'Everybody feels a personal link with him'

'Everybody feels a personal link with him'

Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post

It was Saturday morning on Feb. 5, 2000 in the Vatican
audience room. After receiving then president Abdurrahman "Gus
Dur" Wahid, Pope John Paul II blessed 11 Indonesian Catholic
businessmen and journalists who were traveling with the
president.

I was rather reluctant to kneel in front of him. I felt very
disappointed after realizing that he presented rosaries only to
women while men received medallions. This was my second failure
to get a rosary from him after my first attempt during his visit
to Jakarta on Oct. 9, 1989.

My facial expression probably drew his attention. He gently
asked me, "Are you a Catholic?" I nodded and he blessed me.

To myself and to probably millions of others of the Catholic
faith, his question sounded like a deep probing -- "Are you
really a Catholic?" As I read the news of his death on Sunday
morning, I remembered with discomfort that I had misplaced the
medallion.

John Paul II has met millions of people across the globe since
his election as pontiff in October 1978, and only very few of
them he knew personally. But I do believe the touching way in
which he asked that question -- with strong affection apparent in
his eyes -- was a very effective personal approach.

One can understand how his strong opposition to the invasion
of Afghanistan and Iraq by U.S. President George W. Bush was
unlikely to affect the President's respect for him.

Rosa Balumbo, among those who prayed in St. Peter's Square in
Rome shortly after the Pope's death before dawn on Sunday,
beautifully described the feeling of millions of people.

"Everybody loved him because everybody seemed to have a
personal link with him. He blessed us once and he looked us in
the eye with love, like a father to his children," she told
Reuters.

During his 26-year papacy, he acted as the true "great
communicator", brilliantly milking maximum benefit from the
rapid development of communications and media technology, especially
television, to deliver his message. The media often treated him
as a pop superstar during his visits to more than 120 countries,
where he always tried to use the local language when saying mass.

His background as a Polish Catholic leader when the country
was under a communist regime and during the Cold War -- when the
existence of the church was under great threat -- strongly
influenced his conservative stance on major issues that he
regarded as fundamental, such as birth control, same-sex
marriage, and absolute celibacy for priests. He stubbornly
opposed the idea of allowing women to become priests.

The supreme leader of the world's largest religion --
depending on who's making the claim -- is also very rigid on the
church liturgy. In big cities in Indonesia, quite a lot of people
have quietly abandoned the church and joined other churches that
are able to offer "much more lively and down-to-earth rituals."
Some friends complain, "attending mass in our church is very
boring compared to other churches."

But perhaps the Pope had no choice but to tightly embrace the
conservative stance, because the faithful need consistently
strong moral guidance although they might not always agree with
him. I disagree with him myself about the use of contraceptives.

Nevertheless, John Paul II, through his great example and
deeds, has left a very strong legacy. Look at the fall of
communism in eastern Europe -- and also his strong defense of
Islam as a great and peaceful religion, amid Western countries
suspicion of Islam after a series of barbaric terrorist attacks
by those who claim to be Muslim warriors.

He was a great leader of his era. After him, the church and
even the world will need the moral guidance of a new pope to face
the future. Who will become the new leader? Theoretically,
Jakarta's Archbishop, Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja is eligible
for the post. Whoever the next pope is, in this difficult world
it is only natural that the faithful will expect that he will try
to learn from his predecessor and be even better, if that is
possible, than the late John Paul II.