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…