The Smile and Soul of Pope John Paul II
By Raymond Fontaine, Ph.D. - April 8, 2005
On April 2, 2005, Pope John Paul II died. According to what he had written and preached earlier, he had now shed his body and his smile - but not his soul. With his soul, the Pope lives on in heaven awaiting the final resurrection of all mankind. When that happens, his soul will reanimate his former body and restore his smile. That is what the Pope thought and taught.
Eleven years ago, in 1994, the Pope published his Catechism of the Catholic Church. In his book of 2865 paragraphs, he wrote little about heaven and even less about the condition of human souls in heaven. He said more about the soul on earth. In paragraphs 364 and 366, he asserts "The human body is animated by a spiritual soul. Every soul is created immediately by God - it is not produced by the parents - and it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection."
Since the soul is spiritual i.e. immaterial, humans cannot observe it nor verify what the Pope said. But the Pope told his subjects not to worry because he is infallible in such matters. In paragraphs 890 and 891 of his Catechism, the Pope wrote, "Christ endowed the Roman Pontiff with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals." In paragraph 2035, the Pope added," This infallibility extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed." Whoever believes that the Pope is infallible can also believe what he proclaimed concerning the human soul: it is spiritual like God, immaterial and immortal. Millions believe this because the Pope said so.
So did I for fifty years until I no longer believed in the Church and its Pope. From then on, I have relied on my reason to know the truth. For things in nature that I cannot observe and verify on my own, I rely on sincere scientists to uncover and reveal how things in nature really work. Galileo told us that the earth rotates around the sun. Einstein exposed that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. The biologists Watson and Crick discovered and revealed to us the double helix of DNA. I believe them.
I also agree with the Pope when he wrote in his Catechism that the wonders of nature presuppose an intelligent Creator. In paragraph 37, Pope John Paul II said "The person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him in the sense of converging and convincing arguments which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. Starting from the world order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin of the universe."
In paragraph 34, the Pope writes, "There exists a reality which is the first cause of all things, a reality that everyone calls God." Again in paragraph 46, the Popes writes, "When man listens to the message of creation, he can arrive at certainty about the existence of God, the cause of everything." Spoken like a true Deist. If the Pope had stopped there, I would have applauded him wholeheartedly.
Unfortunately the Pope continued writing 2819 more paragraphs about "another order of knowledge" all about supernatural things, persons, and places. The Pope said that God revealed them to a few ancient prophets. This revelation was then handed down by word of mouth for centuries and eventually recorded in Holy Scripture and elaborated by Popes and priests. But none of these supernatural revelations can be observed and verified. They can only be believed on the word of other humans.
In conclusion, let me recall my opening paragraph. If the Pope wrote the truth about his soul being spiritual and immortal, he may have to wait a million or more years for the resurrection of his body and the restoration of his smile. Long before that, the Pope will have been forgotten and likewise the solemnity of his wake, the pomp of his funeral and his glorified notion of the human soul. For the list of my essays, click here