[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 36 (Monday, April 4, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3156-S3157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SENATE RESOLUTION 94--HONORING POPE JOHN PAUL II

  Mr. BROWNBACK (for himself, Mr. Bunning, Mr. Burns, Mr. Chambliss, 
Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. DeMint, Mr. Domenici, Mr. Enzi, Mr. 
Grassley, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Martinez, Mr. Thune, Mr. Durbin, and 
Mr. Nelson of Nebraska) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                               S. Res. 94

       Whereas His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, was born Karol 
     Jozef Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920, the 
     youngest of 3 children, born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia 
     Kaczorowska;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II personally suffered and 
     experienced deprivation from an early age, losing his mother, 
     eldest brother, and father before turning age 21;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II found comfort and strength in the 
     example of his father's faith, of whom he observed ``after my 
     mother's death, his life became one of constant prayer. 
     Sometimes I would wake up during the night and find my father 
     on his knees . . . his example was in a way my first 
     seminary'';
       Whereas, in 1939, Pope John Paul II was enrolled in 
     Jagiellonian University in Cracow, which was closed by the 
     Nazis during their occupation of Poland;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II experienced the brutality of a 
     godless totalitarian regime, which sought to eradicate the 
     history and culture of a proud people and sent many of his 
     professors, friends, and millions of Polish Jews to camps 
     where they were systematically murdered;
       Whereas, in 1942, Pope John Paul II was himself arrested by 
     Nazi occupation forces, but his life was spared because of 
     his employment at a limestone quarry, work deemed essential 
     to the war effort;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II courageously defied the Nazi 
     occupation forces, risking his own life to protect Polish 
     Jews from persecution, helping to organize the underground 
     ``Rhapsodic Theatre'', which he intended to be ``a theatre . 
     . . where the national spirit will burn'', writing two 
     religious plays considered subversive to the Nazi regime, and 
     enrolling in the clandestine seminary of Archbishop Sapieha 
     of Cracow, where he studied religion, theology, and 
     philosophy;
       Whereas the Nazi occupation of Poland was ended only by the 
     imposition of a Communist era of occupation that sought to 
     subjugate Polish citizens, extinguish Polish nationalism, and 
     subjected the exercise of individual religious liberty to the 
     control of godless Stalinist rulers;
       Whereas, in 1946, Pope John Paul II was ordained, later 
     becoming a Professor of Ethics and Chaplain at the Catholic 
     University of Lublin, the only Catholic university behind the 
     Iron Curtain, where he, again at great personal risk, 
     initiated activities that helped to preserve the 
     intellectual, cultural, and historical richness of his 
     homeland and protected the integrity and independence of the 
     Catholic Church in Poland;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II was an articulate and outspoken 
     advocate for religious freedom and Christian humanism at 
     Vatican Council II, asserting that the Church could not claim 
     religious liberty for itself unless it was willing to concede 
     it to others;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II, upon returning to his homeland, 
     frequently cited the Council's declaration that religious 
     freedom was ``the first of human rights'', a phrase embraced 
     by Polish Catholics in their struggle against the hegemony of 
     the Communist regime;
       Whereas, on October 16, 1978, Pope John Paul II was elected 
     the 264th Pope, making history by becoming the first-ever 
     Slavic Pope and the first non-Italian Pope in more than 400 
     years;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II served for over 26 years as 
     Bishop of Rome and Supreme Pastor of the Catholic Church, and 
     as the spiritual leader of more than 1,000,000,000 Catholic 
     Christians around the world, including more than 66,000,000 
     Catholic Christians in the United States;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II served the third-longest 
     pontificate, behind only Saint Peter, who served as Pope for 
     over 34 years, and Blessed Pius IX, who served for over 31 
     years;

[[Page S3157]]

       Whereas Pope John Paul II was a unique, substantial, and 
     historic catalyst in the demise of Soviet communism and the 
     emancipation of hundreds of millions of people from 
     totalitarian rule;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II, in his inaugural sermon, boldly 
     offered hope to oppressed peoples around the world while 
     causing authoritarian rulers to brace by proclaiming ``open 
     the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the 
     vast fields of culture, civilization, and development. Do not 
     be afraid.'';
       Whereas, in June 1979, Pope John Paul II returned to his 
     native Poland for 9 days, unleashing patriotic and religious 
     forces that would ultimately lead to the peaceful toppling of 
     the Communist regime in Poland and the dramatic demise of the 
     Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II, before visiting his native 
     Poland in 1987, met with President Ronald Reagan, who 
     recognized the fruits of His Holiness' labors by stating ``be 
     assured that the hearts of the American people are with you. 
     Our prayers will go with you in profound hope that the 
     terrible burden of brave people everywhere who yearn for 
     freedom, even as all men and women yearn for the freedom that 
     God gave us all. . . . We see the power of the spiritual 
     force in that troubled land, uniting a people in hope, just 
     as we see the powerful stirrings in the East of a belief that 
     will not die despite generations of oppression. . . . For 
     despite all the attempts to extinguish it, the people's faith 
     burns with a passionate heat: once allowed to breathe free, 
     that faith will burn so brightly it will light the world.'';
       Whereas Pope John Paul II was recognized by Lady Margaret 
     Thatcher to have ``provided the main impetus for the revival 
     of Solidarity and the pressure for reform [in his native 
     Poland]'';
       Whereas Pope John Paul II was acknowledged by Mikhail 
     Gorbachev to have played an essential role in the liberation 
     of those who lived under European communism when he stated 
     ``everything that happened in Eastern Europe . . . would have 
     been impossible without this Pope'';
       Whereas Pope John Paul II carried on an active 
     correspondence with world leaders during the 1980s, involving 
     the Church in efforts to promote peace by reducing tensions, 
     and exerting his moral authority to persuade the superpowers 
     to engage in a ``dialogue'' that succeeded in reducing 
     conventional and nuclear weapons and helped to avert a 
     nuclear war;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II used public and private diplomacy 
     and the power of moral persuasion to encourage world leaders 
     to respect the inalienable rights of the human person;
       Whereas, on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II, was shot by a 
     would-be assassin, and nevertheless provided a remarkable 
     example of the power of grace, later visiting his attacker in 
     prison, and stating afterwards ``I spoke to him as I would 
     speak to a brother whom I have forgiven and who enjoys my 
     confidence'';
       Whereas Pope John Paul II ministered to Catholic and non-
     Catholic alike, providing a personal example of grace, 
     endurance, compassion, courage, sacrifice, and foresight;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II sought to heal divisions between 
     the Catholic Church and other Christian faiths, the Jewish 
     faith, and Islam, expressing sadness and regret for the 
     individual acts of present and former Catholics who 
     persecuted members of other faiths and promoting 
     reconciliation and dialogue through the first-ever Papal 
     visits to synagogues and mosques, as well as visits to areas 
     of historic conflict, including Ireland and the Holy Land;
       Whereas, in 1995, Pope John Paul II wrote of ``the 
     incomparable worth of the human person,'' noting that: ``Even 
     in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person 
     sincerely open to truth and goodness can, by the light of 
     reason and the hidden action of grace, come to recognize . . 
     . the sacred value of human life . . . and can affirm the 
     right of every human being to have this primary good 
     respected to the highest degree'';
       Whereas, in 1998, Pope John Paul II visited Cuba to speak 
     directly to the Cuban people and their Communist rulers, 
     calling for political and religious freedom, the release of 
     political prisoners, a recognition of the right to express 
     one's faith ``in the context of public life'', and the 
     importance of fundamental human dignities, including that 
     ``each person enjoying freedom of expression, being free to 
     undertake initiatives and make proposals within civil 
     society, and enjoying appropriate freedom of association'' is 
     a necessity;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II traveled farther than any other 
     Pope in history, traversing approximately \3/4\ of a million 
     miles, visiting 130 countries, including African nations 
     never before visited by a Pope, being seen by more people 
     than anyone in human history, and evangelizing to more than 
     6,000,000 people in the closing mass of World Youth Day '95 
     in the Philippines;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II changed the course of history, 
     leading the Catholic Church through a dramatic and remarkable 
     period, and into Christianity's third millennium;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II devoted his life to the 
     amelioration of the human cost of terror and oppression 
     through his dedication to truth, forgiveness, and the 
     development of a vibrant public moral culture;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II articulated the importance of 
     individual liberty being undergirded by a ``moral order'', 
     embraced the poor and oppressed masses of the world, and 
     encouraged governments and the faithful to attend to the 
     needs of those who are less fortunate;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II brought hope and inspiration to 
     hundreds of millions of people around the world oppressed by 
     tyranny, hunger, disease, and despair;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II worked tirelessly to bring peace 
     to regions of the world that have been driven by strife, 
     intolerance, hatred, and violence for far too long;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II changed the lives of billions of 
     people across the globe;
       Whereas Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, after 
     heroically proclaiming the value and dignity of human life 
     through his long physical illness and suffering;
       Whereas the passing of Pope John Paul II is mourned by 
     billions of people around the world; and
       Whereas Pope John Paul II is already being referred to as 
     Pope John Paul the Great: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) notes with deep sorrow and solemn mourning the death of 
     His Holiness, Pope John Paul II;
       (2) extends its heartfelt sympathy to all people who have 
     been touched by the passing of John Paul II;
       (3) commends Pope John Paul II for his ability to transcend 
     the bounds of religion, race, and political thought, becoming 
     a formidable champion, uniter, and defender in humanity's 
     struggle for peace and basic human rights; and
       (4) calls on all the people of the United States to reflect 
     on the life and legacy of Pope John Paul II during this 
     international period of remembrance.

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