c. 2005 Beliefnet

(George Weigel is one of America's leading authorities on Pope John Paul II and the author of his 1999 biography, “Witness to Hope.'')

(UNDATED) He was the pope neither the church nor the world expected. The surprises that characterized his 26-year pontificate began on the very night of John Paul II's election.

On Oct. 16, 1978, the Catholic Church was in a state of spiritual shock. The 15-year papacy of Paul VI had concluded in division and exhaustion. The bright promise of the Second Vatican Council was a fading memory. Paul's successor, John Paul I, seemed on the verge of revitalizing the papacy when he died after a mere 33 days in office. To whom would the College of Cardinals turn now?

Few expected that they would turn to Karol Wojtyla, the 58-year-old archbishop of Krakow. His appearance on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica that night was the first surprise; many in the vast crowd had never heard of “Wojtyla,'' thinking the name Asian or African.

But the surprises continued as John Paul II broke centuries of precedent and began his pontificate with an impromptu address in Italian, reassuring the worried Romans that, from this moment on, he, too, was a Roman. When he asked them to correct any mistakes he might make in “our Italian language,'' they cheered wildly.

Six days later, at his papal inauguration, the surprises continued. In his homily, John Paul II challenged the church to regain its evangelical fervor and its nerve, particularly in defending the fundamental human right of religious freedom throughout the world. After the three-hour ceremony ended, he refused to retreat into the Vatican basilica but walked toward the vast throng in the square, waving his papal crozier as if it were a great sword of the spirit. The crowds refused to leave until John Paul told them, “It's time for everyone to eat lunch, even the pope!''

The stylistic surprises continued throughout his pontificate. John Paul acted as he thought a pastor should act, rather than according to the venerable script written by the traditional managers of popes. He invited guests to his private Mass and his meals, every day. He visited more of Italy and Rome than any of his Italian predecessors. He held seminars in his summer residence with agnostic and atheist philosophers. His world travels made him the most visible pope in history.

It would be a serious mistake, though, to think of this as the showmanship of an accomplished actor. John Paul II's conduct of the papacy, however surprising it was to some, was based on a firmly held set of convictions.

Bishops, he believed, were primarily evangelists and teachers, not managers. That was the way he had been the archbishop of Krakow, and that was how he thought he should be the bishop of Rome. In doing so, John Paul II sought to retrieve the first-century model of St. Peter, the first pope, who was not the chief executive officer of a small niche company, “Christianity Inc.'' Peter was a witness, an evangelist, a pastor, the center of the Church's unity.

In the course of this dramatic renovation of the world's oldest institutional office, John Paul continued to surprise. Throughout his pontificate, he was a magnet for the world's young people, who flocked to him by the millions. Why did the pope remain a compelling figure for the young? One reason was his transparent integrity. Young people have acutely sensitive hypocrisy detectors; in John Paul II, they saw a man who believed what he said and acted out his beliefs. There was no “spin'' here _ only integrity all the way through, the integrity of a man who committed every facet of his life to Jesus Christ. This was immensely compelling.

The pope was also attractive to the young because he defied the cultural conventions of our age and didn't pander to them. Rather, he challenged them to moral grandeur. Instead of lowering the bar of moral expectation, John Paul II held it high.

John Paul II, the pope from intensely Catholic Poland, also surprised many by his ecumenical initiatives and the passion of his commitment to a new relationship between Catholicism and living Judaism.

No pope since the split between Rome and the Christian East in 1054 did as much to close that first massive breach. No pope since the Reformation spent more time in dialogue with Protestant Christians. No other pope ever asked Orthodox and Protestant leaders and theologians to help him think through an exercise of the papacy that would serve their needs.

The dialogue with Judaism saw concrete accomplishments. With his repeated condemnations of anti-Semitism, his multiple apologies for centuries of Christian prejudice and persecution of the Jews, and his Jubilee year pilgrimage to Israel, Jews and Catholics stood on the edge of a new conversation, of a depth and range unseen for more than 1,900 years.

John Paul II canonized more saints than any pope in history and beatified hundreds of other servants of God _ another surprise to some, and a practice that came under criticism. But the pope believed the “universal call to holiness'' of which Vatican II had spoken was being answered on every continent and among people in every walk of life. God, he believed, is quite profligate in making saints.

He was a pope of many surprises. French journalist Andre Frossard understood that when, shortly after John Paul's election, he wired his French newspaper: “This is not a pope from Poland. This is a pope from Galilee.'' And that, in retrospect, was the greatest surprise of all.

KRE/PH END WEIGEL