ROME – In 1178, Pope Alexander III paraded through Rome during Lent and was greeted, according to a biographer at the time, by a crowd that “looked at his face as the face of Christ, of which he is the deputy on earth.”
It was a period in the Middle Ages when the pontiff was identified not only as head of the Roman Catholic Church, successor of St. Peter, the church’s founder, but also as the vicar, or assistant, of Jesus himself. From the Middle Ages on, the pope’s person and his body were considered unlike any others. He was both mortal man and eternal metaphor.
This past week in Rome, Pope John Paul II has been bedridden with severe breathing problems brought on by flu. With hundreds of news cameras trained on the hospital where he lies, papal observers are again remarking on the dual role of the pope’s flesh and blood. They see in this double existence the key reason why the suffering pope, at age 84, will persevere in office until death.
“The self-humiliation that the pope inflicts on himself each day in front of the television cameras courageously recounts a thousand-year-old story,” said Sergio Luzzatto, a historian and papal expert. “For believers, the vicar of Christ is called on to bear witness to the dual nature of Jesus: human and divine. No matter how sick, a pope cannot step down for the simple reason that his body is not his.”
John Paul II has decided to make a long and painful lesson out of his evident decline, observers of the church say. “For Catholics, the holiness of the Polish pope will possibly appear evident in the manner of heroic virtue, by the strength and dignity with which he lives his daily martyrdom,” Luzzatto said.
Admirers of the pope’s persistence take issue with skeptics who say that John Paul II is being pushed by his inner circle to endure. A columnist in La Repubblica newspaper described him as being “crushed” by the church. It’s the other way around, insisted Pietro de Marco, a dean and professor of religion at the University of Florence. “The institution has been and is, even with more than a little resistance, at the service of the pope and his charisma, and at this extreme moment as never before.”
This penchant for making a parable of suffering clashes with the secrecy about the health of recent popes. While strength in the face of death may be a profitable lesson for congregations worldwide, the pope’s entourage is also determined to assure everyone that the pope is recovering. “You’ll notice,” said Alberto Melloni, a Catholic Church historian, “that in Vatican statements, the pope is always getting better.”
Associated Press
A woman prays by the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on Friday in Fatima, Portugal for the recovery of Pope John Paul II.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
