...in a week or so, to work on "John Paul: The Legacy" for EWTN: we'll be going to Warsaw, Lublin, the Tatras and Niegovic, among other places. We will talk to people who studied under Wojtila at Lublin's Catholic University, we'll get a couple of young people reading from his play "The Jeweller's Shop" and from some of his poetry, we'll go to the mountains that he loved and see the church that was built under his initiative when he was still a young curate in the grim days of Stalinist Communism in the 1950s...
Trawling the internet to check a couple of details about St John Paul, I encountered weird attacks on him, including a Lefebvrist theologian denouncing this "false canonisation" a furious American campaigner predicting a gigantic catastrophe on the day, and an odd priest claiming to offer evidence including "immodest pictures" to show how wicked JP was.( The Lefebvrist chap and the American campaigner seem to have fallen silent, especially when the planned flood/fire etc didn't happen. The other chap's pics turned out to be well known shots of the young saint picnicking and canoeing with friends). All of these writings were confused and angry - but what was most striking was their note of dedicated bitterness: the passion that comes from having nurtured a hatred for a long time.
It certainly renewed my interest in teaching about this great saint and in passing on to the next generation the truth about his life of prayer, courage, wisdom and faith...
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Saw the play at the Westminster Theatre in the 1980s - still have a script somewhere. The translation was rather wooden, I think
Lefebvre had to be kicked out, and it's understandable they still resent it. Apparently the sticking point was Williamson, whom Lefebvre insisted on making a bishop. He wasn't a fit and proper person, and subsequent events have confirmed St John Paul's judgment on this.
How utterly tantalising! I can't wait to see it. Safe travels! S. Masty
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