Expert in humanity” “

“Only Your Holiness could have called a meeting like this”. So declared Rabbi Israël Singer at Assisi on 24 January, when he spoke together with other exponents of the world’s religions. His observation was shared by everyone not only as a recognition addressed to the guest, Pope John Paul II, but also as the expression of a fact: only the Pope has the capacity to speak to the whole of mankind, to be listened to by everyone, even if not always understood. But at least to be listened to. He alone succeeds in gathering together personalities who are not only different from, but opposed to, each other, and who, were it not for his initiative, would be utterly incapable of escaping from the implacable logic of conflict and hatred. This is not entirely something new. All the popes of the twentieth century enjoyed general respect, particularly Pius XI and Pius XII, before John XXIII and Paul VI. The modern means of communication accentuated the phenomenon and helped to diffuse the words of the popes. First radio, and then the nascent medium of television, did a lot to turn the Pontiff into the privileged interlocutor of the whole world. But there are also deeper reasons. Already back in 1965, the Secretary General of the United Nations Organization, U Thant, who was not Catholic, in the midst of the Cold War, had grasped the fact that only the Pope could have spoken to all mankind at once, through the diplomatic representatives of the various States in the international organization. That’s why he invited Paul VI to address the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. On 4 October 1965, feast of St. Francis of Assisi, apostle of universal brotherhood, the Pope, who brought with him the greetings of the Fathers of the Council, presented himself to the UNO and inaugurated a hitherto unprecedented method of apostolate, capable of reaching millions of people of every religion, of every political conviction, of every race, through the medium of television (his journey to New York was broadcast world-wide by TV). There were then 117 member States of the UNO, and only Albania refused to be present on that occasion. Before them all, Paul VI exclaimed, like John Paul II today: “Never again war! Never again war!”. How can we explain this ability to speak to everyone, to exercise the ministry of the Word on behalf of the whole world? Apart from the Holy Father’s own personality, his popularity, his sense of the right symbol and the right word, there are three main reasons. First, the Church is weak: it has no military power, it has no economic power. “How many divisions does the Vatican possess?” wisecracked Stalin. But on the contrary, this is its strength, as Msgr. Rossano has pointed out: an exclusively spiritual strength. This strength demands nothing but peace and respect for all mankind. The Church is enriched by an unique experience, that comes from her human experience, from her seniority and her universality that concur to give her a certain expertise: she is “expert in humanity”, as Paul VI said in New York. She knows man and succeeds in drawing from the Revelation and the Gospel an anthropology, in other words a vision of man, and, thus armed, she can set out to encounter man. In the name of this profound knowledge of humanity, the Church promotes three fundamental aspects of the organization of civil society: peace, social justice, and development, because peace is inseparable from political, economic and social justice and also, John Paul II adds, from forgiveness: “there is no peace without justice, there is no justice without forgiveness”. So, from 4 October 1965 to 24 January 2002, a man robed in white, alone, fragile, unarmed, but strong in his faith and in his spiritual authority and moral strength, has gathered together, under the sign of St. Francis, the nations and the religions round a single humanism, as a message to awaken the consciences of us all.