But for me, late John Paul II could be better identified as a liberal celebrity whose basic philosophy was to support the truth and stand by it no mater whose Ox is gored. This is because the truth knows no barrier of religion, tribe or geographical limit. On this particular premise, the late Pope was once quoted as saying: “It is a mistake to apply American” democratic procedures to the faith or the truth, because “you cannot take a vote on the truth”. This is why he was never sentimental or blinded by personal greed to suppress the truth and thereby turn his position to injure or harm people of different faith and religions.

The man John Paul II was neither given to the nihilistic Communism of the Occidental bloc nor to Oriental Materialistic Capitalism. Although he grew up and started his priesthood in a communist system of Poland, he tactfully dealt a silent blow that led to eventual collapse of the system through his influential and cogent preaching and lectures replete with radical tones. The crowd he pulled around was an acute source of concern to the government and the authorities’ discomfort was vivid. In connection to this, Robert Moynihan, editor of a Magazine “Inside the Vatican” stated: “That was the beginning of the end of what we called Soviet Empire. I think he brought that empire down…..” His support to solidarity movement was instrumental to collapse of communism in Poland. Also a leader of Soviet Union’s Intelligence Agency the KGB in person of Yuri Andropov once warned about the late Pope that there was trouble ahead. This was because of what Yuri might have envisaged about the radical potentialities of the then young but vibrant revolutionary, who was not at home with their policies. The American Capitalism equally received similar punches from late Pope John Paul II through his various mass appearances and visits to various states of America and during which he openly and point bank dressed down some key policies or concepts of the American authorities. For instance, he widely lampooned America for taking a lead on such issues as birth control in Africa, contraception, abortion and euthanasia, of which he accused the industrialized world of fostering “a culture of death”. Late John Paul II was known for taking what seemed to some people as inflexible stand in the name of the Catholic Church to support and protect the humanity against inimical innovations of the Western World. For instance, he loathed legitimizing homo-sexual marriages (man to man or woman to woman). The rejection of condoms by the Catholic Church (under late Pope II) “even for saving lives” turned to many people of the modern era as “incomprehensible”. In this line, a French Journalist Henry Tincq reasoned that: “It disqualifies the church from having any role in the whole debate over AIDS”. While taking a swipe at the liberalization of abortion in Poland, he retorted that “A nation that kills its own children has no future”. Late Pope’s general hatred of oppression made him bold and hard in his criticism of dictators like Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines and Augusto Pinochet of Chile. At several occasions he opposed resolve by American presidents to attack countries, in particular, the war waged by George Bush on Iraq in disguise of ousting Saddam Husseini. Due to his engrossment in spiritual and moral realms, late Pope seemed to disbelieve in man-made systems and policies of economy, politics or governance, for what he perceived in their short falls and being largely whimsical. At this he once accused the United States of America and warned about dangers of materialism, selfishness and secularism. He insisted that materialism was not the answer. “This world” he observed, “is not capable of making man happy”. Biography of the man indicates that He was born in Wadowice, Poland in 1920 to a retired army officer and tailor. His mother Emilia was a school teacher of Lithuanian decent. His real name was Karol Jozef Wojtyla and he was fondly called “Lokel” by friends in his hometown. During the life span of 85 years and 27 years of papal responsibility, the late Pope was recognized as the most world toured pope. He recorded 200 visits to about 125 countries, during which he contacted his fellowship and preached not only the gospel, but also the respect of truth and human right. He also endeavoured to revolutionize the Catholic Church, not only restricting it to rituals but opening it to reflect on the real happenings in the world, yet devoid of selfish. But the biggest question is what are the living Catholics doing to even come a bit closer to late Karol Wojtyla, the Pope II? It seems very hard to find one out of a thousand Catholics of today to be such unselfish, objective and open-hearted. For instance in Nigeria which the Catholic fellowship is said to constitute 10 percent of the world followers of the church, unfortunately the history through which Christianity found itself into the country has choked up the teachings and later, minds of the followers with inherent sentiment, hatred and animosity towards their neighbours and followers of other religions. This was entrenched in the treachery of the “Divide and Rule” tactics of the colonialists who incidentally brought the gospel of Christianity, all to their advantage.

Christian brothers in Nigeria and elsewhere have a great lesson to draw and learn from the life and examples of late John Paul II in order to make the world more habitable, peaceful and free of chaos.

Clerics and leaders of thought in other religions ought not to recline to idle meditation in an armchair. They should come out of their shells and struggle for the betterment of humanity as well as serve as voice of the voiceless, goading the institutions and authorities to bend towards reason and sense of morality in their duties to the people, as practically demonstrated the late Pope John Paul II.

More so, there lies a phobia as to who might be elected to replace the late Pope II, considering the need to replace the large heartedness, broad mindedness and liberal posture of the deceased.

Already the electoral colleges of about 117 cardinals (contestants of below 80 years) were at the Vatican to elect the new Pope from among them. If they would stick to the ethical traditions of the elections which is exclusively secret and under spiritual and prayerful procedure, they may come up with another pope of nearly equal if not of equal qualities. The rule of the vote demands that a contestant has to win two third plus one of the total votes cast to become a Pope and several rounds of voting could take place until the winning is affected. It could be remembered that the late Pope was able to win after seven rounds and emerged winner at the eighth.

ISA MUHAMMAD INUWA Correspondent, Radio Deutsche Welle P.O. Box 4534, Kano.

E-mail: ismi2000ng@yahoo.com