By: Gregory C. Sisk
When John Paul II was consecrated as Bishop for the See of St.
Peter nearly thirty years ago, political and legal scholars and
commentators in the United States were about to enter into a
vitally important intellectual debate on the proper place and
appropriate comportment of religious voices in the public
square. As that scholarly debate unfolded, John Paul offered
through his papacy the model case example for the religious witness
in public life. Over the past quarter-century, he left a
broad and meaningful legacy of social action with his catalytic
role in bringing about the fall of communism, especially in his
homeland of Poland; his prophetic critique of political and
economic systems and cultural trends that undermine the innate
dignity of each human person; his simultaneously reproachful and
hopeful call to western societies to abandon the Culture of Death
and heed the Gospel of Life; his heart for the poor and
disenfranchised; and his words of peace in a troubled world.
To be sure, more work remains to be done, as human dignity
continues to be assaulted in diverse ways, while secularist
societies and institutions continue to be uncomfortable with and
insistent upon diminishing the religious element in public
life. But, through John Paul's vital and faithful presence,
the place in public discourse for the religiously prophetic voice
is more secure now than it has been in many decades.