On the Legacy of St. John Paul the Great

The feast of St. John Paul II was celebrated on October 22, the 39th anniversary of Karol Wojtyła’s formal installation as the Bishop of Rome. This occasion is an ideal time to reflect on St. John Paul the Great’s contribution to the Church and the world.

Papal biographer George Weigel continues writing about the late Pope’s legacy, about the reception and incorporation of John Paul’s teaching by the Church. That theme is prominent in his writings, especially Witness to Hope and The End and the Beginning. It’s probably the reason he was tapped to be the papal biographer: as he notes in his latest book, Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II, the pope himself insisted “I can only be understood from inside.” “How to probe into that rich interior life, and then relate it to his teaching and his action in the Church and world was the challenge in preparing his biography,” says Weigel.

The Person and the Act—one of Karol Wojtyła’s most important books—poses the conundrum of everyman: action tells us a lot about whom someone is. John Paul’s papacy was rich in action: prayer, sanctifying, teaching, governing, doing.

The question is: the legacy.

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