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The words “Let Thy Spirit descend and renew the face of the land, this land!” spoken in Pope John Paul II’s very first homily as Pope on Polish soil, became a source of inspiration for millions living in his homeland behind the iron curtain.
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”. The Pope was perceived by millions as a beacon of hope for those who long for freedom.
Yet this opinion is not entirely shared by the priest and theologian Hans Küng, a Swiss living in the southern German city of Tübingen, has been embroiled in an ongoing feud with church authorities for decades.
As a result of his critical inquiries on the papacy, the Vatican withdrew his church authority to teach in 1979. Writing in Der Spiegel on 26 March, 2005, Küng observes that: “Outwardly, Pope John Paul II, who has been actively involved in battling war and suppression, is a beacon of hope. Internally however, his anti-reformist tenure has plunged the Roman Catholic Church into an epochal credibility crisis.”
According to Küng, the Pope’s position on the ordination of women priests is emblematic of his conservative outlook. “The Church gives thanks for each and every woman,” said Pope John Paul II in an apostolic letter on women titled Mulieris Dignitatem. The Pope also acknowledged that “both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree, both are created in God’s image.”
Küng however notes that “as a great worshiper of the Virgin Mary the Pope preaches a noble concept of womanhood, but at the same time forbids women from practicing birth control and bars them from ordination.”
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 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 will go down in history as one of the foremost critics of a global economic system, which leaves millions in destitution and hunger. Yet critics like Küng have pointed out that his attitudes toward birth control have contributed to increase poverty and suffering in the Third World.
In a speech to the 1994 United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, John Paul II declared his opposition to the pill and condoms. According to Küng “the Pope, more than any other statesman, can be held partly responsible for uncontrolled population growth in some countries and the spread of AIDS in Africa.”
More than any other Pope in history, Pope John Paul II has asked forgiveness for the sins, crimes and errors committed in the name of his faith. He has apologised for the persecution of Protestants, for the crimes of the Crusaders. He has asked forgiveness for the abuses of Europe’s colonial-era proselytising around the world. He has voiced regret at the Church’s repression of Galileo and condemned its silence regarding Italy’s own murderous Mafia.
But according to Küng, “the baroque and bombastic confession of the Church’s transgressions, staged with cardinals in St Peter’s Cathedral, remained vague, non-specific and ambiguous.”
In spite of the verdict of his critics, this Pope will go down in history as a protagonist who has not only “interpreted the world” but recognised that the “the point is to change it.” The role of the Pope in the epochal changes which have transformed the world since 1978 stands as testimony to the Pope’s status as one of the foremost historical figures of the postmodern age.
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