Posted on 05/21/2002 12:52:10 PM PDT by cathway
Review
Pope John Paul II: Prophetic Politician
By Jo Renee Formicola
Georgetown University Press 2002, 222 pages.
Reviewed by Oswald Sobrino, Esq.,
M.A.(economics)
Although some dissidents continue to grind their teeth at any positive appraisal of John Paul’s historical significance, more and more books continue to appear confirming the world historical impact of his papacy. Political science professor Jo Renee Formicola of Seton Hall University adds to this trend with a worthwhile book looking at the pope’s achievements from the perspective of global economic and political problems. In spite of several embarrassing factual errors and some garbled editing (which I sincerely hope will be corrected for a subsequent edition), her work presents an important aspect of this papacy that typically gets lost in the more usual doctrinal debates.
The picture she presents is of a modern-day biblical prophet who is continually challenging presidents, prime ministers, and dictators to rise above partisan conflict and to focus on the common good. Again and again, John Paul’s apostolic mission emphasizes that the destiny of peoples and nations must include economic and political reform that actualizes the dignity of human life. As defined by Formicola, the pope’s prophetic politics “is a spiritual response to the temporal use and abuse of power.”[i] In this sense, a better subtitle for the book would replace the phrase “prophetic politician” with the phrase “prophetic philosopher.” For the Pope is not engaging in short term political in-fighting, but in teaching a radically different perspective on politics that is alien to most politicians.
That difference between politician and philosopher is most apparent in Formicola’s account of the pope’s defeat of the distorted form of liberation theology that endangered the survival of the Church in Latin America in the seventies and eighties. Not coincidentally, during the same time, that a Marxist version of Catholicism was being propagated in Latin America, many Latin Americans turned to Protestant evangelicalism for spiritual sustenance and challenge. That the pope effectively separated the heretical aspects of liberation theology from genuine Catholic teaching about social justice and human dignity has made it possible for the Church in Latin America to preach the biblical Gospel with one voice instead of ceding the Gospel message to evangelical churches.
The author rightly focuses on the Catholic idea of imago Dei (the image of God), namely, that each “person is created in the image and likeness of God.”[ii] From this core theological truth, all of the pope’s prophetic social leadership follows. The dignity of the individual is given by God, not by a party or an economic system or an ethnic identification. Accordingly, racism, religious intolerance, indifference to poverty, and knee-jerk submission to the market forces of supply and demand cannot remain unchallenged. If each person is made in the image of God, then no person can be ignored or abandoned. Formicola quotes the pope’s 1979 address to the United Nations in which he stated that
“all human beings because they are persons—that is beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore bearing personal responsibility—are both impelled by their nature and bound by a personal obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth … and to direct their whole lives in accordance with its demands.”[iii]
This prophetic call means that politicians and diplomats must themselves be committed to the truth and must foster economic, social, and legal conditions that support the pursuit of truth by their own citizens.
This simple and authentically radical teaching about human dignity and commitment to truth ties the biblical and theological to the political. In a way, the pope has traveled the world on behalf of his own, more faithful, version of liberation theology grounded in the genuine Catholic tradition in which the Christian apostle is a prophet, not a party member or a combatant. As noted in her book, the pope has made use of the same “preferential option for the poor” found in liberation theology.[iv] In this regard, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (para. 2448) proclaims that “those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity, which remain indispensable always and everywhere” (emphasis in original). Note well how this preferential love for the poor includes work for the liberation of the poor. The genius of the pope’s historical achievement in social justice is his rescuing of the Church’s mission to liberate the poor from subjection to the passing and discredited phenomenon of Marxism. Obviously, his firsthand experience in Poland allowed him to see the fatal danger from the reckless efforts of some Latin American theologians to try to combine Christianity with historically discredited Marxism.
Formicola also discusses the papal encyclicals on social matters, including the 1987 document Sollicitudo Rei Socialis in which the pope restated Catholic teaching on the universal destination of goods for the benefit of all of mankind stressing “that ownership was under a ‘social mortgage,’ and that at some point, after an individual’s and his families (sic) needs are taken care of, property must be used for the common good.”[v]
I daresay that this Catholic teaching will come as a surprise to many Americans. I recall teaching a survey class in economics to M.B.A. students at a Jesuit university in which I ended the semester by reading some passages penned by John Paul II on the limits of market economics. This meager attempt to give a Catholic context to economics led to looks of surprise at bringing in such “extraneous” material. Especially surprising is the Catechism’s declaration (para. 2424) concerning market economics: “A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable.” As a conservative economist who has taught the principles of market economics to many students, I am perfectly comfortable with the pope’s teaching, as I believe most mainstream economists would be.
If that is not enough of a prophetic critique of American culture, the author logically turns her attention to the 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (or Gospel of Life) in which the pope reaffirmed the intrinsic moral evil of abortion and other violations of the right to life. Formicola quotes a crucial part of the encyclical as a prophetic critique of modern democracy whose values cannot be based on “provisional and changeable ‘majority’ opinions, but [should rather be based on] … an objective moral law which . . . is the obligatory point of reference for civil law itself.”[vi] If the teaching on the universal destination of goods puts the American obsession with money in moral jeopardy, the Gospel of Life goes further to question the entire American legal regime built around Roe v. Wade (1973) and its progeny. As a lawyer, I welcome the pope’s legal commentary as refreshing and intellectually honest when compared to the tortured prose of our prestigious Supreme Court justices who have, to their everlasting shame, banally proclaimed abortion untouchable because since 1973 so many have used it to arrange their personal lives. Ironically, the non-lawyer pope’s comments on democracy and law are far more lawyer-like than the fuzzy and pedestrian reasoning of the Supreme Court.
Contrary to the shibboleths of those supporting the ordination of women, the pope has also spoken at length and sympathetically about the dignity and role of women in the Church and in society. Again, for this pope, and unlike many dissidents, social teaching grows from authentic theology rooted in tradition, not from secular ideologies or fads. John Paul’s view of the dignity of woman cannot be separated from reflection on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Formicola correctly includes theological discussion in her book as the only way to adequately understand the pope’s social teachings. She discusses the status of Mary noting that “Mary is a partner in man’s salvation through her role in the mystery of the Incarnation” [vii] and “ ‘the model’ ” of the Church.[viii] On this theological foundation, the pope has “called for equality in women’s personal rights in every area: equal pay for equal work, the protection of working mothers, fairness in career advancement, equality in family rights, and the right to female citizenship in a democratic state.”[ix] These teachings bolster the Church’s view that limiting priestly ordination to men in no way implies any inferiority or lesser dignity for women.
Other parts of the book detail events in Poland, Haiti, Cuba, and the Middle East, among others, in which the pope has taken great interest. There is a special chapter on economics which focuses on the pope’s efforts to have rich nations forgive the burdensome debt owed by developing nations consistent with the previously mentioned limits on the use of private property. At the end of the book, the author provides her reflections on various “prophetic dilemmas” which remain open on the pope’s agenda: closer relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and religious freedom for Catholics in Russia, Chinese persecution of Catholics loyal to the pope, and the tremendous social and economic problems of the African continent. All three problem areas will continue to claim his attention.
In sum, Formicola presents a picture of the pope as a world historical figure whose significance cannot be honestly underestimated because “John Paul has set himself apart from other popes by merging his two positions as religious and geopolitical leader to reach out and make meaningful moral change.”[x] She goes on to explain that he “has accomplished so much because of his special abilities and characteristics: charisma, intellect, resourcefulness, creativity, courage, empathy, and understanding of the use of power.”[xi] As a political scientist, she concludes that “rarely has the world seen a leader with this combination of qualities.”[xii] With some additional editing, this book should take its place as another confirmation of the grace we have received from the providential leadership of John Paul II. It also confirms that genuine prophetic leadership on social justice can flourish when based on traditional Catholic theology.
I have tremendous admiration and love for our Pope. Yet I sadly agree with this. The horrific homosexual molestation scandal has occurred on his watch, and for reasons that were under his control - and which were also quite predictable (and predicted by many). Unless John Paul II acts forcefully and with God-given righteousness to clean this mess up and to make the changes necessary to prevent this from again occurring, his wonderful, holy and powerful legacy will be undeniably sullied. I pray and hope that he will find the strength of purpose necessary to do what needs to be done.
He was called to be a shepherd not a "prophetic politician." He was more worried about geopolitics and racking up frequent flyer miles than he was in being a shepherd to his flock.
His legacy is one of shame.
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