John Paul's legacy.

In a National Post review of the Holy Father's last book, Memory and Identity, Christopher Howse writes that the people who label him "hardline" or "rightwing" have got it wrong. "Perhaps (they) are thinking about sex before any other consideration: that he won't allow contraception or women priests. Popes don't. The next one won't either, just you wait." Howse describes Memory and Identity as "a sketch of the Pope's ideas on the limits that Providence puts on evil in history," and "a humane, liberal, and deeply spiritual interpretation of world politics".

At a recent Campaign Life meeting held in Mississauga, ON, while John Paul was on his deathbed, one speaker expressed his irritation at the trivialities which were being discussed. What was the point of talking about same-sex marriage, something which never existed in the past, or about the illusory rights created by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? There was nothing here which was humane, liberal, or deeply spiritual. The serious issues before us were not set forth in the Liberal Party agenda. Where were they to be found? The Holy Father had set many of them down for our consideration, as it happened, in his fourteen encyclicals and forty-five apostolic letters. They need to be looked at, and their main messages highlighted.

Familiaris consortio, or The role of the Christian family in the modern world, came in 1981, the fourth year of John Paul's pontificate. The fundamental task of the family, he declares, is "to serve life, to actualize in history the original blessing of the Creator--that of transmitting by procreation the divine image from person to person." Commenting on the teaching on birth regulation set out in Humanae vitae, he invited theologians to commit themselves to the task of illustrating the biblical foundations, the ethical grounds, and the personalistic reasons behind this doctrine.

In 1985 he published Christifideles laici, The vocation and mission of the lay faithful. It is a meditation on the biblical text, "I am the vine, you are the branches". In a section on evangelizing culture and the cultures of humanity, he defines culture as factors which go to the refining and developing of man's diverse spiritual and physical endowments. The vocation to holiness which is intimately connected to mission and to the responsibility entrusted to the lay faithful depends on their remaining united to the vine.

Splendor veritatis, The splendour of truth, in 1993, begins by declaring that truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator and, in a special way, in man, created in the image and likeness of God. Hence the psalmist says, Let the light of your face shine on us, Lord. But the truth which enlightens man's intelligence and makes him free leads inevitably to consideration of man's ultimate good, as it is known by faith and reason.

Evangelium vitae, The gospel of life, in 1995, says that human reason, with the hidden action of grace, can recognize the natural law written in the heart, and affirm the sacred value of every human life. The fourth chapter of this book has a subheading which reads, "For a new culture of human life". The chapter describes a dramatic struggle between the culture of life and the culture of death, and the need for an united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of life--to confront and solve today's unprecedented problems affecting human life.

Fides et ratio, Faith and reason, 1998, describes the fundamental harmony which exists between these two terms. Faith asks that its object be understood with the help of reason, and at the summit of its reaching knowledge cannot do without what faith represents. Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God, St. Thomas Aquinas argued, and there cannot be a conflict between them.

In these documents, John Paul gives us an impressive intellectual edifice with which to understand the perplexing questions of these confusing times.... He has also given us a set of terms, a new vocabulary as an aid to understanding. This is only one part of his enormous achievement. Yet his deeds are past history; his words will endure.

David Dooley is an associate editor of Catholic Insight. He is English Professor Emeritus of Saint Michael's College of the University of Toronto.