How to Create a Culture of Life

1. Fight Stalinists.

Stalin's last successor made an admission: "Everything that happened in Eastern Europe in these last few years," Mikhail Gorbachev said, "would have been impossible without this pope."

2. Speak for those who are ignored.

He spoke against capitalism and communism, spoke up for the poor, spoke up for life as he defined it from very beginning to very end. "I am the voice of the voiceless," he said in 1979 on his first overseas trip as pope.

3. Don't be captive to partisan politics.

Viewed through the lens of American politics, the pope was an enigma — "to the left of liberal Democrats on social issues and to the right of conservative Republicans on moral values," in the words of Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and church observer.

4. Work for debt relief for poor countries. (So far, 23 countries have been able to get out from under crushing debt)

The Pope said canceling the debt was essential to fight poverty: “I appeal to all persons involved, and in particular to the most powerful nations, to prevent the Millennium jubilee passing by without decisive steps toward a definitive solution to the debt problem.”

5. Speak truth to power concerning war.

In a meeting at the Vatican at the start of a three-day presidential trip to Italy and France, the pontiff, 84, praised Bush for his leadership against abortion in the United States and AIDS in Africa. But the pope, who was too weak to stand and barely audible as he read a statement, also had stern words for Bush, deploring the prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq and violence in the region.

"Mr. President, your visit to Rome takes place at a moment of great concern for the continuing situation of grave unrest in the Middle East, both in Iraq and in the Holy Land," said John Paul, an ardent critic of the war in Iraq. "You are very familiar with the unequivocal position of the Holy See in this regard, expressed in numerous documents, through direct and indirect contacts, and in the many diplomatic efforts which have been made."

...Yet the pope did not shy away from criticizing U.S. policy. In a reference to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the pope said: "In the past few weeks, other deplorable events have come to light which have troubled the civic and religious conscience of all, and made more difficult a serene and resolute commitment to shared human values. In the absence of such a commitment, neither war nor terrorism will ever be overcome."

6. Promote just relationships between employers and employees.

The pontiff’s most powerful statement on workers came in 1981 in the encyclical Laborem Exercens—“On Human Work”—in which John Paul called for “ever new movements of solidarity of the workers and with the workers. This solidarity must be present whenever it is called for by the social degrading of the subject of work, by exploitation of the workers and by the growing areas of poverty and even hunger.”

The encyclical goes on to reaffirm the support of the Roman Catholic Church for a just wage, available and affordable health care, the right to a retirement pension and workers’ compensation for work-based injuries or illnesses.

7. Forgive those who persecute you.

Dec. 27, 1983
Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, the pope's would-be assassin, kisses the pontiff's hand
He makes a visit to the Rebibbia prison, meeting with Alì Agca, the Turk who made an assassination attempt on him on May 13, 1981.