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Posted Saturday May 27, 2006 at 12:01 p.m. CDT
Looking for The Word From Rome column? Here is a link to past columns.
Benedict's visit to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary
By John L. Allen Jr.
Editor's Note: Read NCRonline.org daily for John Allen's reports on Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Poland May 25-28.
Benedict's visit to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary today was a vivid reminder of John Paul II's deep attachment to the message of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun and mystic John Paul beatified in 1993 and canonized in 2000.
John Paul's second encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, was inspired by Kowalska's Divine Mercy devotion.
John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, the vigil of the Feast of Divine Mercy that he had placed on the liturgical calendar of the Catholic church, on precisely the day (the first Sunday after Easter) indicated by Kowalska, and most observers regarded it as a fittingly poetic end to the pope's life, as he had drawn such inspiration and strength from the Divine Mercy movement.
The devotion is based on a series of revelations Kowalska believed she received from Jesus, Mary and saints such as Teresa from 1931 to 1938 .
According to her more than 600-page diary, Kowalska believed that Jesus appeared to her in 1931with a message of mercy for all humanity. Her spiritual director commissioned an artist to render a painting of Jesus as he appeared in her visions, which has become the well-known image of Jesus with two rays of light streaming from his heart. (The red ray represents the blood that flowed from Christ's side when struck with a spear on the cross, the white the water).
Kowalska's diary is known as Divine Mercy in My Soul. She devised various prayers and spiritual acts to support this devotion before dying in 1938.
Faustina was without question an important figure in the life of John Paul II. As an underground seminarian during World War II, he was influenced by Kowalska's message. In 1965, as archbishop of Krakow, he began the process of her beatification, which he brought to fruition as pope.
As a footnote, John Paul's decision to open her cause was in its own way a bold act. For almost 20 years, from 1959 to 1978, Faustina's diary and her divine mercy devotion were officially banned by the Holy Office, today's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Working from what is today recognized as a faulty Italian translation of her diary, the Holy Office decided that Faustina's private revelations were quirky and effectively silenced her movement.
It was thus a minor bit of defiance for Wojtyla to open beatification proceedings for someone whose lifework was still officially censored in Rome. The Vatican's ban on the Divine Mercy Devotion was finally lifted on April 15, 1978, and in short order Wojtyla became pope.
John Paul's devotion to Kowalska, it should be noted, had critics. Some see her quasi-apocalyptic insistence on human unworthiness as excessive. Others object to the way the pope placed the divine mercy feast on the first Sunday after Easter, hence "disrupting," according to some liturgists, the Easter season. Easter, they argue, is supposed to be about the joy of resurrection, not our constant need for mercy. Still others say the pope shouldn't have used his office to foist his personal spirituality on the rest of the church.
| More Trip Coverage | John Allen's preview of the papal trip: Benedict's concerns for Poland trip:.
May 25, The trip is launched: Benedict sets about reawakening Europe's Christian roots.
May 26, A social survey of Poland: Poles are staunchly Catholic but also independent.
May 26, The Pope's message in Victory Square and at Czestochowa: Faith is a gift but also a task.
May 26, Subtext to the pope's visit: Some interesting nuggets.
May 27, A great trip for pilgrims: Benedict offers spiritual and pastoral basics.
May 27, Exploring John Paul's roots: Benedict's visit to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary.
May 27, A look at the issues: Examining the trip thus far.
May 28, The pope's take on death camps: Attempting to slay God was Auschwitz's greatest evil.
May 28, The Poles' speical vocation: Pope tells Poles 'share the treasure of your faith'.
May 28, U.S.-Polish ties: Knights of Columbus opening Polish councils. |
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Nevertheless, the Divine Mercy devotion has enjoyed a rapid spread around the world. After Benedict XVI left the sanctuary today, dozens of groups of devotees lined up to have photos taken under the main altar.
Divine Mercy in My Soul is a mixture of lofty spiritual claims and very prosaic details of a Polish nun's life in the early 20th century.
At one stage, for example, Kowalska is on her way to the hospital and Jesus appears to assure her that he has arranged that she will have a single room. In another case she's had a spat with an older nun, and Jesus assures her that the elderly sister really isn't so bad.
Kowalska used to see the child Jesus on the altar while the priest was saying the Eucharistic prayers, for example, and then he would disappear when the priest consumed the host. Once she saw Jesus turn his head and move his lips on the crucifix in the convent of her order, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy; another time she wore a belt with pointed spikes turned in on her flesh as a type of penance for three days.
John Paul was convinced that, in a hidden and mystical sense, Kowalska's life and legacy were the key to building a better, more merciful future. He believed it was no accident that this message of mercy came to a Pole, a country that spent much of the 20th century lacerated by violence, and that it came in the run-up to WWII, just a few miles from Auschwitz.
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Rome correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@natcath.org.]
May 27, 2006, National Catholic Reporter |
