‘Elder brother in faith’
These cultural gestures by John Paul II to his countryfolk by no means exhaust Mickiewicz’s influence on the Pope and the Church’s teachings during this time. We ought also to mention one more famous papal quote from Mickiewicz. These were his words about the ‘elder brothers in faith, Israel’, first spoken at a Roman synagogue in 1986. These words – repeated in 2000 in Jerusalem to the rabbis – might be understood as a symbolic expression of the Pope’s broader ecumenical stance toward Judaism, based on striving for understanding and recognising the Church’s historical wrongdoings with regard to Judaism and the Jews (the Pope prayed for forgiveness of Catholic transgressions against the Jews at the Wailing Wall during this landmark pilgrimage).
These words about an ‘elder brother’ in faith were taken from Mickiewicz’s ‘Set of Principles’ (1848), where the poet gave equal rights to Jewish citizens in the political system he designed for the reborn Polish state, and recognised their ‘seniority’ in a historical and spiritual sense. Quoting Mickiewicz, the Pope highlighted Mickiewicz’s pioneering role in establishing equal rights and fraternity in Judeo-Christian relations. Here too, in an ecumenical sense, Mickiewicz’s role was inestimable.
It turns out that Mickiewicz’s influence on the Pope’s world view and teachings was profound and extensive. It bore fruit not only in an appreciation of the roles of nations and cultures and support for their efforts to gain freedom in the international arena, but also a specific approach to Europe as a ‘cultural community’ that should be ruled by the principle of solidarity. The Pope understood this last concept, at least in part, in the spirit of Mickiewicz: as the introduction of Christian ethics and principles to political and social life. As we have shown, Mickiewicz seems to be a patron of the idea of Jewish-Christian dialogue, which was a vital part of this pontificate. On a philosophical and religious plane, we might therefore tie Mickiewicz to a particularly messianic understanding of the active role of mankind and the Church in terms of history and salvation.
All this means that we can join Michał Masłowski in saying that ‘in a way, John Paul II embodied Mickiewicz’s ideal pope, who was both a spiritual leader of peoples and a prophet involved in transforming the world of the Spirit’. In this sense, the Polish Pope – as the scholar suggests – carried out ‘perhaps the greatest and most universal Act in Polish culture’.
Author: Mikołaj Gliński, October 2023. Translated by Soren Gauger.
Sources: Michał Masłowski: ‘Mickiewiczowski Gestus Karola Wojtyły’, ‘Ostatni polski romantyk’ in: Problemy tożsamości. Szkice mickiewiczowskie i (post)romantyczne; Paweł Rojek, Liturgia dziejów, 2016.
