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Tuesday October 12, 2010


Close Friend of Pope JPII Explains Pope’s Thoughts on Shame and Nakedness

By John-Henry Westen

ROME, October 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Wanda Poltawska, a life-long close friend of Pope John Paul II has made a significant contribution to the debate over the interpretation of the late pope’s Theology of the Body (ToB). In an address given at the Human Life International World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome last week, Dr. Poltawska, a psychiatrist and Member of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said that JPII taught that shame is a virtue, and that love absorbs shame and does not eliminate it.

The pope, she said, “differentiates this holy absorption from shamelessness, which now spreads like a contagious disease, especially among women.”

Addressing pro-life representatives from 45 nations, Dr. Poltawska said: “The concept of the absorption of shame by love is not fully discussed in many works about the anthropology and philosophy of John Paul II.” Poltawska, a concentration camp survivor who exchanged letters with the former pope throughout his life, added, “But this concept explains how these values, which seem to be opposite, can permeate each other: the value of shame and sensitivity from one side and from another love as a total gift of oneself.”

Shame and sensitivity, which guard the treasure of virginity, do not disappear in love. Marital love doesn’t destroy the virtue of shame, but changes it into something different, yet equally valuable: into a fullness of self-giving. This is the only true way to the mutual self-giving of persons. Shamelessness demeans this dimension of a gift and thus demeans a person because it destroys mutual respect.

Speaking of love between spouses, she said, “The gift of nakedness in the light of love is not shamelessness, but instead total trust. Such a gift cannot be anonymous and not addressed to another person … Today this treasure is forgotten and many times thrown as pearls before swine.”

Explaining further, Dr. Poltawska said: “The pope used the word ‘entrust’ which means more than a simple trust, it suggests also an assignment, a duty. I entrust myself to you means more than I give myself, because it suggests total security – I give myself to you and trust you, because I know that nothing bad is going to happen to me. Such entrustment of one person to another evokes a sense of responsibility. It grows and becomes a certainty; it reassures and gives a sense of acceptance and safety, gives happiness.”

See Dr. Poltawska complete address here.


See more coverage of the HLI conference on LifeSiteNews:

Addressing Homosexuality with “Love in Truth”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10100708.html

De-population and De-Christianization Leading to Cultural Islamic Jihad: Catholic Apologist

https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10101203.html

Abortion as a “Human Right” a Corruption of International HR Agreements: John Smeaton

https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10101204.html

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