R.I.P. John Paul II

On Saturday 2 April 2005 Pope John Paul II died after suffering from bad health during the last couple of months.
Why do I mention this here? Well, as you probably know I am part of a multi-cultural household. I am Dutch and Jola is Polish, and especially regarding the Pope we come from different cultures.

The reaction to the death of the Pope in both our homecountries is completely contradictory. I will give you examples.

In Holland we consider ourselves to be liberal, modern-minded and nowadays anti-religious. It looks more and more that you have to be ashamed of the fact that you are a catholic, whereas when you are a muslim everyone has to respect it. The reaction of the Dutch to the death of the Pope is completely down to earth and was shown on the news in a 5 minutes presentation. Focus here in The Netherlands is more on who is going to be the new Pope, and about the contraversies around this Pope. Within a day all modern radio stations were already making jokes about the Pope ("Bedankt voor die Bloemen") and no one here shows respect to the loss of the leader of the Catholic church. We are even the only country in Europe that does not sent someone of the Royal Family to the funeral! Why is it that we are so ignorant!!!

In Poland, the whole country is completely devastated. The death of the Pope is considered to be a national loss of a profound father figure. The Pope for the Polish people is the recognition that they also are/were important in the world, and with his influence he was the person who hugely supported the downfall of the communist regime.
Here some examples of how the Polish mourn the loss of their Pope. From last Friday on (1st April) every TV-channel is 24/7 busy with broadcasting news around the death of the Pope. Not only the facts but also the human stories behind it, how it is perceived in Poland f.i.. Every TV-channel is in black, this means that even the logos of the TV channels have been decolorized and the presentors are in black. Right now there are some channels that show movies, but these are not happy movies. It occurs to me that these movies are broadcasted so that everyone will switch to a news channel. Papers are completely dedicated to the Pope and what he has done for the country. On Tuesday a national Mass in Warsaw attracted more than 200.000 visitors from all over the country to jointly mourn. The country is in official mourn declared by the government and f.i. on Friday, the day of the funeral, everyone got free to spend time in order to mourn.

Here, at home, we try to be as Polish as possible. So we visited twice the Polish mass in Amsterdam and even for me as a Dutchie this was hugely impressive. We also signed the condolence register in the Dutch church in Hilversum and even there we could see the difference between Poland and Holland. Here no big lines, but a small picture and some pages full of signatures and addresses, as if the people hope to get a thank-you card afterwards. The only stories in the register were of Polish people in Hilversum who wrote their feelings on paper.

For Jola, the loss of her Pope is difficult for the reasons mentioned above, and I try to do everything possible to give her the freedom to mourn in her own way. This means that the TV is completely on the Polish channels, which is of course good for my Polish, and we also talk a lot about the subject.

I, as a Dutchie, now more and more realize what the Pope means for the Polish people, and sometimes I also cannot defend anymore my own countrymen who are so completely ignorant of the significance of his pontificate. The Polish pastor yesterday told an example of this. From a Dutch priest he received condolences with the loss of the Pope. When he returned the condolences, the Dutch priest answered him: "Why do you give me your condolences?". The Polish priest was surprised and said: "Well, because he is not only a Pole, but also YOUR Pope!".

Maybe, I am getting more and more Polish, and I am too closely involved, but I am getting disappointed with this all. Is it so difficult to show respect to someone who made it possible that different religions came closer to each other (he visited Jeruzalem, spoke with Arafat, and visited Muslims on their holy ground). A man who asked for world peace by being outspokenly against war. The person who at least accelerated the fall of the communist regime not only in Poland, but in whole Eastern Europe.

So, although I have to go work tomorrow, I hope that with me, we Dutchies will show this Pope the respect he deserves.
Personally, I am happy for the Pope that his suffering has now ended, but that does not mean that I don't respect the things he did for the world, and in particular for his country.

Let him rest in peace.

/Jan