SUNDAY NOVEMBER 30, 2014
SINGAPORE 50 CENTS / WEST MALAYSIA RM$1.20
MCI (P) 005/08/2014
PPS 201/04/2013 (022940)
VOL 64
NO. 24
INSIDE HOME Archbishop’s Advent message Hope for world on brink of despair
BERLIN – Pope Francis and the
head of the German bishops have highlighted the role played by St John Paul II in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Speaking on the 25th anniversary of the incident, Pope Francis said St John Paul II had “a role as protagonist” in the historic event. “The fall was sudden, but it was made possible by the long and hard commitment of many people who struggled, prayed and suffered for it, some even sacri¿cing their lives,” he said. The pope made these comments after reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St Peter’s Square on Nov 9. He asked Catholics to pray that “with the help of the Lord and the collaboration of all people of good will, there will spread even more a culture of encounter capable of bringing down all the walls still dividing the world”. The pope also prayed for an end to “innocent persons being persecuted and even killed because of their creed or religion”. “Where there is a wall,” he said, “there is a closed heart. We need bridges, not walls!” The president of the German bishops’ conference made similar comments to mark the historic event. “Without the prophetic power of St John Paul II and many dissidents, the miracle of European uni¿cation wouldn’t have happened,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich-Freising during a symposium sponsored by the bishops’ conference on Nov 8. The next day, in his address at a prayer service at Berlin’s St Hedwig Cathedral, Cardinal Marx said St John Paul hastened the wall’s collapse by backing the freedom struggle in his native Poland. During his lifetime, the Polish-born pope refused to claim
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ASIA Botched sterilisations in India Church slams ‘pathetic state’ of healthcare Page 14 Young Germans sit on the East Side Gallery, a section of the Berlin Wall, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the wall’s dismantling on Nov 9. CNS photos
Without the prophetic power of ‘ St John Paul II and many dissidents, the miracle of European unification wouldn’t have happened.
’
– Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich-Freising
St John Paul II had refused to claim personal credit for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
personal credit for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, but he knew his preaching and his support for human dignity and freedom energised the forces for change, particularly in his homeland. In a 1993 interview, Pope John
Paul said, “I think the crucial role was played by Christianity itself: its content, its religious and moral message, its intrinsic defence of the human person. All I did was recall this, repeat it and insist on it.” Cardinal Marx added that the Catholic Church had allowed its premises to be used by opposition groups and helped ensure peaceful resistance to communism. “But the Church now needs to build a culture of memory oriented to the future and work out how to conduct its mission in a free, pluralist society,” he said.
Parallel church commemorations took place in other eastern German cities, including Magdeburg, where Bishop Gerhard Feige called on Catholics to continue speaking out “when life and dignity are violated or at stake”. The Berlin Wall, separating the Federal Republic of Germany from the communist-ruled German Democratic Republic, was completed on Aug 13, 1961, and breached on Nov 9, 1989, during revolutionary change in Eastern Europe that led to Germany’s formal reuni¿cation 11 months later. CNS
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FAMILY Living the marriage vows Two couples share their experiences Page 28