by Wlodzimierz Redzioch
Four years ago today, on April 2, 2005, Pope John Paul II died after 26 and a half years as Pope — one of the longest and most event-filled pontificates in the history of the Church.
At his right hand throughout much of John Paul’s papacy was Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls (photo), the director of the Vatican press office.
Navarro-Valls has said that that John Paul II, by means of his many journeys, “succeeded in putting the religious dimension at the center of attention of our age” by reaffirming and bearing witness to “the natural openness of the human person to the transcendent.” On the occasion of the 4th anniversary of John Paul’s death, we caught up with Navarro-Valls to ask him to recall with us the Pope who lead the Church into the Third Millennium. —The Editor
The years of John Paul II’s pontificate, from October 16, 1978 to April 2, 2005, left their mark in the life of each Catholic of our generation. do you remember where you were and what you felt when it began, more than 30 years ago, on October 16, 1978?
Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls: I was following Karol Wojtyla’s election, obviously. I was trying to understand the meaning of that event in a year during which saw three Popes in a few months’ time.
It all looked a bit unreal. Since my task was to report what was happening, I tried to keep a detached point of view, which was far from easy.
Did you expect an unknown archbishop from Krakow, Poland, to give new impetus to the papacy, the Church and the whole world?
Navarro-Valls: Though not being a household name, Karol Wojtyla was well known inside the Church. I first saw John Paul II close up the day after his election. I had been informed that he would go to Gemelli Hospital. I went there straightaway and introduced myself as a doctor, which I am. I entered the room of Cardinal Deskur, who was lying on his bed unconscious, and I saw the Pope a few yards away. He didn’t say much on that occasion, but his outer appearance was extremely eloquent.
Everything seemed possible thanks to his youth and spontaneity: a revolution had taken place within the old institution of the papacy. All prospects were open.
What was your impression when you first met John Paul II?
Navarro-Valls: I had accompanied him as a journalist on his first journeys abroad, but I first met him personally when I lunched with him in his apartment. He needed suggestions on how the Holy See could use the media to make the Christian message clear and incisive in a world flooded with all kinds of messages and information.
I told him what seemed to me most suited to the circumstances.
After a while, much to my surprise, I was informed that the Pope had appointed me director of the Vatican press office.
I had my doubts, of course; I felt I was faced with a terribly tough task. Yet I probably trusted the Holy Father: that was the Pope’s choice and it seemed to me logical to accept it as it was, despite all the risks involved.
You worked for the Pope as director of the Vatican Press Office for more than 20 years. Many people regarded you as the Pope’s spokesman, i.e., as much more than the head of a press office. What was your relationship with John Paul II like during those years?
Navarro-Valls: It was obviously a business relationship in order to make it possible for me to carry out my task. But as I followed him on his journeys, his vacations, during his stays in hospital, as I spent many hours conversing with him, I had access to his thoughts, his world vision and, in some degree, to his relationship with God.
All this was an immense richness which, as I spent hours and years with him, grew ever more into admiration, but, in a way, into friendship as well.
Why was John Paul II so concerned about relations with the media?
Navarro-Valls: Your question could easily be rephrased as follows: “Why were journalists so fascinated by John Paul II nearly from the start of his pontificate?” This interest, I’m sure, originated from what he said, but also from the way he said it.
He was able to bring home to the whole world a message as old as that of the Gospel in a way that raised everybody’s interest.
Even many non-Christians were attracted to that message as they had never been before. Hesitant between arrogance and dismay the modern world was challenged by a vision at once tremendously human and completely spiritual. Modern man finally found a solid foundation upon which to build an understanding of himself and his relationship to God.
What did Karol Wojtyla become to you?
Navarro-Valls: A Pope, of course, but also someone I loved very much in purely human terms. A man I learned a lot from. An exceptional man whose generosity brought him into close contact with his neighbors.
You recently declared that many books written about John Paul II have failed to portray the man Wojtyla. So who was the man who became Pope? What was he like?
Navarro-Valls: It would take me a long time to answer your question, but I’d like to say one thing which maybe many people don’t know: he was a cheerful man.
He was very good -humored. His face was easily filled with a smile.
Yet, as the years went by, his smile faded away owing to the stiffness of the muscles caused by Parkinson’s disease. But, his heart was always filled with joy.
Karol Wojtyla was not just an optimist; he was really a cheerful man. His cheerfulness was much more than an emotional state; it originated from a firm faith.
What did John Paul II’s death mean to you?
Navarro-Valls: The end of his sufferings. The return to God, whom he was madly in love with. I remember that, during a press conference held in the days soon after his death, a German journalist asked me: “Do you miss John Paul II?” I said no and, trying to explain the reason for my answer, I replied: “When he was alive, I used to speak with him one or two hours a day, depending on our engagements; now I can speak with him all day long…”
What Church has the Polish Pope left us?
Navarro-Valls: A Church with greater hope, a Church where God is more of a father to many, closer and less enigmatic.
What is your present occupation?
Navarro-Valls: I have resumed my academic engagements. I am the chairman of the Advisory Board of Rome’s Biomedical University Campus. I am also the chairman of the Telecom Italia Foundation, whose purpose is financing educational, cultural and welfare initiatives of general interest. In addition, I write on social and cultural events for an Italian newspaper.
Will you publish your memoirs of those memorable years?
Navarro-Valls: I will. It is a moral imperative to me, but it’s something I will have to do in tranquility.
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Note: Here follows a biographical sketch of Dr. Navarro-Valls.
Memorable dates
1936: Joaquín Navarro-Valls is born in Cartagena, Murcia, Spain on November 6. His father, Joaquín, is an accomplished attorney. His mother, Conchita Valls, dedicates herself to her five children.
1953: Having finished his classical studies at the “Deutsche Schule” in his hometown, he enters the faculty of medicine at Granada. Three years later, he goes to the University of Barcelona. The scientific journal “Actualidad Medica” publishes his first research work.
1960: He meets Josemaría Escrivá and joins Opus Dei as a numerary.
1961: He receives a degree in medicine and specializes first in internal medicine and then in psychiatry. He fulfills his military service as a doctor in Marina, and obtains a seminar scholarship from Harvard University.
1961–70: While exercising his profession of internal medicine and then psychiatry at the hospital, he receives two other degrees: in journalism in 1968, and in communication sciences in 1970. He publishes his first non-medical essay: “Manipulation in Advertising.”
1970: He moves to Rome, where he continues his studies in psychiatry and lives beside Josemaría Escrivá until Escrivá’s death in 1975. He publishes two essays on evolutionary psychology.
1977: He becomes a correspondent for the Madrid newspaper ABC, covering Italy and the eastern Mediterranean. He is frequently sent as a correspondent to Japan, the Philippines, and equatorial Africa.
1983: He is elected president of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, and reconfirmed the following year.
1984: Pope John Paul II calls him to reorganize and direct the Vatican press office.
1994–96. He is a member of the Holy See delegation to the international conferences of the UN in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, and Istanbul.
1996: He begins to teach as a visiting professor at the faculty of institutional communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
1997: He is sent as a speaker to the world congress of psychiatry in Madrid.
2005: Upon the death of Pope John Paul II, the new pope, Benedict XVI, reconfirms him as director of the press office.
2006: He announces that he has asked Pope Benedict XVI to allow him to resign (June). He was replaced on July 11th by Father Federico Lombardi, SJ.
2007: Appointed President of the Advisory Board of the Università Campus Bio-Medico, Rome, Italy.
