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See also Polish version: Rick Santorum: „Jan Paweł II był moim bohaterem” [NASZ WYWIAD]
Piotr Motyka: Being a Pole, I Would like to ask especially about your meeting and relation with Saint John Paul II.
Rick Santorum: Well, I was fortunate to have several meetings with him. I met with him as I recall in 1999, with my family. I also had an opportunity to meet him, when I was a part of the delegation to present the Pope with the Congressional Gold Medal, and I also had the opportunity two other times, when I was in Rome, to see him and also attend Mass. In fact, at two of those Masses, I had the opportunity to read, in English the Epistles, which was quite of privilege for me to have that opportunity. He was a hero to me. He was someone who was a great moral leader for me. His pontificate was going very strongly, when I got into politics in 1990. He was a clear moral voice. He was someone, who connected with the public so strongly and provided a real practical understanding of Catholicism, that you can apply not only in life, but for me as a politician, to the issues that I was dealing with. He had a great influence. He still continues to have an influence on my life. We feel very blessed that he gave us rosaries which we still have. So they’re relics which we venerate.
Piotr Motyka: A lot of people, who talk about Saint John Paul II mention the way he prays. Do you also have such experience from meeting the Pope?
Rick Santorum: I told a story earlier, that Archbishop Dziwisz, who was his secretary asked me to go to the front of line as we walked into his chapel, so I would be in the first row of chairs. His chair in front of the altar had a kneeler in front of the chair, so I could sit and almost reach and touch him, that’s how close I was to him. I was sitting there with my 4-year-old little boy Daniel. I will never forget as we sat down, he was deeply in prayer. We obviously looked at him and I saw something I never seen before or since. You could see, that he was deep in prayer. My little boy Daniel’s eyes were so wide open and he just couldn’t take his eyes off of the Pope’s face, because his face was making movements you wouldn’t think it naturally could do. Just moving so profoundly. So we both sort of watched him in amazement as he clearly was deeply in prayer and somewhere else. We continued to watch him, and slowly over minutes his face begun to calm down and just get a little less motion, and expression, then eventually his face went to a complete calm and he opened his eyes. We looked at each other, I’ve never seen anything like that and I remember saying to Daniel: “You want to learn how to pray like that. If you could learn to pray like that, then you’ll be talking to God”.
Piotr Motyka: It seems that several years after the Pope left this world, his teaching is not fully implemented. What advice would you have for Poles?
Rick Santorum: Poland was blessed with one of the great saints of the Church. The great saint not because just his holy life and not what he accomplished i.e. overthrowing communism and reforming the Church and all the things that he did. He’s a great saint, because he gave practical tools to live a holy life, that will orient you toward the good, the true and beautiful here in the world, but also orient you to a Heaven. Specifically and obviously he sent this message to the people of Poland and all the Central and Eastern Europe. That’s his homeland. I think his message was so beautiful. Take one of those messages, the Theology of the body. It was a great gift to a world that is so confused about gender, so confused about the roles of men a women and sex and all of those things. The Pope gave us a beautiful, practical understanding of how God shows himself in our own nature, our own physiology, our own biology. It’s sad, that so many people, including Eastern and Central Europe and in Poland in particular, don’t know that message, don’t read that message, don’t accept that message. He gave us practical tools to live good lives. He was so anti-communist, so anti-socialist. He understood, that the responsibility to care for the poor is not the government. It is your responsibility, it’s a personal responsibility, because it leads you to holiness. It leads you to give up yourself to help others in need instead of having a government do it for you. That’s not holiness. That’s not sacrificial. That’s not you providing. Well, I pay my taxes. That’s not the same. Helping the poor is not for the poor. Helping the poor is for you. It helps you be holy. It helps you serve God. The fact that you’re helping the poor is good, but the most important thing in helping the poor is to help yourself understand that’s your life is suppose to be sacrificial. People don’t listen to him and his great wisdom. If there’s anything I would hope, that Poland would listen to him. Listen to his own story of his rejection of big government socialism and communism, then listen to the simplicity of a message of each of us caring for each other in order to build a just society.
Piotr Motyka: What is the future of Catholic values in the West and in the World in general?
Rick Santorum: I would like to mention Poland and Hungary. As difficult as it may be in both those countries you’re far better off than the rest of Europe. You’ve held on to your beliefs better than the rest of Europe. You have an obligation to not just defend those beliefs, and fight for them in your own country, but to evangelize. And I don’t mean evangelize as a Catholic, but evangelize through the moral teachings of the John Paul II and Church teachers that make for a good society, and make for a strong families and healthy children. There’s a reason Judeo – Christian values have been around for 6 thousend years. They work. They built successful society. Socialism and communism failed. They’re descructive. They are autocratic. They are evil. To abandon what you know has worked for thousands of years for something, that we know for the last hundred years, has caused death and destruction wherever it’s been used is insane. Look at what Poland had to suffer through. When I look at the countries in Europe, I think of the Old Testament, the Bible. I think of God parting the Red Sea for the Hebrews and then within 40 years they’re having idols, they walk away from God. They forget. John Paul II was someway the Moses that led Poland out of bondage and here we are 40 years later. You’re building idols. You forget. Someone has to remind the people of Poland, that He’s real. God’s alive. God’s true. John Paul II was his prophet that helped liberate Poland and we need to listen to him. What people don’t realize is that pursuing their own view of freedom, ignoring the rules and ignoring good moral truth, is that going to lead you to freedom? No, that’ll lead you to bondage, that’ll lead you to suffering. John Paul II talks about this. Freedom is not the freedom to do that you want to do. It’s the freedom to what you ought to do. That’s the quote from John Paul II. It’s the freedom to do what’s right. In communism you don’t have the freedom to do what’s right. You have to freedom to do what state tells you to do. Now we give people freedom and people make bad choices. We have to think about the freedom to do what you’re suppose to do. What God has told you to do. To follow his will. Not to do what pleases you in the moment. Because that in many, many times is not what is good for you or for society.
Piotr Motyka: The world has changed a lot during these over 15 years, especially the way of communication, through social media, smartphones and other inventions. How to convey the message of Saint John Paul II through these communication channels?
Rick Santorum: I know there are people who tweet out messages on behalf John Paul II using quotes from him. They are out there. It’s important for the young people to read him and to understand him. Not just know the figure of John Paul II, but to know the teachings of John Paul II and understand the wisdom in those teachings. Not just for Poland, but also in America. He’s been a tremendous influence on me.
Piotr Motyka: Is it hard being a Catholic nowadays in the United States?
Rick Santorum: I think it’s harder to be a slave to the Devil, than to be a servant of God.
Piotr Motyka: Thank you very much for this interesting interview and recalling the heritage of Saint John Paul II, God bless you!
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