At the beginning of the school year, my internship, which is at a bi-weekly Catholic magazine called Commonweal, asked me to compile their archived articles concerning Pope John Paul II since his health was once again flagging. This assignment filled me with trepidation; it almost seemed like blasphemy. I began to watch carefully for any sign that God might smite me.
On the other hand, I found out some interesting information about John Paul II, not least of which was an entire comic book was made for him. I digress though; I feel like some mention of the pope passing away ought to be made, but I feel incredibly unequal to the task. After all, he was pope for longer than I’ve been alive. Nobody in my generation has any experience of anyone else, so we have no one to compare him to.
Since I can’t comment on his papacy or his legacy, I can wonder about the affect his death will have on students at Fairfield. You might be surprised, but John Paul II did know that Fairfield existed, and at least once (to my knowledge) carried on a conversation with a faculty member from Fairfield, about Fairfield (see Ellen Umansky in the Judaic Studies Department for details). I don’t know specifically what was said, but I have no doubt that if John Paul knew about the character of Fairfield, he would have prayed for our souls.
A friend of mine once said that “the only thing Catholic about this university is that it’s Catholic.” I don’t think that our situation is as dire as that; the Jesuit identity is present, Campus Ministry flourishes, and we have good Social Justice projects.
At a Catholic university though, I feel that there should be more knowledge and communication with the mother ship. In other words, we should all know more about the Church that 85 percent of the students are affiliated with, and we should all (gasp) engage in intelligent conversation and debate about the Church and its issues.
In the coming months, I hope that students will watch the news and read the obituaries about John Paul’s life because it was truly amazing. There was a good turnout at the mass on Sunday over which Bishop Lori presided. John Paul’s legacy was a big part of the mass. John Paul’s death obviously made an impact in some way for those people. Hopefully that effect will resonate.
I also hope that we will follow (and hopefully with interest) the election of the new pope. It is an important time in Church history and a pivotal time period for the world.
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