Politics of papal legacy

BY CLAUDE SALHANI
Khaleej Times
6 April 2005

POPE John Paul II will enter history books as one of the Catholic Church’s more conservative popes, something for which many Catholics criticised him. But at the same time he will be remembered as one of the most politically proactive popes who helped change the course of history. Already a majority of American Catholics thinks he deserves to become a saint.


The pontiff worked hard to impose his conservative philosophy on the world’s more than 1.1 billion Catholics. He adopted a tough stance on morality issues and was adamantly in favour of maintaining the all-male, celibate priesthood, a point critics say contributed to the children sex abuse scandal.

The pope opposed the use of condoms, even though medical and political authorities — particularly in the developing world — tried hard to encourage their use in preventing the spread of HIV/Aids, a disease that killed more than 30 million people, and continues to kill about 8,000 people a day.

The pope opposed stem cell research, asking US President George W. Bush when the two men met in he Vatican, not to simply limit the research, but to ban it all together.

Still, John Paul II will be remembered as one of the most influential popes of our time, if not as one of the more politicised pontiffs who did not shy away from using his authority and influence, particularly in his fight against communism.

Many things differentiate this pope. He is the first Polish pope; he is the first non-Italian pope in 455 years; and unlike previous popes who largely remained in the Vatican, he became the first pope to break with rigid traditions by taking his papacy to the road. Despite his fragile health and his age Pope John Paul II was a man who seemed to have unlimited energy.

Since becoming pontiff, he made 104 pastoral visits outside Italy and 146 within the country. As Rome’s bishop he visited nearly every parish — 317 of 333.

During World War II, he worked in a quarry and then a chemical factory to avoid deportation to Nazi Germany. He began studying for the priesthood in 1942, was ordained in 1946 and eventually rose to become archbishop of Krakow in 1964 and cardinal in 1967. Following his election as pope on Oct. 16, 1978, he began the crusade against communism.

The Soviet Union long viewed the United States — and its military might — as the greatest threat to its empire. But it was John Paul II, who as pope played a major role in bringing about its demise.

In 1935 then French foreign minister Pierre Laval approached Soviet dictator Josef Stalin asking him to liberalise his views on religion, hoping to appease the church, which in turn would give the French government support from the pope in the buildup against Germany. Stalin was reported to have responded, "The pope! How many divisions has he got?" The fact that this pope did not have military divisions under his command did not stop him from defeating communism.

Less than a year after being elected to the throne of St. Peter, on June 2, 1979, the pope made his first visit back to his native Poland, then still under communist rule. In a landmark speech he told his fellow Poles, "Do not be afraid."

Polish police were given orders to prevent residents from reaching the site where the pope was to celebrate mass. Instead they helped broadcast his speech through loudhailers mounted on their patrol cars. That is believed to be the trigger that encouraged mass resistance to communism breaking the shackles of communist rule across Eastern Europe leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of Soviet empire.

In 1983, the Pope visited Poland for a second time in defiance of martial law imposed by the pro-Moscow regime. He survived an assassination attempt two years earlier, on May 13, 1981, when Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish national fired three shots at the pontiff in St. Peter’s Square. The pope was hit in the abdomen, the left hand and the right arm.

It is believed that Agca was acting under orders from the Bulgarian intelligence service, who in turn were most likely obeying directives from the Soviet KGB. The Soviets were beginning to feel the pressure from the Vatican. The pope later met with his would-be killer, though details of the encounter in an Italian jail cell were never made public.

John Paul II was also the first pope to reach out to other faiths. He became the first pope to enter a Jewish house of worship when he made an impromptu visit to Rome’s main synagogue, joining Rabbi Elio Toaff in prayer. His actions helped bridge almost 2,000 years of discord between the two faiths.

He also made history as the first pope to ever visit a mosque, when he visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, in 2001 stressing the importance of Christian-Muslim understanding.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement, "Muslims worldwide respected Pope John Paul II as an advocate for justice and human rights. His message of international peace and interfaith reconciliation is one that will reverberate for decades to come."

No wonder Muslim and Jewish leaders in the Middle East have been unanimous in praising the pope for his efforts to promote peace in the region.

Claude Salhani is international editor and a political analyst with United Press International in Washington.