Reflections on the Papacy of JPII

MOJ readers may be interested in clicking on some or all of the reflections below.  From the April 22d issue of Commonweal:

John Paul II

Assessing His Legacy     

Six writers from different faith backgrounds examine the legacy of John Paul II:

Notre Dame theologian Rev. Richard P. McBrien looks at the strengths of his papacy, namely in John Paul’s “foreign policy” (events outside the church) and its strides in ecumenism, and also its weaknesses, such as the pope’s “hard-line course of enforcement of doctrine and canonical discipline.”

Duke Divinity School theologian Stanley Hauerwas praises the pope’s Christological focus by comparing him to Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder.

Fairfield University theologian Nancy A. Dallavalle names the public face of the papacy as among John Paul’s gifts to the church, but also notes that “this popular acclaim did not always translate into popular conversion.”

Rabbi Irving Greenberg highlights the pope’s resistance to communism, his validation of the Jewish covenant, and his emphasis on the “culture of life.”

In addition to these authors, University of Dayton theologian Terrence Tilley assesses how John Paul went about preserving the faith, and Orthodox writer Jim Forest recounts a telling personal meeting he had with the pope early in John Paul’s pontificate.