Pope John Paul II and the Aging Process

When Pope John Paul II died in April 2005, he had reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years, one of the longest papal reigns in church history. Because of the ubiquity of mass media, this particular pope was observed by the world as he progressed through late middle to old age. Thus how the pope aged may be a useful index of the variety of effects of growing older and a test of the explanatory power of gerontological theory to give an account of aging.

Generativity. Typically, this term is linked with stagnation, notably via Erikson's much-cited discussion of generativity versus stagnation. As the dyad implies, generativity refers to a continuum of life-giving sensibilities in later years. Some commentators have linked generativity to persistence of the sexual impulse through and after middle age (e.g., Levinson, 1978). More generally, however, it has been linked to the ongoing development of the adult person from the stage of middle adulthood (ages 25-59) onward (Erikson, 1980). That stage can be characterized by relationship development or midlife crisis, which can prepare the way for stagnation, which basically ends life altogether. In John Paul IH's case, generativity and not stagnation appears to have taken hold as an exercise in seeing the totality of his life and those of others, in part because he assumed his office, not to mention a vital spiritual mission, just on the brink of the stage of late adulthood. Elders, in John Paul's view, should be more

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e controversial, especially with Catholics, but he was recognized as a "tireless evangelist, challenging a recalcitrant world to join him in 'crossing the threshold of hope'" (Woodward, 2005, p. 45). Erikson's stage theory. Erikson (1980) structures stages of psychosocial evolution based on successive crises of ego development that are successfully or unsuccessfully navigated, according as individuals appropriately identify with or liberate themselves from external influences (society, family). Stage Name Age Range Attributes of Cognitive Development Oral-sensory 0-1.5 Trust/mistrust development Anal-muscular 1.5-4 Develop autonomy vs. shame Genital-locomotor 3-6 Imaginative play; Oedipal crisis; initiative-fuilt tension L`tency/ school age 6-12 Early education; social skills, "task identification" Adolescence 12-20 Ego identity, competence; social role Young adult 18-30 Social, personal relationship formation Middle adulthood 25-59 Relationship building; generativity; midlife crisis? Late adulthood 60-death Ego integrity vs. despair Implicit in Erikson's discussion of the development of ego is the issue of man's sense of place in the world as a

Category: Psychology - P