Books: John Paul the Great

Author, columnist and former speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan, Peggy Noonan , was online Monday, Dec. 19, at 4 p.m. ET to discuss her new book about Pope John Paul II.

In "John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father," Noonan turns her attention to the life of the pope and shows the personal effect his journey had upon her and millions of others throughout the world.

From the Publisher: "In an age rich with heroes, Pope John Paul II was truly the great man of the past century-a man who personally confronted its tragedies, from Nazism to communism. A paradoxical figure, Pope John Paul II was an intellectual animated by confidence and joy, a poet and playwright, a supporter of freedom who decried its abuse, a tough political gamesman, and a mystic convinced that the bullet that nearly killed him in Rome was directed away from his heart by the hand of the Mother of God."

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Washington, D.C.: Does the book cover the WWII period fully? I have heard a lot of lies concerning John Paul II because prior biographies did not cover his activities in the Polish Resistance.

To imply that a Polish priest abetted the Nazis is to deny the Holocaust.

My parents were married by a Polish priest who survived five years in Dachau, the infamous concentration camp. Father Kozal had nightmares the rest of his life after that. I have read his memoirs and have been truly shook yet again by the Holocaust. Even German Catholic priests were thrown into Dachau.

The Nazis were out to destroy the least threat to their power or ideology, and religion was the first line. Anybody who planned the slightest resistance against the Nazis was taking his life in his hands, and I am outraged that anybody would claim that John Paul II abetted the Nazis.

Anybody who attempts to do good will always attract hatred and lies by evildoers, or those who have given up believing anybody can rise above evil.

Peggy Noonan: Hello and good afternoon everyone, and thanks for sending in questions. I have just had a wonderful Christmas lunch in Manhattan with close friends. We were high up in a building, on the 65th floor, and the city was spread out before us and we could see as far as Jersey. Dominating the landscape was the Empire State building, Kong-less and looking somehow...old fashioned. Like the 1930's. Like the city when I first saw it when I was a kid. Now I'm back home in Brooklyn watching the news on CNN. Here's my first answer. I do give some attention to John Paul and World War II. It was the historical event that shaped him. If I had to boil down what I think he learned and concluded it was: Man is free and yet everywhere saddled with government. That's not quite the way to say it but I mean he learned first hand and up close what a sick government can do to rob man of his natural freedom. I never heard anything but praise for young John Paul in those days. He worked in a factory; he had nothing; he studied secretly for the priesthood and went to a secret seminary. He risked his life to become a priest, and those who taught him risked their lives. The Nazis didn't want more priests. About two years ago John Paul departed from a speech in Rome to a group of seminarians. He was in a reflective mood and told them of those who'd helped him become a priest. He spoke of the workers in the factory where he labored. They'd sometimes cover for him and let him study. He was so grateful to them. And he said he was grateful to God for those days, and grateful even for the suffering he knew.

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Portland, Ore.: Ms. Noonan:

John Paul II will be remembered as not only one of history's great spiritual leaders, but also as a great political ethicist. His encyclical, Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life"), is the finest summation ever written of Catholic belief regarding the full gamut of life issues, from how we value each and every human life to how we behave as stewards of creation.

It is the Pope's challenge to all Catholics to engage and change the world that is the basis for my question to you. You are a faithful Catholic and a well-known Republican and conservative activist. Yet, I think you would agree that neither the Republican and Democratic parties fully articulate and embrace the Catholic and John Paul II's world view.

Did writing this book give you any new insights or change in any way how you seek to reconcile your Catholic faith with your active participation in politics, and can you offer any thoughts for all of us Catholics, regardless of our party affiliation?

Peggy Noonan: Big, thoughtful questions. Yes, I pondered and continue to ponder a lot of what you refer to. I'll throw three thoughts forward, very briefly. One: I suspect at heart in some key ways I'm a Social Democrat, of the European sort, circa 1950 - 1960. I'm constitutionally and in general pro-union for instance. Two: I very much miss the American Democratic party when it had a heart, also circa roughly 1950. Three: the Republican party is sometimes a little...well, lacking. I miss a sort of sense, in general, of American-ness in our politics. Well, I don't suppose that tells you much, but I do find as I get older I'm more Catholic and less political, or less partisan perhaps.

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Kansas City: I'd like your perspective on the influence of Pope John Paul II upon religious education for the next generation of Catholics in the U.S., particularly for the many students who do not go to parochial schools but attend weekly religious classes. As a teacher, I see so many student who haven't a clue about the pope -- current or previous. Oh, yes, I read in my diocesan newspapers about all the young people who've been touched by Pope John Paul II and I don't doubt it, but I think it's a tiny sliver of kids. Thus I wonder about his impact because so, so many students -- and, by extension their families -- are disaffected. Many of these families have parents who want to do the right thing -- heck they are sending them to class -- but the connection is so diffuse. In my opinion, the books used in Catholic religious education are ridiculously pedestrian. I have asked for years, "what outcomes do you want to see?" And I get vague answers, in some of the most highly affluent suburbs in the U.S.The megachurches here in the midwest do a vastly superior job of grounding children in the bible, in Christian teaching, in the basics. Right now the Catholic church seems to be so intent upon enforcement that compassion (toward gays, etc.) appears to be out of fashion with the hierarchy. Is this what John Paul II would have wanted? If Jean Paul had such an influence on the church, why is a new generation likely to be more disaffected than ever? And, please -- don't completely blame the parents.

Peggy Noonan: I know what you're saying. I think the American Catholic church is fairly lost these days. I think we have to get back to basics. I taught after school catechism for kids in Manhattan for a few years, between their first communion and confirmation. I had so much I was supposed to tell them and then realized with time that no one had every told them about Jesus. Jesus! You might think the church would be interested in communicating his story, his teachings, his meaning. Anyway, once I realized that we had a great class. I told them everything I knew, which wasn't a great deal but which was more than they'd been told. Wouldn't you think priests would talk about the life of Christ in their homilies? They don't all that much -- or a lot of them don't often enough. It's really odd. By the way, I not infequently try to think about what it is priests do talk about in their Sunday homilies. And I go every week, and try very hard to get their point. A lot of them don't seem to have a point. It's hard to make fun of what they say because I can never quite remember it. (I am being hard on them, I know.)

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Pittsford, N.Y.: First, thank you for your writing. My question simple: Since most folks in the U.S. are decent and believe in God, how, on earth, do we get more of the decency that religious leaders like Pope John Paul and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson into our public discourse. Thanks.

Peggy Noonan: We do what we're doing. There is a lot of spiritual hunger in our country even as there is a lot of spiritual involvement. Did you see the Gallup poll the other day saying 94 percent of Americans believe in God? Interesting. We are not Europe circa 2005, we are us, thank goodness. But there's a lot of spiritual hunger that isn't being met. We have endless cable shows on politics, and everyone makes believe they're interested but they're not, always, or deeply. They'd rather hear about God. Me too.

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Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Thanks for taking questions.

I can quite understand why conservatives loved JPII.

Without bashing me over the head with principles I don't agree with and beliefs I choose not to hold can you single out something in his life that a secular liberal might admire?

Peggy Noonan: Understood, and thanks for writing in and talking. How about JPII's beautiful thoughts on men and women, on their equality, on their need for eachother, on how together they make an image of God? How about his lifting up of a woman, Mother Teresa, for all of the men of the church to look up to as one who lived her life in a manner worthy of the highest respect? And his love for the weak and unwell and unformed, from the young to the ill to the intellectually retarded. And there's this: he embodied. He walked into the world holding within him and also holding high the idea of faith, of belief, of religion, of God. I bet you and I would admire than equally and together.

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Annapolis, Md.: Hi:

Why did Pope John Paul II opppose the war in Iraq?

Peggy Noonan: There is so much talk about that, I mean there has been. I'm not going to get down in the weeds in terms of 'He really was opposed', 'He really wasn't!' I took it this way: He was the Vicar of Christ in the world. What would such a person do, oppose war or encourage it? Ask for patience or violent action? It is, not to be crude, the job of a pope to oppose a resort to arms and support peacefulness. It is his job to encourage prayer and peace. So his stand as I understood it never surprised me, and did not discourage me. And I believe his public statements garnered what they deserved, respect and attention.

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Morristown, N.J.: Peggy: I enjoy your columns a great deal.

How do you explain what appears to be a disconnect between the popularity of Pope John Paul II, with the enormous crowds of people who attended his masses around the world, and the shrinking number of Catholic faithful churchgoers? In Europe, Catholic churches are virtually empty and in the United States, Mass attendance is down.

How much of a legacy is it to be loved world-wide but not followed? It's like loving a rock star but being indifferent to his songs. I wish I could be more optimistic.

Peggy Noonan: Ha! I see your point, and a very smart journalist made a similar one to me recently. I think of it this way. It is not really convenient in the modern world to hold to a belief that is so countercultural as John Paul's. And there will be many who liked him, admired him, burst into tears as he went by on one of his visits, and yet did not live as he asked. And yet. I think there is something in the human heart, some piece of metal, that feels the pull of the magnet, that understands greatness, and that even unknowingly responds to it. We cannot say the three to four million people who went to Rome when John Paul died, who filled the streets, were mostly saints. And yet they knew he was. "Santo subito." As for living as we should, we should all probably pray more for strength for ourselves and others. If we did we'd all be better,

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Your Column: Miss Peggy,

I just want to thank you for your Wall Street Journal columns... they're one of the real highlights of my online week.

Peggy Noonan: Thank you. I love my readers. I love the mail they send me. When they agree with me they're so eloquent and generous and when they disagree they're so thoughtful. Even when they're angry. Anyway, I like writing my column. I like wading in.

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Alexandria, Va.: I believe that currently only two popes have been given the title "the Great": St. Gregory and St. Leo. How and who would bestow John Paul II as "the Great"?

I thought I heard the Vatican state that they can only bestow Sainthood, not the title of "the Great".

Peggy Noonan: The Vatican regognizes saints, and one suspects JPII is on a fast track, mostly because he's already been made a saint, if you will, by acclimation. "Santo subito" again. I'll never forget what those crowds did when the old man died. But they also shouted another word -- "Magnus." JPII has become JP the Great by acclimation, to my mind. By the way, I can't recall who first called him The Great -- George Weigel or Richard John Neuhaus or Michael Novak. It wasn't me, but when I first heard JP referred to that way a few years ago I thought: Yes.

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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Are the popes over-celebrated in this hubristic, silly Movietone world when their faith, or the one they supposedly represent, is about humility, charity, compassion and self negation?

And do celebrity biographers and speech writers make the lives of simple clerics harder by all the kissy-kissy rah-rahing?

And do you really care?

Thanks much. In all things, Atheist

Peggy Noonan: Well thank you, Atheist. Here's what I think: the great deserve our loyalty. Here's an old quote from I forget where. "The hero comes when he is needed. When our belief gets pale and weak there comes a man out of that need who is bright and shining. And everyone around him reflects some of that glow, and stores some up against the day that he is gone." We all need to be inspired by what other mere but extraordinary humans have done. Maybe try to be utilitarian about it: if our kids don't get to look up at someone how will they know what is possible? If they don't come to believe in greatness will they themselves have a chance of being great? We have to celebrate the great.

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Portsmouth, Va.: Good Heavens Peggy, I had a heck of a time finding where one would submit a question. Since you at one time delved in the art of political writing, do you think Ralph Reed's political career is in trouble?

Now, enough with that nonsense. What state do you consider American poetry in? The machine can no longer crank out the likes of Ezra Pound. Do you attribute this crisis to the over-medication of kids, or something more sinister as say: the educational system?

Peggy Noonan: Poetry! Thank you. I recently have been thinking of Robert Frost's 'Nothing Gold Can Last.' What a poem. I think it's time for a Frost revival. We killed his rep in the Seventies, time to rediscover I think. I liked poets who made sense, or whose sense one could grasp. I think younguns these days actually don't know that in America poets used to be famous, and normal people had favorite poems. I wish I could write a poem for you about Ralph Reed. I always thought he looked like one of the boy generals of the Civil War, with a thin neck in a rough collar. I don't know the facts of his connection to Abramoff -- that's what you're referring to, yes? But Washington now reminds me of what Hedda Hopper said of Louella, or perhaps Louella said of Hedda: "She landed with her butt in the butter!" That's what Washington seems like now, a big tub o' butter.

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Raleigh, N.C.: Hello -- I really enjoyed your book -- even though as a lapsed Catholic that has little or no respect for the church as an institution -- I was expecting NOT to (I bought it for my mother for Christmas). What I found so amazing is that you have been able to "keep the faith" (admirably so) in spite of all of the faults of the church's leaders and especially in light of the sex abuse scandals. You have been obviously very vocal in voicing your discontent in that regard, and I admire that very, very much. I especially liked the part where you noted (somewhere toward the end) that when you saw a procession of cardinals they all looked like savy, polished political beasts that are grossly disconnected from the people. I found that to be an astounding observation from an observant Catholic like yourself. It is something I have felt ever since I can remember -- even as a young child (and especially as a girl made to feel somehow less worthy than boys) I could feel the hypocrisy. Yet, most "serious" Catholics I know would never dare express such an opinion, or worse, choose to remain blind to what has always appeared to me to be a fact because to do otherwise would in some way be blasphemous. But clearly, John Paul has made a tremendous impact on you -- which I think anyone can objectively admit was a man truely dedicated to God whether or not you believed in his principles or not. Do you think that your faith in Catholicism would not be what it is today but for a man like John Paul II? Thank you. (Also, you were terrific on the Colbert Report!)

Peggy Noonan: Thank you. The church in some ways has come to seem like another tub of butter. I love it anyway, for we must, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. But it's frustrating, isn't it? As Benedict said to a monsignor shortly before he was elected pope, "We priests! We priests!" I like it that he said that -- I like it that he seemed to be signalling that he knew the depth of the problem in the scandals. I talk in the book about how Cardinal Law castigated me for criticizing the church. At one time in my life that would have shaken me. But now I think the church needs more candor, more openness. It was too closed a system. It needs air and movement, and it could benefit from argument as to how it operates.

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Butte, Mont.: I really enjoyed your book and your last line Big Ben. Will we catch a breath of air after and consolidate JPII teachings? How long will it take to really know how important JPII was?

Peggy Noonan: It is so interesting to me that Benedict said recently that he doesn't plan to write much right now because he thinks we need more time to absorb John Paul and what he wrote. Benedict seems a long view man.

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Washington, D.C.: Peggy,

What led you to write about the Pope, and did you interview him?

Peggy Noonan: Around the time of the turn of the century I got thinking about who helps us -- who inspires us, who is important? After 9/11 I got thinking seriously about John Paul. I had a hunch, a feeling, that after he left a great deal would be in play, that he was a giant voice of a passing world. At the same time the sex scandals were rising, I mean becoming a public scandal. I began writing about it. That got me deeper into the whole subject matter of the modern church. I told John Paul in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that he should take the hat from Cardinal Law's head and sack him. Then I advised the Cardinals to give their mansions to the poor. I can't tell you how badly that went over in some quarters of the Vatican. No, I didn't get to interview him.

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Writing to you: How do you receive your reader comments? I subscribe to the online Journal, but they don't post an e-mail address to you. Thanks.

Peggy Noonan: At the end of every column there's a reply function. Just hit it and write. They print some, and send some others to me.

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St. Paul, Minn.: Ms. Noonan, Through his own inaction, it seems as though John Paul was not horrified to learn that priests were sexually abusing children within the church. When he did learn of it, why didn't he act swiftly and stongly? What sort of crime would it take for him to have been outraged? Instead, he provided sanctuary for Bernard Law, who was essentially an organized crime boss. Thank you.

Peggy Noonan: I'll take this as the last question, and I thank you all. Short answer: I believe John Paul simply could not imagine -- had no catagory for -- could not possibly envision -- the idea of priests of the church operating in a racket in which they sexually abuse children and when their superiors learn of it the priests are not sacked but transferred, quietly. John Paul grew up in a church in which priests were heroic. They saved lives. They risked their own lives. They resisted the Nazis and the communists. I think the old man simply couldn't imagine the way the American church was being run. That is a tragedy. And oh we are all still in mourning over it, really. It will change our church for generations. And yet...all the young nuns and young priests I meet are savvy, smart, get it, took their vows with no encouragement from society, want to live beautiful and constructive lives, and give their lives to God. They will save the church. They know who the old guys are and want no part of that sad old world. It is dark now already in Brooklyn and I am about to go have dinner. Goodnight everyone.

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