued by the Italian Bishops’ Conference, paying tribute to John Paul II, on the eve of his beatification, and emphasizing that his life “was his most effective message, a message of looks, gestures and signs of hope that touched people’s hearts”. “The imperative with which he began his service on 22 October 1978 – “Do not be afraid! Open, indeed throw wide open the doors to Christ!” – marked his long pontificate”. “John Paul II never tired of recalling how sterile and misleading the attempt to exclude Christ from history has revealed itself to be. With vehemence, the Pope stirred people’s consciences to make them aware of how inhumane is the pretence to build the city of man without God: it’s the tower of Babel of Marxist ideology, which trapped whole peoples in the mesh of a dictatorial system; it’s the snare of capitalism which urges people to embrace an individualism alien to the horizon of the common good”.Germany and Austria: “for people and for peace”Karol Wojtyla “dedicated himself unconditionally to people, the Church and peace”, said Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Chairman of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, at the end of the beatification ceremony in Rome on 1st May, in a comment to the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress. “The beatification was a great day and a very great moment”, added the Cardinal, saying he was “deeply moved” by the event, in which he had participated together with his fellow Austrian bishops Egon Kapellari and Ludwig Schwarz. Similar words were expressed by Mgr. Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and Chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, during a mass celebrated yesterday evening in the cathedral of Freiburg: “The fall of the Berlin wall” “in 1989 would have been unthinkable without John Paul II”, said Archbishop Zollitsch, recalled how the Blessed Karol Woityla had striven “without fear for the inviolability of human dignity and for the respect of human rights. Steadfastness to Christ through thick and thin, in good times and in bad, was an integral part of what made Pope John Paul II blessed”.Switzerland: “a model to be followed also today”John Paul II “not only left his mark on an epoch and re-wrote the history of the world, but continues to act today in a positive way as a model and support for all men and women, also in Switzerland”. So says a statement signed by Mgr. Norbert Brunner, Chairman of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, issued on the afternoon of 1st May. During his pontificate, continues the statement, John Paul II “introduced the Church into the third millennium. He reformed the Petrine ministry and forcefully carried it into the world, with great effects, also in Switzerland”. The bishops recall the Pope’s first visit to the country in 1984, after that annulled following the attempt on the Pope’s life on 13 May 1981. And in emphasizing the ecumenical value of that visit, the Swiss bishops write: “it still remains in our memory, as also do the meetings with the Community of Work of the Christian Churches in Switzerland (CETC) and with the World Council of Churches in Geneva”. Lastly the journey to Bern in 2004, the second last of his pontificate, undertaken when he was already gravely ill. “A great proclaimer of the faith right to the end of his life, even when – conclude the bishops – his use of the spoken word was limited”.
