Editor's Note: This article, which ran in the May issue of The Jewish Voice, commemorates the death of Pope John Paul II. As a non-Catholic, I can't get too worked up about the theological disputes that roil the church; however, I think that even atheists and agnostics can admire the man, John Paul, while remaining unconcerned (or even disapproving) about the office he held. There weren't very many monumental figures in the second half of the 20th century. This pope, along with a handful of others, such as Michael Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela, was one of the most important.

I’m an atheist. I make no apologies for this, and won’t even try to explain it. In this context, it’s largely irrelevant. Suffice to say, I have no belief in Jehovah, Allah, the Bible, the Koran, Abraham, Jesus or Mohammed. And Catholic dogma means nothing to me. But if you assumed this means I don’t care about the death of John Paul II, the leader of an organization to which I’ve never belonged, you’d be wrong.

There’s a difference between a man and his vocation, between a human being and his office. If you don’t like the president, for example, it’s a free country, and no law mandates that you admire the man who sits in the Oval Office, whether he’s George W. Bush or William Jefferson Clinton.

However, if you respect your country, you should respect its legitimately elected representatives. Nearly everyone in the United States has benefited from being part of the longest continuously operating democracy in the history of the planet. This isn’t jingoism or even patriotism, it’s realism.

That’s why even those Americans who think George Bush, the man, is a moron should be careful how they speak about our president, especially in a public forum. Disrespect toward the office and the democracy that office symbolizes is different from disagreement on policy.

The reverse is also true. A man can be far more admirable than the office he holds. This is, I suspect, the view of many atheists and agnostics with respect to the recently deceased pontiff. Nonbelievers disagreed with many of the doctrines John Paul espoused, but in this context, theology is largely irrelevant. Instead, let’s remember how much this monumental figure did that all decent and thoughtful people can admire, regardless of their beliefs or absence of beliefs.

No one admires hypocrisy. Unlike American conservatives, who reserve their most-zealous reverence for the lives of the unborn and the vegetative, this man supported the idea of the sanctity of all life, even including men on death row. And he has consistently opposed war, including the current carnage in Iraq, even when his opposition appeared politically naïve.

First and foremost, John Paul is admired for his integrity. Many of those who’ve labeled him “conservative” and “traditionalist” forget that, in 1992, this pope admitted the Church had been wrong to condemn Copernicus and Galileo. And, in 1996, he overruled Pope Pius XII by conceding the scientific veracity of evolution.

Anyone with a love of humanity admires compassion, and this pope nurtured it in ways previously unimagined. What other pontiff worshipped in synagogues, prayed at Jerusalem’s Western Wall and apologized for the suffering Christianity has inflicted on the Jews (as well women and minorities) over the millennia? John Paul did more to cleanse Catholicism of anti-Semitism than all of his predecessors combined.

Everyone admires courage. John Paul became a seminarian in Poland during the Nazi occupation, when it wasn’t the prudent thing to do. Later, he would stand up to the Communists in Poland, and his support of Solidarity was crucial to the successful ending of the Cold War. If he’d done nothing else during his long pontificate, his role in the dismantling of the Iron Curtain should earn him the world’s gratitude.

Most of us find it hard to forgive those who harm us, but we still admire this ability in others. This pope visited the prison cell of Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who’d tried to kill him, and publicly forgave a man of a religion and a quality of character radically different from his own. Even atheists find Christ’s exoneration of his executioners from the cross one of the most-moving stories about Jesus. How like this ideal was John Paul’s visit, and how few of us — Jew, Christian or atheist — would have been able to do the same.

The wish of Christians, Jews, Muslims and nonbelievers alike should be that the next pope have John Paul’s qualities of character. I suspect a few more popes of his stature will make Catholics feel better about their church. A couple more like John Paul, and unbelievers will feel less threatened by Catholicism and begin to view Catholics more like brothers in the human family.

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