Pope Francis hailed St John Paul II on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – but carefully avoided criticising communism.
Francis expressed slightly muted praise for his predecessor’s role, saying he was “a protagonist” in the struggle that brought down the wall that for more than two decades symbolised the division of Europe.
Polish-born John Paul II, whom Francis canonised in April, has been widely credited with helping to end communism in Eastern Europe.
On Sunday Francis, refraining from any critique of communism, said “a culture of compromise” and “co-operation” would bring down “walls” of division in today’s world.
The Pope has made mending relations with communist China one of the aims of his papacy. China is one of few countries that has had no diplomatic relations with the Vatican and little contact since shortly after the country's 1949 communist revolution.
Francis said: “Twenty five years ago on 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall, which for so long had cut the city in two and been a symbol of the ideological division in Europe and the whole world, fell.
“The fall was sudden but it was made possible by the long and untiring struggle of so many who fought prayed and suffered, sometimes sacrificing their lives.”
“Among these St Pope John Paul II was a protagonist.”
Francis said that he prayed for “a culture of compromise and co-operation to prevail, capable of bringing down all the walls that still divide the world, so that no more innocent people will be persecuted and even killed for their beliefs or religions.”
He added: “We need bridges, not walls.”
Francis has been labelled a communist by some right-wing elements in the US after denouncing the “tyranny of capitalism”, but he has consistently denied the charge and says he simply follows the Church’s teachings on caring for the poor.
Meanwhile Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx told politicians and churchmen from eastern and western Europe who gathered in Berlin’s Catholic cathedral on Sunday that St John Paul II’s “groundbreaking” fight for freedom in Poland served as a “tailwind” for the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne said that 9 November should spur Germans on to “rise up against every kind of violence and oppression” because it marked not only the fall of what he called Berlin’s “Death Wall” in 1989, which put an end to a divided Germany, but also “Kristallnacht” in 1938, which marked the beginning of Jewish persecution.
“Both dates belong to the collective memory of our people,” Protestant Bishop Markus Dröge warned at an ecumenical service attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel and representatives of the state and society in the Chapel of Reconciliation next to the Berlin Wall Memorial.
Above: Young people sit on a section of the wall that has since become an art gallery to celebrate the twenty-fiftth anniversary of the dismantling of the wall that split their city. Photo: CNS/EPA
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