Pope Earned Reputation As ‘Great Communicator’

By JOHN THAVIS, CNS

Published: October 16, 2003

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope John Paul II has been called a great communicator and, more than any previous pontiff, he’s earned the reputation.

From the Internet to recorded prayers, this pope has employed a variety of modern media to reach people in every corner of the globe.

A former actor, his TV presence was apparent even on the night of his election, when he gave a short but stirring speech that spelled out the overriding goals of his papacy and his own sense of inspiration.

In the months and years that followed, he has exploited other channels of communication to offer personal reflections, diplomatic counsel and doctrinal pronouncements.

He is the only pope to have published a book of poetry, recorded his own rosary CD or sent an apostolic letter to bishops via e-mail.

“He’s remarkable. He recognizes that the church has to be in the media. For example, he was the one who established the Vatican Television Center in 1983,” said Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Archbishop Foley said it is clear from the pope’s personal encounters with journalists, actors and producers that “he likes communicators.”

By placing his pontificate on the world stage, the pope has opened up the papacy and the Vatican in a way that probably will endure well beyond his pontificate, Archbishop Foley said.

“He is emphatic on desiring the church to be credible, and he himself has said the church should be a house of glass. So I don’t think you can roll back that particular policy,” he said.

The pope has given thousands of speeches and issued hundreds of documents ranging from book-length encyclicals to more personal letters addressed to the world’s elderly, women, children and priests. His “complete teachings” to date fill 46 thick volumes, far more than any of his predecessors.

After 25 years, the pope’s major teaching and pastoral documents include 14 encyclicals, 13 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 42 apostolic letters and 28 documents issued “motu proprio” (on his own initiative).

The pope has given myriad press conferences, most of them aboard the planes taking him and journalists on foreign trips, and he’s also given several book-length interviews. The most popular, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” became a best seller in 1994.

He penned a volume of reflections on his vocation to the priesthood in 1995 and this year has been working on a similar autobiographical meditation on his years as a bishop.

He wrote plays in his younger years, and as pope has seen two of them, “The Jeweler’s Shop” and “Brother of Our God,” transformed into feature-length films.

About a year ago he became the first pope to agree to the publication of his private letters with a Polish friend, written over a 50-year period.

In the 1990s, CDs of the pope reciting the rosary sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The pope followed those with another CD on the Sony label, featuring his prayers, chants and inspirational talks.

His voice has been heard on dial-a-prayer services in the United States, and his quotes now pop up as cell-phone text messages to subscribers in Italy and Ireland. Once he called into an Italian radio talk show and offered a brief greeting.

At times he has composed prayers and spiritual messages—often on a Marian theme—and read them to the world. For years, his annual Christmas and Easter addresses “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and to the world) have been written in poetic form.

His book of poems, “Roman Triptych,” published earlier this year, included more personal reflections on this world and the world to come.

Although he’s never really used a computer, Pope John Paul has presided over an Internet explosion at the Vatican. Today, the pope reaches millions via the Vatican Web site, www.vatican.va, and earlier this year he was flooded with birthday wishes sent to his temporary e-mail address—another papal first.