THE POPE AND THE HOMELESS CATS: John Paul II Had a Dream

[Guest guest]

THE POPE AND THE HOMELESS CATS: John Paul II Had a

Dream

by J.R. Hyland

 

 

The first time I read the account of Pope John Paul

II’s dream, the thing that surprised me most was the

fact that it was included in the book God’s Broker.

Published in 1984, the book was the result of 200

hours of conversation with the Pope. These interviews

began soon after the author, Anton Gronowicz, was

introduced to the Pope in 1979 and continued for two

years, in the Pontiff’s apartment at the Vatican.

 

An American citizen of Polish descent, Gronowicz was

the longtime friend of many highly place

[clergypeople]. And in the prologue to his book, he

explains how he was able to circumvent Vatican

bureaucracy. “Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, Primate of

Poland, introduced me to the Pope, acquainted me with

Vatican circles, and convinced the Holy Father that he

should bypass the Vatican Department of State and

grant me private interviews.”

 

Subtitled The Life of John Paul II as Told in His Own

Words, the subject matter of the book ranges from

reminiscences of the time when the Pope was known as

Karol Wojtyla, a young man living under the Nazi

occupation of Poland, to his reflections on social

justice issues, theology, and church doctrine. And in

the midst of these human-centered concerns, the author

devotes four pages to a dream the Pope related to him,

about a homeless cat.

 

This surprising interpolation might lead to the

conclusion that the author understood the significance

of the dream: that he was sensitive to the plight of

God’s other creatures and the way they are abused. But

the comments he makes as the Pontiff relates his dream

indicate he had little understanding of the

implications of what he was being told. But from the

way in which this dream preserved its vigor and

immediacy so many years later, it is obvious that it

was very important to John Paul and [that] he fully

understood its implications.

 

In his dream, John Paul follows a homeless mother cat

who was trying to find food and shelter for herself

and her kittens. She is turned away by those who lack

nothing themselves and by men who represent the

various faces of established Christianity.

 

The dream took place in 1969 the night before the

Pope, known then as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, was to

visit New York City for the first time. It was late

summer and he had been touring Canada. He spoke of the

beauty of its fields and forests and how he had wished

for more time to walk in woods vibrant with color and

with his “ears filled with the songs and voices of

animals.”

 

In the midst of this discussion of Canada, the Pope

abruptly changed the subject and said: “The night

before my departure from Canada to New York, which I

had never seen, I had a strange dream.” But his dream

was not of beautiful forests, warm with the summer

sun. It was of a crowded city, frigid with the cold of

a northern winter. And although he had never been

there, his dream captured the way Manhattan looks and

feels after a major snowstorm.

 

“It was a terribly severe winter in New York; the city

was completely covered with snow. Inhabitants were

well off and warmly dressed and walking slowly along

roads because cars, due to mountains of snow, could

not be operated. I was happy that I could walk on top

of the snow on avenues of white.

 

“All my physical effort was spent on walking. To this

day, pictures of huge apartment houses on both sides

of the avenue are instilled in my mind and the doormen

quickly closing and opening entrance doors as though

trying to prevent humanity and warmth from escaping.

 

“On top of the snow, I noticed a brown cat emerge from

a side street and walk on the snow. I looked closer

and, to my surprise, saw that this big cat was being

followed by six small brown-and-white kittens, all of

them following the big brown cat in a perfect line.

The mother cat looked back from time to time to see if

her babies were there, but her main concern was to

reach the entrance door. I presumed she was trying to

find warmth for herself and her children, but as soon

as she reached the door, a man in a well-pressed

uniform jumped at her with a broom and chased them

away. I followed this procession and prepared to

deliver a speech to the doorman. I opened my mouth and

tried to complain, ‘Where is your proverbial American

generosity? Where is your American good heart and fair

play? Let them in. Let them in!!’

 

“I tried to speak, but the words would not come out.

Maybe I was afraid of the doorman with the broom. I

started searching my cassock pockets for a piece of

bread, found some crumbs, and put them on my palms,

calling, ‘Kitty, kitty, kitty.’ But the words would

not come from my supposedly intelligent mouth.

Instead, the wind blew the crumbs from my palm, and I

said, ‘What can I do? I can’t speak to the cats. I

can’t speak to the doorman. But there are many hungry

birds. They might pick up the crumbs.’

 

“Again, I walked after the cats, now with a pain in my

chest, feeling tremendous cold. On the left, I saw a

church building and thought, ‘There we will find

help.’ I heard singing, and again, the idea occurred

to me that it must be a Catholic church. The music

grew louder, as though trying to convince God that

they were praying to Him.

 

“The mother cat jumped in front of me and climbed the

stairs, followed by her kittens. I raised my head and

saw a tall Jesuit priest chasing the cats off the

steps. But as I was about to shout at the Jesuit, ‘I

am a cardinal!’ and give an order to accept the cats,

the mother cat and her offspring ran behind the church

because from there came the appetizing aroma of food.

Probably there was a kitchen there. But a second

Jesuit appeared at the kitchen door and scared the

cats away. They returned to the avenue and started

walking north.

 

“They walked on the same side of the avenue as the

Jesuit church and I followed. Then they reached an

imposing red brick church. An Anglican bishop appeared

and said to the cats, ‘My dear animal children, please

go immediately to the animal shelter. There is food

for you there. We Anglican clergy donate lots of money

to the animal shelter every year at Christmastime.’

 

“The mother cat and her kittens didn’t even meow. They

knew the authoritative voice of the Anglican bishop.

They walked uptown and gradually the luxurious

buildings disappeared, together with the doormen, and

we saw drab dilapidated apartments.

 

“As they walked and the buildings grew shabbier and

dirty, a door was opened, not by a doorman but by an

old wrinkled woman in a cotton dress. [she saw the

cats] and shouted, ‘Oh, little mother,’ and when she

opened her mouth, I saw she had few teeth. She gently

ushered the mother cat and kittens inside, who jumped

happily about because the warmth of the house embraced

them.”

 

The narrative ended as the cats found a safe haven

with the woman who had little enough, herself. When

the Pope concluded his dream, the author to whom he

related it did not make any comment on what had been

said. But he did write that “I had never seen such a

sad expression on the face of this man.” Considering

that this was the same man who had related the horrors

of his young manhood under Nazi occupation, the

author’s remark shows the deep impact this dream had

on the Pope.

 

If the Pontiff offered a commentary on his dream,

Anton Gronowicz does not share it with the reader. But

we are told that John Paul began to recite the prayer

of St. Francis of Assisi. “Lord, make me an instrument

of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love

...., where there is darkness, light, and where there

is sadness, joy.

 

Many years after Cardinal Wojtyla had his dream and

had become Pope John Paul II, he made a pilgrimage to

Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. In the Message

of Reconciliation he delivered there, the Pontiff

spoke of the Saint’s love for animal, as well as

human, beings. And he likened that inclusive love to

an anticipation of the Peaceable Kingdom, envisioned

by the Prophet Isaiah, a world in which all God’s

creatures will live in peace with each other.

 

The Pope also said that the “solicitous care, not only

toward [people] but also toward animals and nature in

general,” that St. Francis demonstrated is “a faithful

echo of the love with which God in the beginning

pronounced his ‘fiat,’ which brought them into

existence.” And, the Pope added, “[W]e, too, are

called to a similar attitude.”

 

Some who read these remarks are surprised to find in

them such strong support of God’s other creatures.

They are surprised to hear the Pope refer to the lives

of animals as a manifestation of God’s love: lives

that deserve our “solicitous care.” But I was not

surprised. By the time I came across a copy of the

message he gave at Assisi, I had read God’s Broker and

the lengthy account of the Pope’s dream. And I knew

that if John Paul II had not wanted this very

revealing dream to be published, it would never have

appeared in print.

 

So in spite of the policies and pronouncements of

[religious people] of the same or other persuasions,

who try to denigrate the value and the importance of

the lives of God’s other creatures, we know that John

Paul II had a dream. And although [people] of lesser

vision and lesser spiritual development have closed

their hearts and their minds to the needs of other

creatures, John Paul has given witness to a need for

the “solicitous care, not only of [people], but of

animals.”

 

In this witness, the Pope is being true to the Gospel

message in which Jesus also gave witness to the need

for the solicitous care of all beings: “I tell you,

whenever you refused to help one of these least

important ones, you refused to help me.” (Matthew

25:45 TEV)

 

 

 

 

GREATNESS OF NATION AND ITS MORAL PROGRESS

CAN BE JUDGED BY THE WAY ITS ANIMALS ARE TREATED- M.K GANDHI.

STOP HUMAN AND ANIMAL SUFFERING - GO VEGAN

I am only one but still I am one. I cannot do everything but still I can do

something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

Helen Keller 1880 - 1968

 

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.