Pope John Paul II and the Masters Tournament
When people learn that I lived and taught at Rome’s Gregorian University for the entire pontificate of John Paul II (1978–2005), they sometimes ask: “Ever write a document for him? Ever have a meal with him?” The short answer to both questions is “Yes”. In 1995, I drafted a speech for him when he addressed the cardinals and Vatican ambassadors on the topic of the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope). The conversation at lunch with him included not only central questions of Christian theology but also results from the Masters golf tournament which had just ended in Augusta, Georgia.
In the early 1990s the Pope invited the rector of the Roman Oriental Institute to put together a team of theologians for a series of seminars to be held privately in the papal apartments inside Vatican City. As a representative of Western Christianity, I came once to share in the exchange.
We met shortly after…
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