| Editor : Abbé Georges de Nantes | N° 85 – October 2009 |
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OUR LADY OF FATIMA CAMP 2009
KAROL WOJTYLA, A CONSUMMATE ACTOR
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
The hearing is open. In the cause for the beatification of Karol Wojtyla, the Tribunal wishes to hear the testimony of Fr. Mieczyslaw Malinski. I believe that you knew the Servant of God very well. Before giving you the floor, I simply recall that this testimony is heard in the presence of the Promoter of the Faith who will intervene whenever he wishes in order to raise his objections… if, of course, there should be objections.
Father, the Tribunal will hear you.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Thank you, Excellency.
Without entering into all the details of his life, I will begin simply by saying that the Servant of God was born on 18 May 1920. He was baptised on 20 June in the church of Wadowice. His father, a former non-commissioned officer of the Austrian army, was employed at the Headquarters of the Military district of Cracow.
He had a brother, Edmund, who was twelve years his senior, and a little sister, who had already returned to God.
His mother died in 1929, and three years later his brother died of scarlet fever during an epidemic.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
The latter was a doctor, I believe?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, absolutely.
I did not know Karol Wojtyla at that time but he had, I believe, the reputation of being a boy without reproach, a good pupil, very kind and sociable; his home was full of friends whom he helped with homework. Above all, he was of an exemplary piety. Imagine, he would serve several Masses one after the other every morning, and, furthermore, he would become president of the Sodality of Our Lady.
Here is an insignificant event that had great consequences for the Servant of God: he gave the welcoming speech on behalf of the students in honour of Cardinal Sapieha, who was making a pastoral visit to the Collegium Majus in 1938. At the time, he was eighteen years old. Apparently he made a strong impression, for the cardinal asked whether the young man showed signs of a vocation. Doubtless you will be surprised, but at that time nothing indicated that he would become a priest. No, he was rather enamoured of theatre and of Professor Kotlarczyk. It is true that his great passion was for the theatre and he had already played leading roles with the same depth that he put into his prayer, his work, and his penance.
The Promoter of the Faith
This way of praying as though one were acting is odd!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, but… it is just a figure of speech…
In the autumn of 1938 his father and he came to live at Cracow. Karol enrolled for a course in Letters at the Jagellone University and was keenly interested in literature and drama.
A year later there occurred the German and Soviet invasions. In order to avoid being rounded up, the Servant of God, like all the students, became a worker. He joined Solvay’s as a manual labourer. He worked there until 1944. It was during this period that his father left the scene, in 1941, I believe.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Thus, this was a rather sad period of his life?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
As it was for many Poles; life was difficult, but I would not say that for Karol it was sad. Professor Kotlarczyk was also at Cracow, and he set up a new troupe, the Rhapsodic Theatre. The Servant of God was immediately the principal element, and he then had a passion for refinement of “the word”!
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Refinement of the word? It is undoubtedly very interesting, but, Father, could you tell us a bit more about it?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Your Excellency, I believe that the best thing to do is to quote to you the Servant of God himself. I have before me an article from 1957 in which he wrote – you will see… a true gem! – « It was then that I discovered, or rather that this deep interior conviction was confirmed: the living word of man is the essential element of dramatic art… The new relations between word and movement, between word and gesture are inserted much more deeply, they go beyond the theatre and penetrate the heart of the philosophical conception of man and of the world. » It is absolutely magnificent!
The Promoter of the Faith
Do you understand? I don’t! But I note in passing that by making such remarks the Servant of God justifies his exercises of dramatic art in pursuit of reaching a meaningful, persuasive, and enchanting power of declamation, gesture, and mime. Must we deduce that all his life he was a showman, a consummate actor, and a master of the word? It is a question that the Tribunal must answer, it seems to me.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
During this period, can you tell us if the Servant of God had a master?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, I believe that we can say that Jan Tyranowski was a master for Karol and me. He was a man whom we met at St. Stanislas Kostka’s church after an evening service. He was about forty years old. He led the life of a recluse under his mother’s roof, and yet he had an extraordinary radiance. He looked after young people whom he had picked out to guide, as a spiritual master, towards the fullness of the Christian life.
The Promoter of the Faith
With a commission from the hierarchy, I suppose.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
No, not particularly. But he had such a charism! Besides, Karol recognised that Jan Tyranowski had opened him to the riches of his interior life, of his mystical life. In fact, by his word, his spirituality, and the example of his life entirely given to God, our friend depicted for Karol and me a new world hitherto unknown to us. In this world what counted was discipline, self-control, the ordering of one’s interior life, making use of every moment, the art of repose, the organisation of every day so that it be filled with the essentials: not just work and leisure…
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
… spiritual exercises?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… spiritual exercises, naturally, which were comprised of reading Holy Scripture, Mass, if possible, or at least a short prayer in Church. His goal was « the fullness of interior life ».
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
That is good, really very, very good. I do not know what you think about it…
The Promoter of the Faith
Oh! But Excellency, I think exactly as you do. It is obviously excellent… at least if it is really a question of reaching the perfection of virtues in order to attain union with God. Now, in what you say, we might suspect a false interpretation of Christian asceticism and mysticism, centred not on Christ, but on man, on his self-fulfilment rather than on the service of God and neighbour. It is not the same thing.
In any case, it was not an apostolic work subject to the hierarchy. There is no question here of accomplishing some recognised liturgical, expiatory, charitable or educative function in the Church. No! Apparently, it is instead a question of enticing young people to take care of their little selves in order that they attain the truth of God living in them, the life in presence of God, in one’s prayer and one’s daily life.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
The objection is interesting but would rather concern the cause for beatification of Jan Tyranowski and, thank God, it has not been referred to us.
Father, I should like you to continue your account. We were in…
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… in 1942, Excellency, the year in which Karol entered Mgr Sapieha’s seminary. As a clandestine seminarian, nothing changed in his life as a labourer at Solvay’s. No, he prayed more, mortified himself even more, and, above all, no longer took part in the rhapsodic theatre’s rehearsals.
He worked so hard and with such intellectual capacity that from his second year as a regular seminarian he was made the seminary’s assistant master in dogma and the history of dogma. Even then, he understood that the individual position, the spirit, and the option a man adopts should take priority over any institution external to him. Under these conditions, you will not be surprised that all his fellow disciples should have grouped themselves around him and should have come to submit their problems to him.
The Promoter of the Faith
Well, I say, let us hope that all that is not pride!
It is, in fact, amazing that Cardinal Sapieha, who had been a close friend of St. Pius X and had been appointed by him as Archbishop of Cracow, he who was the undisputed head of the Church and her people, should not have left some imprint on the mind and soul of the Servant of God.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
But I think, to the contrary, that he would have a very great influence on Karol. It was he who decided to send him to Rome for two years to study at the Angelicum. He saw to his being ordained priest before his departure.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
What year are we in?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
In 1946, I believe.
At the Angelicum, he attended the courses of some very prestigious professors, Fathers Brown, Ciappi, Paul Philippe, and even Garrigou-Lagrange.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Was this the Servant of God’s opinion?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
I suppose it was… but, to be honest, I cannot remember Karol ever speaking to me about his former professors.
The Promoter of the Faith
Thus, we may as well say that these professors, as prestigious as they were, had no influence on the Servant of God. It is obvious.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
But he was very impressed by the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas; it was for him « of such wonderful beauty… », I am quoting him, « so charming, and at the same time so uncomplicated. Depth of thought does not seem to need a profusion of words. It is even quite possible that the fewer the words, the deeper the meaning [....]. But I have some way to go before discovering my own philosophy. »
The Promoter of the Faith
« … before discovering my own philosophy »! What an odd conclusion ! Really, I have the clear impression that Rome instructed the Servant of God more than she influenced him.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Perhaps his study trip in France and Belgium would have more « influence » on him, to use this term. Cardinal Sapieha rightly harboured such great hopes for Karol, so he sent him to these two countries with a confrere to be trained in new pastoral methods.
I believe that he was very impressed by the community life in the Mission de France, which gave place of honour to relationships that were more democratic than the normal scheme of things: parish priest – patron, curates – assistants. He was able to observe pastoral work on the spot, the essence of which consists of Christ’s presence through each person’s life, and, in particular, through poverty, disinterestedness, and open-handedness.
The Promoter of the Faith
What about the priests working in the factories who become Communists and who asked, or did not ask, to get married?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
For him, that was only a secondary aspect of this magnificent work.
Upon his return to Poland in 1948, he was appointed curate of the small rural parish of Niegowic. He would not remain there long, however, for in 1949 Cardinal Sapieha appointed him to Saint Florian’s, the best parish in Cracow. Since he acquitted himself very well in his ministry, especially his work with the youth, he would rapidly be directed towards the professoriate. It was one of the final decisions taken by Cardinal Sapieha, who died shortly afterwards on 23 July 1951.
The Promoter of the Faith
This was the death of the Servant of God’s great protector, of course, but was it that of a master…?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Thus, from 1951 on, Karol Wojtyla busied himself only with his philosophical studies at the Catholic University of Lublin. I must say that he rather avoided priests; it was particularly the youngest among the teaching staff who sought his company. Two of them, for example, always shared a table with Karol in the refectory. When he had finished eating, Karol would push back his chair and, swinging backwards and forwards on the back legs, he would launch into a discussion: philosophy, morality, sport and, above all, theatre. Some of the young professors were fascinated by his acting experience.
His sermons also took on a dramatic character, from the way he interpreted the themes and modulated his voice. He took a certain pleasure in it, quite unconsciously...
The Promoter of the Faith
… Oh! You know, unconsciousness does not exist in an actor!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, in fact what I simply wanted to say is that for Karol Wojtyla acting was second nature, and he had an unparalleled talent for it. In any case, he was aware of his gifts and of the prestige that he enjoyed among the clergy…
The Promoter of the Faith
… that is to say his superiority over them...
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… if you like… But it was real. Furthermore, Mgr Baziak was not mistaken with regard to him. When he returned to Cracow in 1956, he found Fr. Wojtyla with so many activities on hand and so much admired, that he chose him for auxiliary bishop. He was consecrated on 28 September as the youngest bishop in Poland. He was thirty-eight years old.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
But before 1956, this was the terrible period of Stalinist persecutions. Do you know whether the Servant of God was bothered at some stage?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Not to my knowledge.
Straight away, Mgr Wojtyla seemed to rise to the height of his new dignity and to conduct himself in it with perfect ease. Take, for example, the pastoral visit he made in my parish of Rabka. I remember very well. First of all, he had expressed the wish to be greeted without fanfares or trumpets. That is him all over! Obviously, his wishes were not taken into account. Well, he accepted it all good-naturedly. Then came the moment for the confirmation candidates to be examined. Oh dear! If he questions them as some bishops do…
The Promoter of the Faith
… it is the rule nevertheless…
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… it was, perhaps, the rule, but it would surely have been a total disaster. But no, he did nothing of the sort. He smiled as he talked, with a dash of humour and great seriousness and sincere friendship, but he was not examining them. Phew! I knew that this was how he usually conducted himself, but I could not imagine that he kept this attitude even on official and liturgical occasions. No, really, for that he was great.
Even with priests, authority yielded to friendship despite the grave matters to be settled. No, he thought that a canonical visitation was not an inspection…
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
… Well, yes! It is also an inspection. But just what were these matters to be settled?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
There were in particular tensions between priests, and then between the parish priest who wanted to make all the decisions and the curate who shut himself off and no longer wanted to talk to the “old man”! But he thought that these things were nothing tragic. As soon as priests live together, tensions are bound to exist.
The Promoter of the Faith
Contrary to what you think, this is not normal. It is odd that the Servant of God did not put an end to the irregularities that he must have necessarily seen nor to the curates’ insubordination to their parish priests. Because, after all, from such a visitation that you find exemplary, tell us who wins? Those children who do not know their catechism? Those curates who found nothing better to do than to tell their parish priests where to get off? No one! All of that gives the impression that no problem was settled, that nothing was decided; but he did not forget to get seen! You find that great; as for me, I find it pathetic!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
That is perhaps your opinion, but it was not that of the chapter of Cracow, which appointed him administrator of the diocese in June 1962, following the death of Mgr Baziak. Paul VI, moreover, confirmed this choice two years later by appointing him Metropolitan Archbishop of Cracow, one of the most prestigious metropolitan sees in the whole of Europe, no less! This would consequently open to him the doors of the Sacred College; he was made a cardinal on 26 June 1967.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Good, then talk to us about the governance of the diocese by the Servant of God!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
I must say that he directed the metropolitan curia very well in his own simple and direct manner. He seemed to be “above” those with whom he entered into contact as bishop and then as cardinal. He did not do so because of his high office. He was unwilling at any cost to use his authority to establish and maintain contacts with others. No! What intimidated many people was his rich, profound and powerful spirituality, which was immediately noticeable.
It would be difficult to say of Karol that he was “the head” of his diocese. He did not wish to govern in an autocratic, authoritarian manner…
The Promoter of the Faith
… as had his predecessors, in the old manner…
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… but he sought, rather, to direct, i.e., to give those gifted with initiative…
The Promoter of the Faith
… the young Turks!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… those with independent minds, those who possess a sound, creative imagination…
The Promoter of the Faith
… you mean innovators…
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… the opportunity of working together. Thank you !
The Promoter of the Faith
What you have just said leaves a bizarre impression, to say the least: the impression is one of a leader who renounces his legitimacy and claims to impose himself by no other means than his personal, mystical, charismatic superiority, even as every other form of power is crushed.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
But no, not at all! He did not impose himself, less yet anything at all. Look for example at what it was like in the Curia before. It was dark, narrow… in short, no one really wanted to go there to work, believe me. Well! The utmost was done to make the interior pleasant. Do you know what the cardinal ordered? Nothing. It was the people themselves who did it.
I give you the example of the reorganisation of the curia, but for the rest it was the same. The result was a perpetual outpouring: national congresses of theologians, symposiums devoted to various problems, to which were invited the highest authorities both secular and religious.
He also gave his whole-hearted support to Fr. Blachnicki’s “Oasis” action for the young, despite the opposition of some.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Really! Because there was opposition?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, some priests and Bishops were categorically opposed to this project. Allegedly this movement was too charismatic: the young people who have been on Fr. Blacknicki’s retreats think that they know better and want to reform everything in the parish. But the Cardinal understood that it was an initiative that had to be immediately taken in hand and given his particular care. It also had to be given a theological basis... He committed himself personally, then, in the life of the “Oasis”.
The Promoter of the Faith
All this gives the impression of an overheating. Spend, where his predecessors had accommodated themselves to the discomfort of poverty. Allow what had been forbidden. At all costs invent novelties that no one had ever dreamed of. Then suddenly, it begins to move and catches fire. There’s Life! There’s Joy!... in short, we do better than our predecessors and colleagues. Better than Cardinal Wyszinski? Is that not so?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
No! No! That was not at all Cardinal Wojtyla’s state of mind! It is true that there was a difference… how can I say?… of style between the two men: Wyszinski was the prophet, the head, the politician, the man set on a pedestal…
The Promoter of the Faith
That is him in his place!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… while Karol Wojtyla was rather in the style of a friend, a partner. Moreover, there were political differences, but above all, the Servant of God wanted to avoid a break within the episcopate; this explains his absolute loyalty to the Primate of Poland….
The Promoter of the Faith
…absolute loyalty, or “I embrace my rival the better to smother him”?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Do you mind?…
The Promoter of the Faith
… but the facts speak for themselves. This loyalty seemed to be a pure facade, for the Servant of God never renounced his ideas, specifically, those that put him in opposition to Cardinal Wyszinski, for example, on the question of human rights. No, Father, contrary to what you think, that seems to me to be a union of appearance alone. It is quite obvious! For the Servant of God, it was a matter of taking up an attitude of expectation, of avoiding any conflict, in accord with the tactic of the Modernists who under Pius XII kept under cover and awaited the rock that they were besieging to be worn away and fall.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Speaking of revolution, can you give a description of the role the Servant of God played at the Council?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
He attended all the sessions, first as a young bishop of forty-two, then as archbishop.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
On the whole, to which side did he belong?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
To the side favourable to the current of reform. He gave eight speeches altogether, and they made a great impression on the minds of his hearers; this is true in particular of the one delivered on 28 October 1964. Karol was to make an intervention that was of major importance for him. I was there and remarked that he was more concentrated than usual. He even went to pray at length in the Blessed Sacrament chapel before approaching the microphone.
The Promoter of the Faith
The holy man!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
He declared that the Council had no choice but to elaborate a document on the Church in the contemporary world and demanded that Schema XIII…
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
… you are speaking of Gaudium et Spes?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, precisely; thus I was saying that Karol wanted the proposal to be revised. At that moment the auditorium fell quiet, and he explained, quite calmly moreover, that on the proposed text – I remind you that we were in the session of 1964 – it was the Church that instructs the world by placing herself above this world in the certainty of possessing the truth, whilst demanding the world’s obedience.
The Promoter of the Faith
I cannot see anything wrong, since it is a question of the clear, divine, and infallible truth.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, but that is precisely the point. Karol explained that the Church should not appear solely as teaching from the height of her position, but as also, together with the world seeking true and just solutions to resolve the difficult problems concerning human life. He also explained that the Schema should not only stress the value of the truth known by the Church alone, but should show how the world can discover it and accept it as its own.
The Promoter of the Faith
But this declaration is quite simply incredible. It amounts no less to forbidding the Church from claiming any Magisterium whatsoever over the world. And no one reacted?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
No! On the contrary, the Fathers of the Council listened to the Servant of God with amazing attention while he explained to them that the project of 1964 was only fit for the waste paper basket! Karol advocated the heuristic method, you know, the one that allows pupils to discover the truth on their own. For him, the important thing was that the reasoning should be clear and simple and that for moral questions, the reasoning behind them, should rest on the laws of nature, while avoiding all moralising and remonstrating. The argument should be of a rational character, although it could also be of a theological order. It was very subtle.
The Promoter of the Faith
Excellency, if I understand what has just been said to us, it is the Church and through her, Jesus Christ Our Lord, who is forbidden the Magisterium. The world has to discover the truth through its own light. Christ, the Church can only help humbly and discreetly. The world would not receive lessons and orders from above, from On High; the Servant of God has empowered it to give them to itself. Come on!
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Did the Servant of God add anything else?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
No! He had finished his intervention. All the Fathers looked at him, apparently very impressed, while he came back to his place with his head bowed.
The Promoter of the Faith
What astounding humility!
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Do you think that the Servant of God’s participation in the Council was in some manner a springboard for him towards the Sovereign Pontificate?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
It seems to me that several reasons can be put forward to explain why the majority of the cardinals chose their Polish confrere during the second conclave of ’78.
First of all there were his numerous travels. They played a great role in his election: they enabled him to forge personal contacts with those bishops who would later on become the cardinals who took part in the conclave. It is not exaggerating to say that Karol visited the whole world from 1965 to 1979.
As you have observed, the Council also played a great role, especially with Mgr Wojtyla’s work on Schema XIII. But the synod of bishops was incomparably more important in that it gathered together every two years the elite of the world episcopate and delegates from every country.
The Promoter of the Faith
Excellency! All that is nothing but travel and chattering. Whether the Servant of God had been a creator, a realiser, a converter nothing is less sure today, but an actor, we are definitely sure of that.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
There again, you are on the wrong track. We are agreed that all these travels, synods and sojourns at the Vatican made Cardinal Wojtyla known to his confreres, but that would have led to nothing had he not convinced them of his personal genius. What was this genius? To have succeeded in applying the Second Vatican Council when everyone, or almost everyone, had failed.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Continue, what you are saying is of utmost importance!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
In the West, many priests left the priesthood, men and women religious abandoned their monasteries. There is no denying the facts. Devotion to the Sacred Heart, to the Blessed Virgin, to the saints, Stations of the Cross and the Rosary were suppressed and not replaced with anything! Modern man is said to be sufficiently mature, that only his conversion matters, and that he could be converted all by himself. The Sacrament of Penance has therefore been rejected.
In the meanwhile, in Poland, our country was tilled with retreats and missions that presented the conciliar constitutions as tasks to be fulfilled. Besides, I will tell you that for the episcopate, the Council was only one aspect of the life of the Church.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Thus, if I understand you well, everywhere in the world the reform of Vatican II takes the shape of a failure, of a catastrophe, and does so with greater severity…
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… I would say rather that it is a greater tragedy than even the Reformation.
The Promoter of the Faith
… and everyone dared to admit it in 1978. They thus sought out some giant, some saint who would save what was left and bring about this new Pentecost that had been imprudently announced without yet appearing. In short, all eyes and votes turned towards the Servant of God; he had the reputation of having made a success of the conciliar reform in Poland and of being someone who would take steps producing the same success in the Universal Church. Because it was necessary to save the Church, and at the same time, the Council.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Father, I would like for us to evoke the thought of the Servant of God, in particular, his philosophy.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Excellency, I shall be delighted to do so.
First, we can say that Karol knew St. Thomas thoroughly, but phenomenology above all. His philosophical speciality is ethics, or a study of a whole range of problems of the highest importance for contemporary man. In ethics, he is particularly interested in the problem of love in general, and of conjugal love in particular.
The Promoter of the Faith
Good heavens, what a fall! From Thomism to phenomenology, to land in the restricted domain of morality. From there he continues to fall into the special area of love, and from there, one final constriction, into the very particular problem of conjugal love. I was unaware, moreover, that in and of itself it was a question of a “problem”.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
It was in 1951, after he completed the cursus of ecclesiastical studies at the Angelicum, in Rome, with the most famous Scholastic philosophers and theologians of the time…
The Promoter of the Faith
… from whom the Servant of God retained nothing…
Mieczyslaw Malinski
… that he began to study the possibility of founding a Catholic moral system on the basis of Max Scheler’s ethical system. I must admit that he used to tell us that his work was sometimes obscure. But it is certainly because of the depth of his thought that our minds did not grasp it.
The Promoter of the Faith
Not at all surprising when one knows that Scheler is the most abstruse of German philosophers.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
For him, the most important thing was to reconcile Thomism and the philosophy of Max Scheler. This would be the subject of the thesis that he defended in 1954. The more I listened, the more I realised that what he was presenting was not St. Thomas, nor was it Scheler, nor anything else, moreover. No, it was his own synthesis of various philosophical currents.
For Karol, love became the central problem of his reflection. The matter of his dissertations, his experimental field was to be found in his contacts with the people whom he met every day: the boys and girls whose company he kept and who came on the excursions that he organised, who were bound by profound ties of friendship and enjoyed themselves in his presence. Karol, with his analytical mind, tried to describe, to understand, and then proceeded to synthesise, in order to create his own vision of man.
The Promoter of the Faith
Always his vision, his conception, but never that of anyone else! Excellency, I regret to point out that all of that is not a question of theology, the science of revealed divine mysteries, nor is it a question of philosophy, the science of the things of nature explained by means of universal reason, but of morality, and what morality! A morality that sees itself profoundly anchored in psychology and the laboratory, for this research was undoubtedly conducted during these famous excursions to which you have just alluded.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
In some respect, yes. I believe that it is worthwhile that I explain to you what these famous excursions were. It all began in April 1952. Cardinal Sapieha had died shortly before. Karol had the idea of organising an excursion to Zakopane – to admire the crocuses in bloom – with a group of friends composed of men and women students. Anecdotally, he found himself alone at the station with five young girls; the boys could not come because they had exams. That was no problem; he went all the same. His friends then got into the habit of calling him “uncle” – Wujek – to avoid creating a sensation among the people on the train. You know that at that time it was rather out of the ordinary for a priest to set off alone with young girls, but for his part, it was a courageous gesture.
The Promoter of the Faith
Courageous! Is setting off with five young girls, beginning with a night on a train, what you call an act of bravery? Oh yes, my little bunny!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
But it was not what you think. The prevailing atmosphere was one of extreme simplicity and great friendship. Besides, he changed from his cassock into plus fours.
The Promoter of the Faith
Thus, he disguised himself as a layman!
Mieczyslaw Malinski
The young people prayed together often and said the Rosary every day. Every morning Mass was celebrated on an altar made of upturned canoes. Every kind of outing possessed its style. There were winter skiing camps, as well as canoeing in summer, etc. But there was always a retreat; that was the time for profound prayer, for heated discussion and animated debates in the quest for man in his perfect stature.
The Promoter of the Faith
You were, therefore, no longer in search of Christ or of God! Nor were you in search of evangelical perfection, conversion of soul, the faith, or virtues. Nor were you seeking the salvation of the nation, the service of neighbour, the poor, or the Church. Nothing of all that. It is unbelievable! But that reminds me of what you said earlier about Jan Tyranowski: the quest for man. And those boys and girls grouped around the Servant of God found in him, it is only too clear, the perfect man: for some, he was their ideal, for others their love.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
When listening to you, we really get the feeling that the Servant of God in the midst of these young people charmed them more than he taught them. Am I mistaken?
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Karol had an extraordinary charisma with respect to these young people. His natural sincerity, his exceptional gift for communicating with others, charmed both their hearts and their minds. His personality attracted them like a magnet, indeed. He did not forget to preach to them of asceticism and renunciation, which he presented to them as Christian virtues necessary to attain spiritual progress and self-fulfilment. Very often, he spoke to them of the importance of love and of joy in the faith of the young. How they listened to him then!
The Promoter of the Faith
Yes, but asceticism and renunciation that is taught for self-fulfilment is of no more worth than fear mastered for a parachute jump. What is a faith all impregnated with love and joy rather than with prayer and sacrifice, devotion, and the cross, if not a faith in man and a love of self?
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
In any case, I imagine that once he became bishop, the Servant of God must have wanted to transpose this climate of friendship, freedom, and fraternity to the Church of Cracow, starting with the seminary, for example.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Yes, Excellency, Karol wanted to implant there this climate of freedom, and I would even say of equality. For example, twice a year he had an interview with each one of the seminarians, but not in the role of superior but that of a father. I also remember very well Christmas nights. They all gathered around the crib set up in the assembly room. Wojtyla would sit amongst the seminarians – often on the floor – and he would sing canticles with them. For that, he was really great.
As regards the clergy, he never raised his voice with anyone, never showed irritation. The solutions that he proposed for such and such a problem were always acceptable and accepted.
The Promoter of the Faith
And not the orders that he obviously never imposed. That is typical of the Servant of God.
Mieczyslaw Malinski
Karol frequently organised meetings with the younger priests. He had faith in them, and he himself organised the allocation of the younger priests with regard to the older ones, who did not always see that with a good eye, I must admit. Perhaps he wished to play a role in the final stage of their formation.
The Promoter of the Faith
Or he wanted quite simply to be everything for them!
Which, I admit to you, worries me. Excellency, in these few examples that have just been given to us, we see the Servant of God introducing the revolution of « love »; it certainly had no other effect than to make authority crumble, to suppress duty of state, to dissolve hierarchies, and to spread democracy within the Church of Cracow and then, finally, in the universal Church.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
We are pressed for time. Before closing this hearing, I leave it to the Promoter of the Faith to present his initial conclusions concerning the testimony of Fr. Malinski. Father, you have the floor.
The Promoter of the Faith
Thank you, Excellency. I will be brief.
We are in the presence of an extraordinary man, it is obvious. A rapid career without the slightest hitch. And yet, the Servant of God has been a poet, an actor, a student, a writer and journalist, a manual worker, a skier, a kayaker, a swimmer, an ice skater, an alpine climber, a footballer, a theologian and brilliant philosopher, a priest, lecturer, professor, bishop, archbishop, cardinal and to top them all, Pope – he was even the Pope. Just try it yourself! I have not remarked in him anything particularly outstanding: no conflict with the world, no persecution, no service of the poor or of the sick, no preaching to the wicked followed by astounding conversions. Have you heard of foundations of works, of fruitful religious orders? No, absolutely nothing!
Then when we are informed of the Servant of God’s activity, they can be reduced to his philosophical works and the memorable holiday camps of a restricted group of boys and girls gathered around him. What is Karol Wojtyla other than a mixture of modern phenomenology, existentialism, and personalism, that have been exclusively fed by experiences of and reflections on love, meaning sexual love, with the aim of teaching human beings to be happy through this love and to renew all their social relationships by substituting friendship for authority? That, Father, you clearly showed us!
Then the Servant of God turned away from the first object of his study, which was that of love, in order to focus and lock himself more and more into self-contemplation, exaltation of man, of his incommensurable dignity, his transcendence over all things and all others, and over the world.
Excellency! My conclusion is simple: after having attentively listened to the testimony of Fr. Malinski I see nothing that could convince you that the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity were practiced by the Servant of God in a heroic manner.
The Presiding Judge of the Tribunal
Well! The Tribunal takes note of all that and thanks you. In the upcoming debates, we will hear the testimony of the Abbé Georges de Nantes, who in 1983 sought to have a trial against the Servant of God for heresy, schism and scandal. The fact is sufficiently rare for an entire hearing to be dedicated to him.
The hearing is adjourned.