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contemplations on he-who-was-Karol Wojtyla
Apr. 3rd, 2005 01:57 pmThe first memory I have of "the Pope" within my frame of reference was almost twenty-seven years ago, when an otherwise normal summer camp evening was interrupted by the news that the Pope had died. As most of my fellow campers and the staff went off to have some sort of solemn gathering, I was left in the company of the other Jewish campers and counselors left behind to watch us, wondering 'what's a pope and why are they all so sad that he'd died?'
Okay, so I was all of turning-eleven, and not really all that well-versed in religion or much of the world beyond a eleven-year-old's normal interests (in my case, books, horses, and surviving being the tallest kid in my age group, and yes, I know, that's all the height I ever got but I got it early). But until then, I'd managed to go without papal influence in my life.
It wasn't for another ten year that I realized how extraordinary that was.
Not the fact that that I had no truck with the Pope -- I was born and raised a Jew, so why would the pronouncements and preferences of the elader of another religion impact me? -- but that I was able to say that, and mean it... as a Jew.
Because, of course, what the Pope said and did has a huge impact on me-as-Jew. If not this Pope personally, than his predecessors, certainly. And his successor, potentially.
And this is why, although I feel a distant sadness for the loss of Karol Wojtyla, who seemed to be a good man, if not one I could always agree with, I find myself reading of his death more with concern than mourning. A concern grown out of a genetic memory of sorts; the awareness that times of transition within the Church have often been times of deep concern and outright fear for Jews-as-a-community.
(and that's without getting into the tangled brush of Issues I have with the Church and their views on and of women...)
And so, I will be watching the election of the next pope carefully, all the more so because it is not my leader they are electing.
Okay, so I was all of turning-eleven, and not really all that well-versed in religion or much of the world beyond a eleven-year-old's normal interests (in my case, books, horses, and surviving being the tallest kid in my age group, and yes, I know, that's all the height I ever got but I got it early). But until then, I'd managed to go without papal influence in my life.
It wasn't for another ten year that I realized how extraordinary that was.
Not the fact that that I had no truck with the Pope -- I was born and raised a Jew, so why would the pronouncements and preferences of the elader of another religion impact me? -- but that I was able to say that, and mean it... as a Jew.
Because, of course, what the Pope said and did has a huge impact on me-as-Jew. If not this Pope personally, than his predecessors, certainly. And his successor, potentially.
And this is why, although I feel a distant sadness for the loss of Karol Wojtyla, who seemed to be a good man, if not one I could always agree with, I find myself reading of his death more with concern than mourning. A concern grown out of a genetic memory of sorts; the awareness that times of transition within the Church have often been times of deep concern and outright fear for Jews-as-a-community.
(and that's without getting into the tangled brush of Issues I have with the Church and their views on and of women...)
And so, I will be watching the election of the next pope carefully, all the more so because it is not my leader they are electing.
