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The conservative Pope John Paul II leaves a legacy marked by political liberalism and a conservative moral agenda. JAMES DEBONO looks back at the contrasts that mark his papacy.
The present image of the Pope’s ailing body makes for contrasting imagery with that same energetic body which circled the world 27 times throughout its Catholic odyssey. As BBC correspondent Peter Gould says, who described the present Pope as the “universal pastor”, “one of the most familiar images of the Pope is that of him arriving in a foreign land, kissing the ground, and then preaching at an open air mass to perhaps a million people”. The Pope’s struggling body is emblematic of a pontificate marked by struggles against the ravages of communism, liberalism and modernity.
Leading Vatican correspondent John L Allen spells out the contradiction marking Pope John Paul II’s pontificate: “Is John Paul II liberal of conservative? Is he the liberator of the peoples behind the Iron Curtain, or someone many women regard as an obstacle to their emancipation? Is he the pope who gave away his Episcopal ring in the Brazilian shantytown to express the church’s solidarity with the poor, or the pope who broke the back of liberation theology?”
In the midst of these contrasts, two things stand out which make this Pope unique: his political outspokenness and his intransigent defence of traditional values
Fighting communism
The words: “Let Thy Spirit descend and renew the face of the land, this land!” spoken in his very first homily as Pope on Polish soil, became a source of inspiration for millions living behind the iron curtain.
His first visit to Poland in 1979, served as a catalyst for the popular mobilisation that resulted in the Solidarity movement. His portrait hung on the gate of Gdansk shipyard during the groundbreaking strikes of the “Polish August” of 1980. His subsequent visits in 1983 and 1987 helped Poles endure the hardships of martial law and helped pave the way for subsequent political changes.
According to General Jaruzelski, the last leader of communist Poland, “the role of the Pope was enormous in the transformations that occurred in Poland and, following in Poland’s footsteps, in the whole communist block.”
Even the Pope’s political commitment was marked by contrasts. In Latin America John Paul II will forever be remembered as the pope who gave a cold shoulder to Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who militated in favour of the poor and spoke out against governmental corruption. He will also be remembered as the pope who authorised a crackdown on liberation theologians such as Leonardo Boff. Yet, finally after the collapse of communism, the Pope had to come to terms with the only remaining super power: the USA.
The Pope’s relationship with George W Bush is also ambivalent. While he shares the US President’s conservatism in moral matters, Pope John Paul II stands out as one of the foremost critics of Bush’s foreign policy. Both share a similar conception of a world dominated by an eternal struggle between good and evil but for Pope John Paul II war is as evil as abortion.
Sword of conservatism
The Pope’s fervent support for political liberalism contrasts with his conservatism in moral choices. During his papacy, there has been no wavering in the Vatican’s position on contentious moral issues such as birth control, abortion, gay marriages and divorce. Neither has the celibacy of the priesthood or the role of women in the church ever come up for discussion. In 1995 in an apostolic letter entitled Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, John Paul II declared that the ban on women’s ordination is a matter of divine revelation. In so doing he has made it very difficult for his successor to change this state of affairs, because a pope cannot undo the teachings of his predecessor.
The Pope’s struggle for freedom in Eastern Europe also contrasts with his lack of tolerance for dissent in the church.
As dissident theologian Hans Kung observed, “there is a blatant contradiction between the foreign policy of this pope and his domestic policy… I find it remarkable how the pope spoke out for human rights, freedom and democracy but, on the other hand, he represses freedom in the Catholic Church, he supports the inquisition against reformist theologians and bishops”.
While the Pope struggled to restore a sense of dogmatic certainty in the Church, his physical condition could be the ultimate source of uncertainty for the same Church.
Since the Pope has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a great fear of the unknown has engulfed the church. Yet according to Vatican expert Thomas Reese, “there is no procedure for dealing with a pope who becomes incapacitated”. According to the same expert, “if it gets to that kind of a situation, where the pope is very sick and can’t function, but he is not even well enough to be able to resign, then we don’t know what to do”.
It is rumoured that the Pope has anticipated such a scenario, and has left instructions on what the Vatican should do.
“There is a story that the Pope has written a letter which says that if he becomes unable to exercise his faculties, his papacy must be considered to be at an end,” said Tablet editor John Wilkins. Father Reese believes that in such an eventuality, the Church could find itself powerless to replace the pope. “I think it would pray and hold its breath and probably just wait for him to die,” he says.
Ultimately, the Pope could put an end to this uncertainty by resigning. However only a few popes have abdicated in previous centuries. The last to do so voluntarily was Celestine V in 1294. Yet, if the Pope resigns and a new one is elected, the church could end up in even greater uncertainty, as the living body of a venerated ex-Pope would overshadow the newly elected Pope.
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