George Weigel, author of the papal biography Witness to Hope, asserts that Pope John Paul II is “the most compelling public figure in the world, the man with arguably the most coherent and comprehensive vision of the human possibility in the world ahead.” On December 18th, 2000, members of the Love & Responsibility discussion group had the very good fortune to hear Mr. Weigel address an audience at the Union League Club. Weigel, a distinguished Catholic author, scholar and theologian, completed his biography in the fall of 1999. It follows a slew of biographies written on the Pope, yet it surpasses each of them in many respects. It is beautifully written, carefully researched, and meticulously thorough. But perhaps most importantly, through his understanding and professing of the Catholic faith, Weigel has been able to explain with great lucidity the theological, pastoral, and spiritual dimensions of Karol Wojtyla.

Weigel often refers to the Pope's comment regarding the other papal biographies: “They try to understand me from the outside. But I can only be understood from the inside.” In writing Witness to Hope Weigel had unprecedented access to the Pope and his closest advisers, confidential documents and personal conversations, as well as interviews with old friends and colleagues in Poland. He traces the Holy Father's life and pontificate, from his early years in Wadowice, life under the German occupation, his call to the priesthood, his leadership of the Polish church during the long years of the Communist regime, his poetry, plays and writings on love, human rights, sexuality and marriage, his rich contributions to Vatican II, through to the twenty-year span of his ground-breaking papacy. With this insight, and through the prism of his Catholic worldview, Weigel has provided us with a most precious chronicle and portrait of a Pope whom Weigel believes history will remember as John Paul the Great.

The following are some highlights of Mr. Weigel's remarks:

On when he first was asked to write the papal biography…

He was in Rome along with his wife Joan attending a conference, had just presented and was sitting in the back row with the translator headphones on, volume turned off, just about to enjoy a short winter's nap, when a Roman seminarian hurriedly tapped him on the shoulder. Don Stanislaw is calling for you. [Apparently, all Roman seminarians know to jump at the name of Don Stanislaw, who is Fr. Dziwisz, the Pope's private secretary.] So Don Stanislaw asked him to come to dinner that night and bring along Fr. Neuhaus, who was also at the conference. Weigel returned to the conference and found Fr. Neuhaus (who WAS sleeping in the last row) and said, if your social calendar permits, you are requested to dine this evening with the Holy Father.

On when he got final confirmation from the Vatican to begin the effort…

He had returned to the US. He wrote to Fr. Dziwisz to ask for a written confirmation of their agreement. About three weeks later, he received in the mail a plain gray envelope with Vatican postage mark. Inside was a personal letter from the Holy Father, typed on a manual typewriter, with exactly three spelling mistakes (“a true Trinitarian to the end”) in Polonicized English (“Please say Hi to Mrs. Joan”).

At that point, he considers the best decision he made, intellectually and literarily, was to write nothing for a year and a half, so that he could see what patterns emerged (as Henry James would say, patterns on the carpet). He felt he had been writing about the Pope for so many years already, his “nose pressed to the window” for so long that he had to take a break and step back. So he collected over 10,000 pages of documents, 2,000 pages of transcribed interview notes, and wrote an outline that was 150+ pages long.

In November of 1998, the book was basically written, with just some final editing left. Weigel returned to Krakow and had tea with some of the people who had been helping him on the book. A woman came to tea with a leather satchel of over 300 letters she had exchanged with the Holy Father from 1949 until just two weeks prior to this meeting. Weigel was very touched that she offered these letters to share with the world her personal relationship with the Holy Father, including one letter (printed in the book) where he writes to her on what it means to fall in love.

On what was the biggest surprise he discovered about the Holy Father…

Weigel was most surprised by the degree to which World War II remains an ongoing formative experience for the Holy Father, how often in conversation he'll use it as a reference point to express his conviction about the degradation of the world through base ideas on the nature of the human person. Wojtyla attributes the Nazi occupation of Poland and the communist usurpation of Poland in one fashion or another to defective concepts of the human person, human origin, human nature, human community, and human destiny. He is convinced that ideas have consequences. When bad ideas are married to bad “technology” the result is enormous human suffering. So his answer is not a pulling back of the Church from the world, but rather a proposal that the Church makes to the world on how we should understand ourselves, our capacity for human love, the gift of love, and the need to understand ourselves.

On the Pope's most important influence…

Weigel says he takes it as iron-clad law of the human condition that those photographs people display privately are a very clear window into their lives. Now the Pope has met most of the world's most important people, and over 100 million people have seen him, yet he displays just two pictures in his private room. The first is a small picture of his parents. His father was an especially important influence—with his granite-like integrity, he had taught his son that manliness and piety can go together. The second is a small silver-framed portrait of Adam Stefan Sapieha—bishop of Krakow during World War II, arch-defender of the rights of people. These two photos alone tell you who formed him.

On his personal experiences with the Holy Father…

He last saw the Pope just three weeks ago (he's doing well and “full of beans”). Weigel says he is always impressed by how astonishingly natural and unaffected the Holy Father is. Even at his age, he does not live life looking in the rear view mirror; rather, he is extraordinarily future-oriented, “constantly asking what is God asking of me now?”

On the question of when the Pope realized he himself is a historic figure…

Weigel does not believe the Pope asks himself “what is my place in history?” because he's too intensely focused on the process of discerning God's will, to be in tune with what God is asking... a man coming to grips with his destiny.

On where might the Holy Father be disappointed in lack of accomplishment in his papacy…

First on the union with Eastern Orthodox: the Church had split in 1054, so the Holy Father was hoping to mend the split within the millennium, and obviously did not succeed here. Second on the public dialogue with Beijing: in 1983, the Pope wrote to Deng Xiaoping with a plea for conversation; the letter remains unanswered. The Holy Father desperately wants dialogue with this land of 1.4B people, but the regime is plainly scared to death of that prospect.

On the collaboration of the Pope and President Reagan in bringing down Eastern European Communism…

Largely speaking, Weigel believes, these stories are exaggerated. Actually, the Pope's most successful onslaught against the Soviet Empire came in June 1979 on his first return to Poland, when he gave the people back their authentic history and culture, which Communism tries to take away, substituting false history and culture. This happened a full 18 months before Reagan even took office. However, Reagan and the Holy Father did share a profound confidence in the power of truth to cut through the static of the world's lies. If you say it often enough, strongly enough, whimsically enough, the truth will prevail.

On the Pope's views of his mission and evangelization…

The Holy Father's life is a life so very deeply engaged with ideas. He is making a proposal to the world. He is most fundamentally not a statesman nor a papal diplomat nor a political figure, but a disciple of Christ. Everything he does, large or small, is a reflection of that discipleship and all that undergirds it... whether in Manila, January 1995 when he met with the largest crowd in world history, or just a few weeks ago when he celebrated the Jubilee with pizza-makers, or when he prays for a sick child or a confused couple. This conviction animates every moment of his life. His combination of intense piety with an unaffected nature is a clear demonstration of the capacity of faith to shape the whole human person.