Papal reflections: An attempt to bring Western Christians back in line.

The Gazette ^ | Saturday, March 19, 2005 | RAY DRENNAN

[lizol]

Papal reflections: An attempt to bring Western Christians back in line

RAY DRENNAN Freelance

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Memory and identity, perhaps the last book by pope john paul II, explores the big questions of modern existence, including the coexistence of good and evil. Here are two views on it

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Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium will probably stir up some excitement, whether you are a believer or not. We expect spiritual leaders to be bridge-builders, fostering respect on our tiny, interrelated planet. We look for wisdom that transcends the narrow sectarianism and confusing cacophony that dim hope and blight our world. In such a world, the pope's book, advertised as a compelling political and philosophical testament, seems a poor choice for what might be his last published work.

Whether you like the pope or not, his 27-year reign has had some impressive moments. As the first non-Italian, he has undertaken more apostolic journeys and encountered more human diversity than any other. He apologized for the church's silent complicity in the Holocaust, convened the Assisi interfaith meeting and spoke out for peace when the United States was hell-bent on war.

Memory and Identity, a translation of a 1993 conversation with two Polish philosophers, structured into a question-and-answer format, has been expanded, hoping to appeal to a wider audience. The book never escapes the constraints put upon it by its form. The questions posed were political and thought-provoking. The theological, often meandering, responses of the pope were confusing.

The book's themes are familiar, including his love of his church, a belief in Christ's redemption as the only hope for "mankind," his love for Poland and his devotion to the Virgin, who might have redirected the bullet. Its most exciting parts are those detailing the 1981 assassination attempt.

Being the pope, he rounds up the usual suspects: modernity, the Enlightenment, abortion, homosexual unions, the manipulation of life, and democracies that legislate against God's eternal law. He suggests that these bad guys together might be another form of totalitarianism, subtly concealed under the appearance of democracy. He blames the Enlightenment for forgetting God, allowing man to annihilate at will. As a Unitarian, a child of the Enlightenment, it seems to me that religions acting in the name of God have done their share of annihilation. The only value he sees in the Enlightenment is in its development of a better understanding of human rights; rights, he notes, that were already proclaimed in sacred scripture. (But if human rights are so evident in scripture, why has it taken the church so long to confer these rights on women, gays, lesbians and so on?)

The pope reflects on 19th- and 20th-century Europe and particularly Polish history. For him, Poland is a place apart, a "universal value," an important memory for Western Christians, who have gone astray. He portrays Poland as a place with no wars of religion. Somehow the Minor Reformed Church of Poland (Unitarians), who were either killed or driven into exile in the 17th century, are overlooked.

And whether or not you share the pope's belief that good will ultimately prevail, might a Holocaust survivor not be troubled by his view that evil, Mysterium iniquitatis, has been useful, or by his thanking the Almighty for allowing "the bestial fury to be unleashed for only those twelve years"?

It is surprising to learn the extent to which his ideas and identity came fully formed from Poland and have not wavered. In this context, the title, Conversations, is somewhat ironic. If his travels and encounters did not shift his opinions, have all these conversations been one-sided? Catholics who have disagreed with the pope would no doubt agree. Memory and Identity seems like a final attempt to stamp his spin on history and to bring Western Christians back in line. In a world where learning tolerance and respectful engagement is essential, that the pope's entourage has published an "in-house" book that exhibits little theological humility is unhelpful.

For those interested in a less filtered look into the mind of Karol Jozef Wojtyla or those fascinated by Polish history, it is an interesting read. There is little for the rest of us.

Reverend Ray Drennan is minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal.

[LauraleeBraswell]

"" and spoke out for peace when the United States was hell-bent on war.""


He was WAY out of line on that one.

[murphE]

From the article:

"Memory and Identity, a translation of a 1993 conversation with two Polish philosophers, structured into a question-and-answer format, has been expanded, hoping to appeal to a wider audience. The book never escapes the constraints put upon it by its form. The questions posed were political and thought-provoking. The theological, often meandering, responses of the pope were confusing. "

[Tribune7]

But if human rights are so evident in scripture, why has it taken the church so long to confer these rights on women, gays, lesbians and so on?

The equality of women before God has always been recognized in the church (see Ga1:26-28, yup St. Paul)

What made women socially equal was advancments in technology and medicine, not philosophical understanding of rights. If some disaster should strike and we return to the technology that preceded the 19th century -- and a 40 year average lifespan -- gender roles would return to what they had been.

As for the gays and lesbians, bad behavior has always been bad behavior.

[lizol]

Well, I think that what he wrote abut this book was OK.

[lizol]

OK, you're right. It's probably my poor English.

[lizol]

Btw. I'm a Pole, so how could I not to like the Pope?

[lizol]

Bump