wfn.org | UMNS# 05191-Pope embodied courage, love,

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Pope embodied courage, love, United Methodist leaders say

Apr. 2, 2005	 News media contact:   Linda  Bloom * (646) 3693759*  New
York {05191}

NOTE: A feature photograph of Pope John Paul II and headshots of people
quoted in this story are available in the Photo Gallery at
http://umns.umc.org. A related commentary, UMNS story #192, is also
available at the site.

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

Pope John Paul II is being remembered by United Methodists as one of the
great leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.

The 84-year-old pontiff, whose health had taken a serious decline over
the past few weeks, died peacefully April 2 at the Vatican in Rome.

"John Paul II personified the Roman Catholic Church for more than a
quarter-century," said Bishop William B. Oden, ecumenical officer for
the United Methodist Council of Bishops. "He embodied its conflicts, its
strengths and weaknesses and its struggles.

"Without a doubt, he will be seen as one of Catholicism's greatest
popes-personable, charismatic and clear about his vision of the church,"
Oden added. "Still, he left a legacy of many unresolved issues,
including women in the priesthood, celibacy and the call for greater lay
involvement in decision making."

Bishop Peter D. Weaver, president of the Council of Bishops, expressed
condolences to "our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers" on the loss of
the pope. "He was a courageous witness for Christ and a compassionate
brother to the poor and oppressed of this world.  We give thanks for his
life and ministry among us and the new life he now has in Christ."

Weaver said he had been reminded of the courage of John Paul II during a
recent visit with United Methodists in the African nation of Burundi.

"Because of the excellent relationship between United Methodists and
Roman Catholics in that nation, I stayed in a Roman Catholic seminary in
a fairly remote and sometimes dangerous part of that country," he
explained. "A Vatican envoy had been killed not too far from there. And
yet an example of the pope's courage and commitment to forgotten places
is that he came to visit this seminary and gave it support and
encouragement as a part of his deep concern for Africa. Such visits
never made the news but were at the heart of his ministry."

Bishop Ann B. Sherer, president of the United Methodist Commission on
Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, remembered the pope's
commitment to the poor.

"We, as United Methodists, join the whole world in celebrating the way
the pope has sensitized us all to the needs of the poor, the needs of
the marginalized, the needs of the suffering," she said. "We join our
ecumenical partners around the world in bearing witness to the goodness
of God in life and in death."

The Rev. Geoffrey Wainwright has been chairman of the dialogue between
the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church since 1986. He
last saw the pope in November at a 300-member symposium organized by the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

"Pope John Paul II's contribution to ecumenism is epitomized in his
encyclical letter of 1995, 'Ut Unum Sint' ('That They May Be One'),"
Wainwright told United Methodist News Service. "The most exciting
element in that letter was his invitation to leaders of other churches
and their theologians to join with him in 'a patient and fraternal
dialogue' concerning how the 'ministry of universal unity' traditionally
claimed and offered by the (Holy) See of Rome could be exercised in new
ways in a new situation."

That topic has been a discussion point in the Methodist-Catholic
dialogue since 1986, according to Wainwright, who is the Robert E.
Cushman Professor of Christian Theology at United Methodist-related Duke
Divinity School.

Paragraph 62 of the dialogue's Nairobi Report of 1986, "Towards a
Statement on the Church," said: "It would not be inconceivable that at
some future date in a restored unity, Roman Catholic and Methodist
bishops might be linked in one episcopal college, and that the whole
body would recognize some kind of effective leadership and primacy in
the bishop of Rome."

Progress has been hindered over the past few years by the pope's
declining health. "One must hope that his successor(s) will take up the
cause vigorously," Wainwright said. "As John Paul insisted, unity among
Christians and their churches is intrinsic to a credible witness to the
Gospel before the world. In this, I like to say that he has been a
successor to John R. Mott, the early 20th-century American Methodist
layman and pioneer of the ecumenical movement."

The fact that John Paul II was a friend to a Methodist pastor when he
was the archbishop of Krakow, Poland, was confirmed last October when
the international dialogue commission met in Krakow. "The story still
circulates of how Archbishop Karol Woytila (as he then was) paid a
hospital visit to Methodist Pastor Lucian Zaperty," Wainwright
explained.

Wainwright was one of three keynote speakers at the November symposium,
which marked the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's decree
on ecumenism, "Unitatis Redintegratio" ("The Restoration of Unity").

"The pope presided over a special service of Vespers in St. Peter's," he
recalled. "When he was wheeled in, he looked radiant; and the thought
struck me from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10:  this was
'strength perfected in weakness.'"

The Rev. George Freeman, chief executive of the World Methodist Council,
had met John Paul II on two different occasions and remembered being
deeply impressed by the influence the pope had on so many people.

"In January 2003, I attended the Day of Prayer for Peace in the World,
sponsored by the pope," he recalled. "We rode from Rome to Assisi by
train in the car adjacent to the pope's car. All along the route for the
two-hour train ride were hundreds of thousands of people, old and young
alike, who lined the streets, roadways and train platforms just to get a
glimpse of his train as it sped by. There were thousands and thousands
of signs being held by those who love him, wishing him well and thanking
God for his life."

Freeman noted that while the president of the United States may be the
most politically powerful man in the world, the pope had a different
type of influence. "Pope John Paul II has offered leadership to the
world for 26 years and represents a different power, one that transcends
national identity and self-interest, which represents a kingdom that is
eternal and cannot be shaken."

United Methodist Bishop William Boyd Grove, former ecumenical officer
for the Council of Bishops, called the pope's death a loss for all
people of faith and good will.

"My mind was not always with the pope's mind-I disagreed with him about
many things," Grove said. "My heart was always with him. Who could not
be moved by his strength and conviction?"

Calling the pope "a mighty force for peace and justice in the world,"
the bishop noted that he was privileged to meet John Paul II in February
2003 as part of a small ecumenical delegation encouraging the pope in
his opposition to the invasion of Iraq. "His life, like the music of
Bach, has been lived 'soli Gloria deo'-to the glory of God alone," Grove
added.

The Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, also saluted the pope as "a powerful champion" of
peace and justice.

"He was consistent throughout his long papacy in the promotion of
nonviolent solutions to disputes large and small, and he was unswerving
in his opposition to the menace of nuclear weapons," Day said.

Day noted the "great affinity" between the pope's views on war and those
expressed by the United Methodist Church through its Council of Bishops
and General Conference.

"John Paul's mighty voice for peace and his frequent calls to transform
swords into plowshares will be acutely missed," he said. "So will his
strong opposition to capital punishment in all forms. I hope that his
successor will be as clear and as forceful in his witness for a world of
peace and justice."

For the Rev. Bruce Robbins, former chief executive of the Commission on
Christian Unity, the pope's integrity and faithfulness made the world a
better place.

"As United Methodists we could so often disagree with him-such as his
stands against clergy marriage or the ordination of women-but we always
knew his convictions were faith-based, genuine and not manipulative,"
Robbins said. "And other times I so greatly appreciated his convictions,
such as his strong opposition to the Iraq war.

"I hope United Methodists across the world will give thanks to God for
the gifts and blessings we all received from Pope John Paul II."

# # #

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org