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Title: Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel ISBN: 0-06-093286-4 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 10 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.72 (40 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Gospel Of Pope John Paul II
Comment: It is said that the Gospels are not biographies of Jesus, but rather spiritual treatises, based on the life and sayings of Jesus. Similarly, "Witness To Hope" is truly a book which uses the life and sayings of Pope John Paul II to convey the spiritual message of his life and ministry.
In "Witness To Hope" George Weigel introduces us to the inner thought and life of John Paul II. True, we do read of the events of his life, not so much to learn them, but to understand him. In this book we meet a man who believes in eternal, unchangeable truths, a man whose relationship with each human being is based on a recognition of the individual's inherent dignity and worth. Whereas other biographies explain John Paul II's life as reflecting his Polishness, "Witness To Hope" goes much deeper. Here we meet a man who thinks in centuries, not sound bites, although he can speak in sound bites too, a man who can touch millions personally in the course of his travels, as well as individually in the confessional. Here we meet the family, teachers, friends, theologians and philosophers who shaped John Paul's world view. Here we meet a man who sees problems in a radical way, that is at their root. With this vision, John Paul can attack problems at their course, not on their surfaces. Here we meet a man who is not out of touch with reality, because he knows human nature at its core. If John Paul has a problem in communicating, it is with people who have forgotten what it means to be human, a meaning found only in Jesus Christ.
John Paul's Papacy has been highlighted by incessant efforts to evangelize and to teach the world
His world wide travels have made him the Church's number one evangelist. His extensive writings have laid the intellectual groundwork for a great Catholic revival. This is only one of many contradictions in John Paul II which Weigel points out to us.
The challenge which John Paul II sees it his duty to oppose is that of a world which tries to find its meaning of life in anything other than God. In the conclusion, George Weigel defines the "Great" Popes as those who successfully confront a mortal threat to civilization. John Paul's claim to this title will depend on how accurately he has defined the threat of our day and how well he has met that threat. Read this book that you may understand John Paul better. Whether he has earned the moniker of "John Paul The Great", I can only give the advise which he gives every penitent, "You must decide."
Rating: 5
Summary: Witness to the Pope
Comment: Along with a hearty recommendation forWitness to Hope comes a caveat that the excellent book is NOT an easy read. George Weigel undertook this comprehensive biography as a labor of love and researched it meticulously. Reading the finished product is a laborious task but worth the effort.
Mr. Weigel was afforded unprecedented access to the pontiff and scoured the world interviewing his peers, subordinates, admirers, detractors, colleagues, childhood friends, former supervisors (wherever possible), and just about anyone with cogent insights into the inner workings of John Paul II. Even when the details appear superfluous (reports of Mrs. Wojtyla's pushing baby Karol in his carriage, et al), they assist us in comprehending the historic churchman. Karol lost his mother as a young boy, and his father and only brother both died before he was fully mature. The author explicates how the loss of his entire close family imbued the future pontiff with an unshakable devotion to the sacredness of family life. His youthful pain positively manifested itself in copious papal support for the traditional family structure.
The Pope's unwavering commitment to the sanctity of human life in the face of often vitriolic criticism is likewise shown to have grown from personal hardships. Nazism devastated Poland, and Karol Wojtyla lost many lifelong Jewish friends to the scourge. Active in the underground--especially a clandestine theater--he struggled to stay a step ahead of the nazis. Seeing many of his loved ones and exterminated, and his own mistreatment by the nazis shaped him in ways the world would observe decades later.
Ironically, those who often fault the pope for unambiguously opposing abortion often praise him for his equally stern disapproval of capital punishment, and vice-versa. His ineluctable reverence for the sanctity of all life was chiseled in his heart by Nazi brutality and undergirded further by communist atrocities--all witnessed firsthand.
The Vatican's love-hate relationship with the United Nations provides some of the book's most telling sections, explaining how some of the strangest bedfellows ever came together, and also provides an examination of how strained Vatican--U.S., ties grew due to the radical agenda of the Clinton Administration. The center of world Catholicism worked harmoniously with Libya, Iran, and several other radical Islamic countries regarding issues of abortion, homosexuality, and the family structure while vigorously opposing the United States (during the Clinton years) on these very same issues.
The Clinton administration's drive to have deviant definitions of the family as well as support nefarious population control measures (including involuntary sterilization) given U.N. sanction seemed destined to succeed despite Vatican efforts to insert common sense into the argument
While Clinton's representatives had assiduously prepared for the Vatican's stance and adroitly maneuvered to deflate the Holy See's influence, they did not anticipate one insurmountable obstacle--nearly worldwide disgust at their extremist plans. At that same conference, a scheduled welcoming speech--expected to be neutral in tone--by then-Pakistani Prime Minister Benazair Bhutto condemned abortion as a crime against humanity and established a theme that was reiterated by the majority of participants from Africa, Asia, and South America. What Clinton's out-of-touch appointees dismissed an Catholic rigidity turned out to be almost catholic sentiment and squashed efforts to declare new norms of family structure.
Since the pope has interacted with virtually every mover and shaker of the past three decades, Mr. Weigel includes a plethora of notable vignettes regarding a veritable who's who of world figures. Describing Mikhail Gorbachev's unprecedented visit to the Vatican during the Soviet Union's twilight, Weigel ponders "he must have had some intuition of what this moment meant historically. By the mere fact of his presence at the Vatican, the system he represented was acknowledging that it had been wrong about the relationship between Christianity and genuine humanism, about Christianity and human liberation."
He wisely includes comments from Vaclav Havel's greeting to the Pope in Czechoslovakia, "I dare say that at this moment I am participating in a miracle: the man who six months ago was arrested as an enemy of the State stands here today as the president of the State and bids welcome to the first pontiff of the Catholic Church in history to set foot in this land."
Other interesting tidbits include crossed paths with the like of Ronald Reagan, Mother Theresa, Fidel Castro, Ed Koch, Billy Graham, and Morocco's King Hassan who arranged for John Paul to address what may have been the largest assemblage of Muslim youth ever.
In an unfortunate case of timing, Witness to Hope was released a few years prior to the two incidents that could become the most salient demerits on John Paul's broad and noble legacy. Laying any blame for the American clergy's sex scandal in the Vatican is somewhat of a stretch, but fallout from the headline-making disgrace is landing at John Paul's feet. More directly linked was the pope's bewildering disagreement with the American-lead liberation of Iraq. Not since the allied assault on nazism has the case for a just war seemed so clear. Why John Paul did not at least maintain a silent neutrality is a subject that historians will debate for decades. Some have speculated that accusations--often devoid of facts--that Pope Pius XII was silent during the Holocaust--will be echoed about John Paul regarding the Iraqi situation.
Witness to Hope's appeal is truly catholic (with a small "c") because John Paul's influence has extended far beyond the Roman Catholic Church, and any treatment of major world events is incomplete without his views.
Rating: 5
Summary: Extraordinary book on an extraordinary man
Comment: Comprehensive, definitive biography of one of the great Popes of all time. A must read for anyone seriously interested in the Catholic faith or in religion in general.
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Title: The Courage to Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church by George Weigel ISBN: 0465092608 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Truth of Catholicism: Ten Controversies Explored by George Weigel ISBN: 0066213304 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 23 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Pope John Paul II: In My Own Words by Pope John Paul II ISBN: 0517220849 Publisher: Gramercy Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: The Way to Christ : Spiritual Exercises by Pope John Paul II ISBN: 0060642165 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 07 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II ISBN: 0679765611 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 19 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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