The University of Navarra has organized an international online workshop on report and identity on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Karol Wojtyla, elected Pope John Paul II in 1978. The event was promoted by the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) and by the group of research in Recent History (GIHRE) of the School of Philosophy and Letters. 

The speakers were Pablo Pérez López, Full Professor of Contemporary History and director scientist of the ICS; Pawel Skibinski, professor at the University of Warsaw (Poland); Kazimierz Ginter, professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome, Italy); and Jan Zaryn, professor at high school of bequest of the National Thought of R. Dmowski and I.J. Paderewski (Warsaw, Poland). Anna Dulska, researcher at project 'Creativity and Cultural Heritage' of ICS, moderated the workshop.

"Few public men, and even fewer popes, have offered a detailed reflection on questions such as report and identity, at final on the understanding of their own time," said Pablo Perez. The professor detailed that John Paul II did so in a book interview that reveals how he understood the intertwining of history and faith. 

"The year that marks the 100th anniversary of his birth seems to us a very appropriate time to place ourselves once again before that challenge, inspired by his reflections," he said.

A holistic view of the European continent

For her part, researcher Anna Dulska explained that "when a Polish cardinal was elected Pope, on the other side of the Iron Curtain, a concernarose in the West that his pontificate would be marked by Slavic issues. As she points out, "although it is true that his native Poland was of great importance to John Paul II (and vice versa, without him communism would undoubtedly have lasted much longer), his pastoral activity and innumerable trips showed that he was far from ethnocentrism". 

On the contrary," he said, "he knew how to adapt his universal message to the national, regional and local contexts of the parishioners, to whom he spoke in categories that were close and intelligible to them".

On the other hand, Anna Dulska commented that in the European context, "his profound knowledge of the 'Eastern lung of Europe' allowed him to have a holistic vision of the continent and to propose a model of integration with shared values derived from the Judeo-Christian acquis in the denominator and national cultures in the numerator". 

He stressed that the centenary of his birth "is a good opportunity to remember this proposal, especially to the generation of young people who grew up in a post-John Paul II world".

 

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