DID Pope John Paul II have a secret lover? That question was asked by several newspapers and websites in half-baked previews of the BBC broadcaster Edward Stourton\u2019s extraordinary disclosure that more than 350 letters were written by Pope John Paul to an attractive, vivacious, married Polish philosopher, Professor Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.<\/p>\n
In the event, the BBC made no suggestion that the pontiff ever broke his vow of celibacy. And yet the intimacy and intensity of the couple\u2019s relationship raises important questions about celibacy, fidelity, and the emotional intelligence of the priesthood.<\/p>\n
The letters, and the testimony of close friends who survive her, suggest that Teresa-Anna \u2014 as the Pope called her \u2014 fell in love with him when he was Archbishop of Krakow in the 1970s. A passionate relationship ensued for 32 years. We heard only from the Pope\u2019s letters, not hers to him, but it seems clear that she declared her love for him, and he wrestled with how to respond.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou write about being torn apart, but I could find no answer to these words,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe words \u2018I belong to you\u2019 woke a great tenderness in me but at the same time an enormous anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most priests, confronted with such passion, would have broken off the relationship. But John Paul continued it, inviting her to go skiing, hiking, and even camping with him. In one letter, he wrote: \u201cIt was good you sent your letter by hand \u2014 it contains things too deep for the censor\u2019s eyes.\u201d He spoke of \u201cissues which are too difficult for me to write about\u201d.<\/p>\n
Eventually he wrote: \u201cI was looking for an answer to these words \u2018I belong to you\u2019 and finally I found a way \u2014 a scapular.\u201d He gave her the devotional object that was his most treasured possession; his father had given him the scapular when he made his first communion. John Paul had worn it against his skin ever since. \u201cI feel you everywhere in all kinds of situations, when you are close, and when you are far away,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
We were not told what Teresa\u2019s husband made of all this. What impact can the intensity of such a relationship, and her frequent trips abroad, have had on her husband, and on the quality of her marriage? Fidelity is emotional as well as sexual; for many, emotional detachment is a deeper betrayal even than sexual duplicity.<\/p>\n
For a pope, who sits at the head of celibate clergy, it raises questions about priestly isolation and loneliness. The need for relationship and companionship is psychologically far more profound than the focus on sex that is assumed in most discussions about celibacy. Was John Paul\u2019s solution paid for at the cost of an emotional fidelity in Teresa\u2019s marriage?<\/p>\n
The Pope reconciled all this by calling her \u201ca gift from God\u201d to him. He wrote: \u201cIf I did not have this conviction, some moral certainty of Grace, and of acting in obedience to it, I would not dare act like this.\u201d This \u201cGrace is stronger than our weaknesses,\u201d he wrote. But it is hard not to conclude that the pontiff was playing with fire.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Paul Vallely\u2019s biography, <\/em>Pope Francis: The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism, is published by Bloomsbury. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DID Pope John Paul II have a secret lover? That question was asked by several newspapers and websites in half-baked previews of the BBC broadcaster Edward Stourton\u2019s extraordinary disclosure that more than 350 letters were written by Pope John Paul to an attractive, vivacious, married Polish philosopher, Professor Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka. In the event, the BBC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,41],"tags":[704,629],"class_list":["post-8409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-church","category-religion","tag-celibacy","tag-pope-john-paul-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8410,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8409\/revisions\/8410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}