Reportage – 2005

Dalai Lama hails Pope as a true spiritual practitioner

DHARAMSHALA, India, 3 April 2005

Dalai Lama with Pope John Paul in a file photo taken in 1990. Photo courtesy of Tibet Museum, DIIR. [ click here for print size   224K ]

In a condolence message issued today, the Dalai Lama stated, "His Holiness Pope John Paul II was a man I held in high regard. He was a determined and deeply spiritual minded person for whom I had great respect and admiration."

"The first time we met, he struck me as very practical and open, with a broad appreciation of global problems. I have no doubt that he was a great spiritual leader."

"I also have deep appreciation for the Pope's mission to bring peace to the world. In spite of increasing age and declining physical health, his relentless efforts to visit different parts of the world and meet the people who lived there to promote harmony and spiritual values, exemplified not only his deep concern but also the courage he brought to fulfilling it."

The two spiritual leaders met eight times beginning in 1980. They developed a close personal friendship between them right from the beginning, which was confirmed on several subsequent occasions, the Dalai Lama said.

Recounting their meetings, the Dalai Lama said they were in complete agreement about several issues. "The Pope felt as I do that as human beings we not only require material development but we also need spirituality" and "the need to promote harmony amongst different religious traditions."

"Both in public and to me in person the Pope always stressed the importance of spiritual values and we shared a concern that the younger generation is losing interest in them."

Pope John Paul's experiences in Poland, then a communist country, and the Dalai Lama's own difficulties with communists, gave them an immediate common ground, the Dalai Lama said.

The Pope revealed privately to the Dalai Lama that he had a clear understanding of the Tibetan problem and was sympathetic to the Tibetan cause because of his own experience of communism in Poland.

However, due to the Pope's predicament with the Chinese government about the status of millions of Christians in China he could not express his sympathy for the Tibetan cause publicly or officially.

The Dalai Lama admired the Pope's ability to forgive even his would-be assassin. "This was a clear indication that he was a true spiritual practitioner."