For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 22, 2001
Remarks by the President at Dedication of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
Catholic University Washington, D.C.
Listen to the President's
Remarks
1:39 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Your Excellency,
thank you very much. You will be pleased to hear, my mother
is still telling me what to do. (Laughter.) And I'm
listening most of the time.
Cardinal Maida, thank you for your vision, and
thank you for your smile. What a great
smile. (Applause.) Cardinal Szocha, thank you
very much for your hospitality and, Cardinal McCarrick, let me
congratulate you on becoming a cardinal last month. Though
we're both new to our jobs, I'm the only one who is
term-limited. (Laughter and applause.)
I may be just passing through and I may not be
a parishioner, but I'm proud to live in your
archdiocese. (Applause.) I'm pleased to join with
all the church leaders and special guests here today to dedicate the
cultural center. It is my high honor to be here.
When Cardinal Wojtyla spoke here at Catholic
University in 1976, few imagined the course his life would take, or the
history his life would shape. In 1978, most of the world
knew him only as the Polish Pope. There were signs of
something different and deeper.
One journalist, after hearing the new Pope's
first blessing in St. Peter's Square wired back to his
editors: "This is not a pope from Poland, this is a pope
from Galilee." From that day to this, the Pope's life has
written one of the great inspiring stories of our time.
We remember the Pope's first visit to Poland
in 1979 when faith turned into resistance and began the swift collapse
of imperial communism. The gentle, young priests, once
ordered into forced labor by Nazis, became the foe of tyranny and a
witness to hope.
The last leader of the Soviet Union would call
him "the highest moral authority on earth." We remember his
visit to a prison, comforting the man who shot him. By
answering violence with forgiveness, the Pope became a symbol of
reconciliation.
We remember the Pope's visit to Manila in
1995, speaking to one of the largest crowds in history, more than 5
million men and women and children. We remember that as a priest 50
years ago, he traveled by horse-cart to teach the children of small
villages. Now he's kissed the ground of 123 countries and
leads a flock of 1 billion into the Third Millennium.
We remember the Pope's visit to Israel and his
mission of reconciliation and mutual respect between Christians and
Jews. He is the first modern Pope to enter a synagogue or
visit an Islamic country. He has always combined the
practice of tolerance with a passion for truth.
John Paul, himself, has often said, "In the
designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences." And
maybe the reason this man became Pope is that he bears the message our
world needs to hear. To the poor, sick and dying he carries
a message of dignity and solidarity with their
suffering. Even when they are forgotten by men, he reminds
them they are never forgotten by God.
"Do not give in to despair," he said, "in the
South Bronx. God has your lives and His care, goes with you, calls you
to better things, calls you to overcome."
To the wealthy, this Pope carries the message
that wealth alone is a false comfort. The goods of the
world, he teaches, are nothing without goodness. We are
called, each and every one of us, not only to make our own way, but to
ease the path of others.
To those with power, the Pope carries a
message of justice and human rights. And that message has
caused dictators to fear and to fall. His is not the power
of armies or technology or wealth. It is the unexpected
power of a baby in a stable, of a man on a cross, of a simple fisherman
who carried a message of hope to Rome.
Pope John Paul II brings that message of
liberation to every corner of the world. When he arrived in
Cuba in 1998, he was greeted by signs that read, "Fidel is the
Revolution!". But as the Pope's biographer put it, "In the
next four days Cuba belonged to another revolutionary." We
are confident that the revolution of hope the Pope began in that nation
will bear fruit in our time.
And we're responsible to stand for human
dignity and religious freedom wherever they are denied, from Cuba to
China to Southern Sudan. (Applause.) And we, in our
country, must not ignore the words the Pope addresses to
us. On his four pilgrimages to America, he has spoken with
wisdom and feeling about our strengths and our flaws, our successes and
our needs.
The Pope reminds us that while freedom defines
our nation, responsibility must define our lives. He
challenges us to live up to our aspirations, to be a fair and just
society where all are welcomed, all are valued, and all are
protected. And he is never more eloquent than when he speaks
for a culture of life. (Applause.) The culture of
life is a welcoming culture, never excluding, never dividing, never
despairing and always affirming the goodness of life in all its
seasons.
In the culture of life we must make room for
the stranger. We must comfort the sick. We must
care for the aged. We must welcome the
immigrant. We must teach our children to be gentle with one
another. We must defend in love the innocent child waiting
to be born. (Applause.)
The center we dedicate today celebrates the
Pope's message, its comfort and its challenge. This place
stands for the dignity of the human person, the value of every life and
the splendor of truth. And, above all, it stands, in the
Pope's words, for the "joy of faith in a troubled world."
I'm grateful that Pope John Paul II chose
Washington as the site of this center. It brings honor and
it fills a need. We are thankful for the
message. We are also thankful for the messenger, for his
personal warmth and prophetic strength; for his good humor and his
bracing honesty; for his spiritual and intellectual gifts; for his
moral courage, tested against tyranny and against our own complacency.
Always, the Pope points us to the things that
last and the love that saves. We thank God for this rare
man, a servant of God and a hero of history. And I thank all
of you for building this center of conscience and reflection in our
Nation's Capital.
God bless. (Applause.)
END 1:50
P.M. EST
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