[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 5, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3163-S3164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING POPE JOHN PAUL II

  Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, this morning, as the world has taken 
notice of the passing of Pope John Paul II, I rise to speak. I know the 
Senate today will be taking a resolution to speak to the issue of the 
Pope's passing.
  As a person of the Roman Catholic faith myself, I thought it 
important and appropriate that this morning I take a few moments to 
speak to the greatness of this man and the contributions he made not 
only to enriching the faith life of those of us who practice the Roman 
Catholic faith, but to the people of the world as a great statesman and 
moral leader.
  Pope John Paul was one of the remarkable people of our times. His 
papacy lasted 26 years, which is the third longest in the over 2,000-
year history of our church. But it was during tumultuous and difficult 
times. Pope John Paul was prepared for this papacy, prepared for this 
mantle of leadership through tremendous hardships in his life. As a 
young person, he lost his mother very early in life, only to be 
followed by the very dramatic loss of his only brother, and only a very 
few years later the loss of his beloved father. So at a very young age, 
as a very young man, Pope John Paul was left alone in the world without 
any close family. He developed a long and strong network of friendships 
that he maintained all through his life, and even through the days of 
his papacy.
  In addition, the Pope's youth was tempered by living under tyranny, 
by the fact that in his youth he had to be subjected to the tyrannical 
occupation by Germany of his Polish homeland and the persecution of 
people such as himself--people of faith.
  In addition, once that was over and he began to seek his vocational 
pursuit in the priesthood, he had to do so underground, because 
subsequent to the German occupation and the Nazi regimes, and 
immediately thereafter, it was followed by the Communist takeover of 
Poland. Eastern Europe, as we

[[Page S3164]]

all know, became engulfed and contained by what came to be known, in 
the words of Sir Winston Churchill, as the Iron Curtain, with Poland 
falling behind the walls of that Iron Curtain, where religion was 
suppressed, faith was not to be practiced openly, and where he could 
not attend seminary openly. He would have to do it in an underground 
fashion.
  The Pope's preparation for his priesthood and his papacy was forged 
in the difficult times that he faced not only personally but also in 
his life as a citizen of Poland. It then fell upon him to be Pope at a 
time when the world was undergoing change, and at a time when the 
people of his beloved Poland were energized as no other in history by 
his papacy and his theme of ``be not afraid.'' His trip back to Poland 
in the early years of his papacy was punctuated by his remarkable 
reception by the people of Poland--people thirsty for freedom, thirsty 
for an opportunity to end the yoke of tyranny and communism. So the 
papal visit was a transcending moment in the history of Poland. As we 
now know, it was a transcending moment in the history of our world 
because it did signal the beginning of the end of Communist rule in 
Eastern Europe.
  We know Pope John Paul worked closely with several U.S. Presidents 
but none more closely than President Ronald Reagan, in those crucial 
years when the Cold War came to a head, and when we saw the beginning 
of the fraying of what was a failed system, a system that had only been 
maintained through terror and fear. His theme of ``be not afraid'' 
began to be heard and responded to, and the people of Poland began that 
surge toward freedom, which was inevitable in all of Eastern Europe. So 
the Pope's contribution there was crucial, critical, and was something 
that I think we all saw as a tremendous contribution.

  Of course, the Pope also visited the United States on many occasions. 
I believe I have heard over the last several days it was the second 
most visited country after his beloved Poland. It was with great 
significance that we received him here, and it made a tremendous 
difference in the life of our own country. More recently, he visited 
Cuba 8 years ago. Cuba is an imprisoned land where there had never been 
a papal visit. Also, it is a country ruled under the same tyrannical 
communism he saw in his native Poland during his youth and he battled 
all during his adult life being suppressed in his ability to worship 
freely.
  Cuba happens to be the place where I was born, where I began my life, 
and where the principles of the Catholic faith were taught to me early 
in life by my family and my church. It was in that same land that I 
came to understand the meaning of oppression, tyranny, and the lack of 
religious freedom the Pope had experienced in his youth. He and I, in 
different parts of the world, in a sense shared a common experience and 
understanding of the limitations of freedom that are sometimes placed 
upon people by governments that do not respect what we find so basic 
and so rightful, which is the right of free speech and the right of 
practicing one's religion freely. The Pope's trip to Cuba was a 
monumental thing because it helped the people to begin again to 
practice their faith in a more open way. His theme of ``be not afraid'' 
was heard by Cuba, and thousands of Cubans were for the first time 
expressing their faith in an open way, in a way they had not been 
permitted to do before, but which now they dare to do.
  The Pope's visit did not have the same galvanizing political effect 
it had in Poland, where it also led to political change, but it did 
have a strong pastoral theme, a message that the people of Cuba 
welcomed with open arms. It also inspired the archbishop in Santiago, 
Cuba, the second largest city in Cuba, to speak forcefully about 
oppression in Cuba, the lack of religious freedom, and continuation of 
oppression--the kind of religious oppression I felt in my life that led 
me to seek freedom in the United States, with the very help of the same 
church the Pope came to lead, the Catholic Church. His fight against 
atheists and communism over the years also led him to conduct a program 
called Operation Peter Pan, which took 14,000 young people from Cuba to 
freedom in the United States. I was lucky enough to be among them, so 
my life began under the care of the Catholic church.
  I understand fully the religious oppression the people of Cuba have 
suffered, which continues to this day but which the Pope made a little 
better. He gave them a window, an opening, a moment, for the first time 
in over 35 years. Christmas was celebrated in anticipation of the papal 
visit. Unfortunately, Cuba now has fallen back into a more repressive 
practice, and freedom of religion is curtailed even more today.
  As we look at the Pope's life, at this moment in history, as we 
reflect on this remarkable man, his remarkable life, and the 
contributions he made, we also must continue to understand there is 
work still to be done. There are people in the world who still are 
hungry and suffer, and there are those who still lack the religious 
freedoms to openly practice their faith, much as the Pope in his youth 
was curtailed. People today in Cuba and other places around the world 
still yearn for that opportunity to freely worship and to do what we 
do. As we began our proceedings this morning, the Chaplain of the 
Senate offered a word of prayer.
  I conclude by simply saying that we have been touched in our lives by 
this remarkable man, this life which has shaped the world in which we 
live. It is a life well lived. As he has come to the end of his 
journey, I hope those of us who share in his faith and in his ideals of 
the respect of every human life and every human being will continue to 
carry on the wonderful legacy he left for us.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Montana is recognized.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, today I join in mourning the loss of Pope 
John Paul II. In my lifetime, he was the first Pope I can remember who 
could actually be put in the category of being an evangelist.
  No other Pope ever traveled as much as this Pope did, and no man ever 
took the Word to the different corners of the world like this man did, 
and that is why he is so revered around the world.
  (The remarks of Mr. Burns pertaining to the introduction of S. 696 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Martinez). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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