TOTUS TUUS: The Holy Father and the Blessed Mother

Mainstream media outlets are on a crusade.


For the most part, they have been civil and sensitive in their coverage of the Pope's death. However, they just cannot resist peppering their reports with suggestions for the need to have a more liberal man ascend to St. Peter's throne.

They are actively campaigning for the Church to become more welcoming to their agenda, calling for change.

For example, assorted talking heads continue to criticize the Pope for what was perceived to be his relegation of women to a subservient role in the Church.

They claim his refusal to allow women to be ordained into the priesthood was indicative of the Pope’s belief that women should not be granted equal rights, that he deemed their role to be of lesser significance.

They consider John Paul to have been stuck in the Middle Ages and wishing to keep women there as well.

This is as inaccurate as it is unfair.

A clear sign of his reverence for women can be seen in the message he sent to the youth of the Church.

Message for 18th World Youth Day: "Behold Your Mother!"
Vatican Information Service (Vatican City)
11 March 2003

The Holy Father said that "Jesus, before He died, gave the Apostle John the most precious gift He had; His Mother, Mary. These were the last words of the Redeemer, and therefore they take on a solemn character and become His spiritual testimony." He stated that Mary, "the Mother of God from the first moment of the Incarnation, became the Mother of men at the last moments of the life of her Son Jesus."

The Pope told young people to remember that they are never alone and can turn to Mary when they suffer "the solitude, failures and delusions in personal life, difficulties in becoming part of the adult and professional world, separations and deaths in families, the violence of wars and the death of innocent people." My motto as bishop and Pope, he reminded them, has been "'Totus tuus'. I have always felt Mary's loving and efficacious presence in my life."

John Paul II urged youth to be Christians always and everywhere because "Christianity is not an opinion. ... It is Christ! He is a Person, He is Living!" He entreated them to get to know and love Christ through Mary, and by reciting the Rosary. "Don't be ashamed to recite it alone, on the way to school, the university or work, on the street or in public transportation; recite it among yourselves, in groups, movements, and associations, and don't hesitate to suggest praying it at home."

"Only Jesus knows your hearts and your deepest desires. ... Mankind has a decisive need for the witness of courageous and free young people who dare to go countercurrent and proclaim strongly and enthusiastically their faith in God, Lord and Savior. ... In this time threatened by violence, hatred and war, give witness that only He can give true peace to the hearts of men, to families and to the peoples of the earth."

Does this sound like a man trying to diminish the significance of women in the Church?

Does this appear to be a man lacking in respect for women?

Rather than ignore women, John Paul emphasized their importance to Catholics, focusing on the Blessed Mother. He chose the Mother of God as the theme for World Youth Day in 2003, because it closely connected with the “Year of the Rosary,” another instance of his recognition of the vital role of women in the Church.

On October 16, 2002, in the Apostolic Letter, ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIA, the Pope proclaimed that the twenty-fifth year of his Pontificate would be devoted to a woman, the Mother of Jesus.

May this appeal of mine not go unheard! At the start of the twenty-fifth year of my Pontificate, I entrust this Apostolic Letter to the loving hands of the Virgin Mary, prostrating myself in spirit before her image in the splendid Shrine built for her by Blessed Bartolo Longo, the apostle of the Rosary. I willingly make my own the touching words with which he concluded his well-known Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary: “O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven”.

From the Vatican, on the 16th day of October in the year 2002, the beginning of the twenty- fifth year of my Pontificate.

Pope John Paul II has been depicted as misogynistic for stubbornly refusing to modernize the Church. He’s been charged with regarding women as insignificant.

Although he would not bend when it came to the issue of women being ordained, he certainly did not dismiss the vital place women occupy in the Church. On the contrary, he highlighted the integral role women play in Catholicism and called on the faithful to recognize and honor their relevance.

John Paul himself chose to devote his life, his works on earth, to Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

Totus Tuus!