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Several years ago, Zbigniew Brzezinski visited Pope John Paul II at his summer residence, Castle Gandolfo. At a small, private mass, the pope asked Brzezinski, a fellow Roman Catholic and longtime ally against communism, to read from the Epistles. To this day, Brzezinski recalls the moment as "deeply moving, meaningful." "He was a person of great strength and simplicity, yet of intellectual sophistication at the same time," says Brzezinski. He had first met Karol Wojtyla in the early '70s, before coming to the White House as national-security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. It was during that time that John Paul II made his first overtures against the Soviet Union. Brzezinski spoke to NEWSWEEK's Michael Hastings last week. Excerpts:
BRZEZINSKI: He exposed the weakness of communism and its emptiness by the force of his personality and the intensity of his spirituality. It is not the conventional view of what he did, because I think there is too much of a simplistic notion that he somehow or other conspired with the United States to undermine communism. I think nothing can be further from the truth. What hereally did was to show by the force ofhis personality and the depth of hisconvictions how totally devoid of meaning and appeal the communist systemactually was.
When the Solidarity movement started in Poland almost 25 years ago exactly, the strikers, fearing that they would be crushed in the first few days by police, hung out by their fence the Polish flag and a picture of the pope. He was, in a sense, a spiritual umbrella for what they were doing. And probably, in a mysterious way, a source of their reassurance.
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I think it's misleading, because that politicizes his role. His role was much more in demonstrating that the seemingly powerful system that claimed to provide a key to utopia was, in fact, empty and meaningless and didn't answer the basic issues that human beings at some point in their lives always wonder about. Mainly, why are we here? And what are we?
I was struck when I attended his coronation--I was heading the U.S. delegation to it--by his first words to this enormous crowd. He walked out, looked at them. He opened his hands toward them in his somewhat theatrical manner--he was a great performer--and simply said to them: "Do not be afraid." And you have to ask yourself, what was he talking about? And I think what he was talking about was something very fundamental. Mainly, that unless you go beyond yourself, and unless you think of something that pertains to the universal, ultimately to God, life is fearsome, life is fearful. Because why do we otherwise then exist? It touches everybody. And the striking thing to me about this pontificate was that he was hailed everywhere--not just as the head of the Catholic Church but as the spiritual leader of the world. And that was because he really believed in God, in a very deep sense.
They will find a person who emphasized what he used to call personalism: the centrality of the human identity, its mystery and the need to go beyond oneself to transcend the physical limits of lifein order to give life meaning. He reinforced that with poetry, with philosophy and theology. There is a poetic and romantic side to his theology which is very touching.
I think the real impact of the pope is going to be in the realm of faith, which is beyond any one denomination. His life was a living reminder to people that there is in them a sense of yearning and search for certitude in a world that focuses on the material and often on the hedonistic. In that respect, he has become a religious leader beyond the Catholic Church. Look at the very emotional reaction to his suffering in Israel. Look at the reception from non-Catholics. Or Christians. Or in Japan or in Morocco. It's truly without precedent. I consider him to be the first global spiritual leader.
For one thing, it will be difficult to follow Pope John Paul. He has set a standard that other popes will have to follow. You have to relate your own personal faith to other people's faith. Somehow you must project what you are without seeking to be dominant. Your own deep convictions have to become contagious. I don't think there has been a pope like him in ages, and he will be with us for ages.
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