The end of the beginning

The Pope's successor has a huge reputation to live up to, writes Rónán Mullen.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

WINSTON CHURCHILL'S words in 1942 ring true today when considering the future of the papacy after almost 27 years of Pope John Paul II.

God's Athlete, as he was once referred to, has finished running his earthly race. It is impossible to assess his legacy so soon after his death. Like many great historical figures, the full significance of his life will only become apparent long after his death.

What is almost certain though is that he will be known as John Paul the Great, a title of admiration reserved for very few of the 263 successors of St Peter.

His was a life lived to the full. As a labourer and underground seminarian during the time of the Nazi occupation of Poland, as a priest and a bishop during the communist era and as the first Pope in the age of globalisation, his life was the stuff of a Hollywood blockbuster.

All Popes have been products of their ages. Some have been disciplinarians. Others have been warriors and political leaders.

Some have been corrupt.

Many have envisaged their role as administrators of the Church and of the Roman Curia, much like the CEO of a multinational company.

John Paul II, responding to the Second Vatican Council's opening of the Church to the modern age, utterly transformed the office of the papacy into one of mission and evangelisation.

He travelled to 125 countries and was seen by more than anyone else in history. He combined his amazing facility with languages with a capacity to reach ordinary people in their ordinary lives. He recognised the ability of new lay movements to inspire and support people in their faith when others in the Church were more suspicious of them.

He had an intense bond with young people, many of whom have never known another Pope. The World Youth Days, initiated by him in the 1980s, have seen some of the largest gatherings of people in recorded history. He was interested in Christian unity and ecumenical dialogue, reaching out to other Christian denominations and to other faiths. He continued his earlier interest in the world of the arts by publishing a volume of poetry, as well as releasing a CD of songs and homilies in the mid-1990s. In addition to his numerous encyclicals, letters and speeches, he has published four books of personal reflections, including two in the past seven months.

His eye for the dramatic gesture, honed in his years as an underground actor in the Rhapsodic Theatre in Krakow, never left him. Even in his final illness he understood the significance of symbolism. Who could fail to be moved by the sight of the elderly pontiff watching the Good Friday stations of the cross on a television in his private chapel, his face hidden from the cameras, holding up a crucifix for all to see?

HIS FINAL days were played out in the public eye. Earlier Popes disappeared from view as their death approached. John Paul wanted to be with his people, even if it meant pain and frustration at his inability to speak. The dignity and faith he displayed in his final illness was a living encyclical more eloquent than anything he had written in his life.

This transformation of the papacy into an office of evangelisation is one of the immediately accessible aspects of the Pope's legacy.

However, it will take years to fully digest his teaching and to unpack its significance. For example, the Theology of the Body, a series of Wednesday audience addresses delivered at the start of his papacy, are more than 20 years' old and are still largely unexplored. Theologians are only now coming to grips with the significance of this new teaching on the relationship between men and woman and the beauty of sexual love.

George Weigel, John Paul's definitive biographer, has called this a theological time bomb that will explode some time this century.

While John Paul's teachings on moral and sexual matters were controversial in some quarters, only a tiny percentage of his teachings have touched on these matters. He spoke eloquently on peace, human rights, and political and religious freedom. He wrote extensively on journalism, sport and the arts.

His teachings touched on the panorama of human activity in all its forms and practically no aspect of contemporary life remained unexplored in his writings.

Some have criticised his management of the internal workings of the Church. He was no micro manager of the Roman Curia, preferring instead to delegate this to trusted cardinals.

Perhaps this reflects his background, which was relatively unusual for a Pope. Many previous Popes worked in the Vatican bureaucracy and felt at home there. John Paul II was a Vatican novice, spending all of his life to that point working in his local diocese, a background that was reflected in his style of papacy.

He had some concerns about this aspect of his leadership. In his semi-autobiographical book, Rise, let us be on our way, published last September, he raised the question of whether he had shown enough strength of leadership and discipline.

All of this will weigh on the minds of the cardinal electors when they gather for the conclave to choose the next Pope. His successor must try to go out into the world and meet the local churches just like John Paul did.

He must oversee the vibrant growth of the Church in the developing world and also halt its decline in an increasingly indifferent developed world. Yet he must also oversee major changes in the central Roman Curia.

We are at the end of the beginning of a new era for the papacy.

John Paul the Great has left some very large shoes to fill.