A Global Champion Of All of Humanity

NY Newsday ^ | October 15, 2003 | Seth Armus

[presidio9]

In the quarter century of Pope John Paul II's papacy, three moments stand out for me.

First, his 1983 visit to Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega's Sandinistas, having won over an element of the Catholic clergy, hoped John Paul could be manipulated into defending the government and their "popular" church.

Mistaking the pope's humanism for socialism, and accustomed to weak and corruptible Catholic leaders, Ortega attempted to turn a religious service into a Communist pep rally. The pope told him, in effect, to shut up and stop desecrating the mass. Guest of the Marxist Sandinistas, he was nonetheless the eternal messenger of Jesus.

The second occurred 10 years later, at World Youth Day in Colorado. Addressing a half-million young followers in what the press quickly dubbed a "Catholic Woodstock," the pope, after wallowing in mutual good-feeling, told the audience that America is too materialistic and selfish and, more pointedly, that all of our nation's great accomplishments will be meaningless if we continue permitting abortion.

And the final example is his personal outreach to Jews. He stopped those within his own Polish church who wished to "Christianize" the Holocaust, and he also prayed for forgiveness at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial. He then angered many Jews by pushing for the canonization of Edith Stein, a woman murdered at Auschwitz for being a Jew, but whom some Catholics want to transform into a "Christian martyr."

These three instances contain the fundamental contradictions of John Paul's papacy: An instinctively political man, he resists political classification. A leader with a great instinct for freedom, he mistrusts any movement based on man. And, finally, though a deeply cultured European intellectual, he has consistently moved the Roman Catholic Church toward its ecstatic and medieval roots.

[presidio9]

He then angered many Jews by pushing for the canonization of Edith Stein, a woman murdered at Auschwitz for being a Jew, but whom some Catholics want to transform into a "Christian martyr."

I was humming right along with this one until the author got caught up in this one. Edith Stein was of Jewish ethnicity, but she was, in fact, a Carmelite Nun.

Millions of Catholics died in the Holocaust too. Accepting this fact does not diminish our outrage at the special targeting the Jews endured.

Saint Edith Stein

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[Mr. Silverback]

When I saw the title, I thought it would either be praising the U.S. or the U.N. Oops!

Despite his bad application of Just War Doctrine this year, I have enormous respect for this man. Truly, Heaven awaits.

[presidio9]

Despite his bad application of Just War Doctrine this year, I have enormous respect for this man. Truly, Heaven awaits.

It is possible for a Church leader to advocate the need for political change without supporting violent military action. John Paul II's position on the war was exactly the right one for a Roman Catholic leader.

[Mr. Silverback]

Yes, I did not understand at all the controversy over Stein.

First, I think the Catholic church has far less to be ashamed of during the Holocaust than most people think, especially considering how many of them were killed in the camps, so there was no need to use Stein to "reform" Catholicism in regards to the Holocaust.

Second, because I didin't understand why anyone thought of Stein as less of a Christian than a Jew. This was not a woman who had gone to Mass a couple of times or converted to marry a Catholic, this was a woman who had vowed to devote her life to Christ. To diminish her as a Christian to some kind of token is just nasty.

[presidio9]

The idea that Pope Pius XII either condoned or aided the Holocaust is yet another skirmish in a liberal campaign aimed at discrediting the Catholic Church. The Church was responsible for saving millions of Jews throughout Europe. As the link that I provided points out, Dutch Catholics like Stein were murdered in concentration camps specifically because Catholic officials there spoke out against it.

[Mr. Silverback]

It is possible for a Church leader to advocate the need for political change without supporting violent military action. John Paul II's position on the war was exactly the right one for a Roman Catholic leader.

It is not only possible but absolutely necessary for church leaders of every denomination to advocate non-violent change while that change is possible. A non-violent solution to the Iraq problem was simply not available, and we were already at war with terrorists, which Iraq harbored, trained and funded.

In June, our troops found a mass grave with 200 Kurdish children in it. They had been buried alive. Some were still holding their dolls. Sitting across a table from a man who would order that as a matter of course and making him see reason is simply not possible.

[presidio9]

In June, our troops found a mass grave with 200 Kurdish children in it. They had been buried alive. Some were still holding their dolls. Sitting across a table from a man who would order that as a matter of course and making him see reason is simply not possible.

Again, I supported the war wholeheartedly, but Americans tend to see things only in their own interests (not that there's anything wrong with that). The Kurdish attack was terrible, but it occured 15 years ago, not this past April. The point is, for American interests it was vital that we attack Iraq, but from a strictly humanitarian standpoint, there were and are several more glaring targets of military intervention in the world. The Pope can not start down that road. It never ends. The Pope is really a spiritual figure, not a political one.

[NYer]

Great article - thanks for the bump!

He may have publicly scolded "liberation" theologians, but he just as publicly reproached American Catholics, who want to love this pope without accepting his uncompromising opposition to the three issues that separate him from them: birth control, male celibate priesthood and homosexuality. If a schism occurs, it will be over these issues.

Just last week, my mother, citing the mainstream news media, assured me that the next pope will change the very policies mentioned - birth control, male celibate priesthood and homosexuality. I'm sure there are many catholics who, like her, have been hoodwinked by the liberal movement and view this pope as out of step with reality.

Thank God this pope has built up the College of Cardinals with a large number of conservative bishops. Good Morning America went inside the Vatican earlier this week. The following report is most telling, insofar as how the Vatican views America.

* * * * *

The 109 Cardinals from around the world are eligible to vote in a papal election. There are already names being tossed around as possible successors.

From Latin America, with half the world's Catholics, there is buzz about Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil, Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina.

From Africa, another possibility is Nigeria's Cardinal Francis Arinze, who now works in the Vatican.Another candidate from India is Cardinal Ivan Dias.

From Europe, there are several candidates outside Italy, but if the cardinals go back to an Italian pope the favorites now are Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan, Cardinal Camillo Ruini of Rome and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, in the Vatican. One place no one is looking is America.

"If an American got elected, people in the Third World would immediately conclude that either Wall Street bought the election or the CIA fixed the election," said Tom Reese, who wrote Inside the Vatican. "We don't need that in the Catholic Church."

Sorry, Dr. Steve ... you'll have to wait a bit longer to become Pope Piel I

[Mr. Silverback]

The Kurdish attack was terrible, but it occured 15 years ago, not this past April.

Two things: The mass grave wasn't from the 1988 Halabjah attack. It was much more recent. Also,I wasn't saying, "The war was justified to avenge the Kurds," I was using the mass grave thing as an example of why peaceful means simply would not have succeeded with Hussein, and it was obvious that they wouldn't.

I agree that humanitarian justification for war would have the Pope endorsing the invasion of a minimum of 20 countries, and probably the PRC would be on that list. But then, I've never really argued the humanitarian reason for war; I brought it up here with you to illustrate the futility of peaceful means in this case, and I bring it up with real peaceniks to puncture their bloated sense of moral superiority. The real reason to go in was terror training camps and WMD, and either one alone justified the invasion.

The Pope is really a spiritual figure, not a political one.

True, but as usual, spiritual things have great consequences in the real world, and JPII helped bring down the Warsaw Pact, for Pete's sake. Also, consider the situation in this case: The main advocates of military action are a Catholic (Blair) and a strongly vocal professing Christian (Bush). One of the nations that is sending combat troops is the Pope's home country, a nation that is almost 100% Catholic. This Pope is known for his stands against tyrants, and he runs the segment of Christianity that birthed the Just War doctrine. If he says, "Nope, doesn't fit," that has enormous political consequences.

Of course the Pope should press for peace whenever possible. But to say that those who took Hussein down would have grave spiritual consequences...does that mean SWAT teams are going to Hell en masse?

[Mr. Silverback]

Pope Piel I

LOL!!!

[B-Chan]

FYI: Prime Minister Blair of the UK is not himself a Catholic. He is married to a Catholic woman.

[Mr. Silverback]

Oops!

Cheri sure is a rotten bloody Catholic, too. All that New Age bilge, never mind the whole pro-abortion thing.

[RobbyS]

To diminish her as a Christian to some kind of token is just nasty. Jews have a nasty habit of forgetting that the majority of Hitler's victims were not Jews.

[RobbyS]

I would vote for Steven before I would vote for some of our cardinals.

[RobbyS]

I think the Vatican's oppostion to the war was based on their appreciation that militant Islam is spreading its message of hate everywhere in the world. The liberals in the West, of course, are so beguiled by their outdated--and condescending--view of Islam that they don't realize what we are up against. It may seem like wild view, but one of these days we may have to expell Muslims from our territories. send them back to Muslim countries just as they are expelling Christians. The liberals have the idea that they can convert Muslims to their values. (This is why they so loudly denounce the Baptists for trying to convert Muslims to Christianity). But if democratization doesn't work in Iraq, then it would work with the Muslims in our country.

[presidio9]

Jews have a nasty habit of forgetting that the majority of Hitler's victims were not Jews

I don't think it has so much to do with being Jewish as with being liberal (though the accusation is much more damning when coming from a Jew I suppose). The point is that the attack on the Church has nothing to do with the holocaust and everything to do with abortion, gay rights, private schooling and private charity.

[drstevej]

***Sorry, Dr. Steve ... you'll have to wait a bit longer to become Pope Piel I***

Perhaps, the Fourth Secret of Fatima did not have a date attached. But when JPI was elected who would have thought he would be Pope for such a short time. Conventional wisdom doesn't impress God.

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

A Global Champion Of All of Humanity - Seth Armus

In the quarter century of Pope John Paul II's papacy, three moments stand out for me.

First, his 1983 visit to Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega's Sandinistas, having won over an element of the Catholic clergy, hoped John Paul could be manipulated into defending the government and their "popular" church.

Mistaking the pope's humanism for socialism, and accustomed to weak and corruptible Catholic leaders, Ortega attempted to turn a religious service into a Communist pep rally. The pope told him, in effect, to shut up and stop desecrating the mass. Guest of the Marxist Sandinistas, he was nonetheless the eternal messenger of Jesus.

The second occurred 10 years later, at World Youth Day in Colorado. Addressing a half-million young followers in what the press quickly dubbed a "Catholic Woodstock," the pope, after wallowing in mutual good-feeling, told the audience that America is too materialistic and selfish and, more pointedly, that all of our nation's great accomplishments will be meaningless if we continue permitting abortion.

And the final example is his personal outreach to Jews. He stopped those within his own Polish church who wished to "Christianize" the Holocaust, and he also prayed for forgiveness at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial. He then angered many Jews by pushing for the canonization of Edith Stein, a woman murdered at Auschwitz for being a Jew, but whom some Catholics want to transform into a "Christian martyr."

These three instances contain the fundamental contradictions of John Paul's papacy: An instinctively political man, he resists political classification. A leader with a great instinct for freedom, he mistrusts any movement based on man. And, finally, though a deeply cultured European intellectual, he has consistently moved the Roman Catholic Church toward its ecstatic and medieval roots.

Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the papacy of John Paul II, but even without this occasion, he has been on our minds. First, the announcement, from the highest Vatican sources, that the long-ailing pope is "in a bad way" permits us to assume that his appointment of conservative cardinals is in preparation for his succession.

Then, the Nobel Peace Prize, for which experts had favored him, again went elsewhere - meaning that the man who is inarguably one of the most important religious leaders of modern times was passed over, on what was likely his last chance. Missing the prize for which he is, if anything, overqualified, shows the gap between the most worldly pope since the Renaissance and European opinion.

But, without being a liberal, John Paul has fought for human dignity, standing down Communist suppression in Eastern Europe, Nicaragua and Cuba without ever once letting himself be turned into an apologist for capitalism.

He may have publicly scolded "liberation" theologians, but he just as publicly reproached American Catholics, who want to love this pope without accepting his uncompromising opposition to the three issues that separate him from them: birth control, male celibate priesthood and homosexuality. If a schism occurs, it will be over these issues.

John Paul II inherited a worldwide but European-dominated bureaucracy, and he has made a conscious effort to globalize it. Culturally he is a product of the West, but theologically he is aligned with the enthusiastic Mary-oriented worship of the Third World.

This pope sees that the future of Catholicism is in Latin America, Asia and Africa and recognizes that European and American Catholics, with their ever-declining church attendance and demands for liberal reforms, can undermine the church's global strategy.

In the pastoral world of John Paul, the most important challenge comes not from Italian atheists or American Unitarians, but from evangelical Protestantism and Islam and gestures of social reform that must be tempered by dedication to the unchanging principles of the church.

It's my sense that the pope's greatest fans, like his critics, choose to see only part of his papacy. David Brooks, the sober conservative columnist, wrote last Saturday in The New York Times that the pope was a champion of "democracy," a statement that, despite his anti-communism, is utterly indefensible.

In other articles, liberals credited the pope with being the man who "really ended the Cold War." Some of the same people who chortled at the notion of Ronald Reagan bringing down the Soviet empire seem to believe that John Paul did.

As a historian, I am wary of proclaiming about the legacy of a still-ruling pope. One need only remember Pius XII, a hero at the time of his death in 1958 who today is held in rather lower esteem. One wonders, in particular, about how history will regard preaching against condoms in AIDS-ravaged Africa.

But this much must be said: John Paul II's complex and gifted leadership has firmly redirected Catholicism and, for better or worse, it is his vision that will now guide it. He has championed the dignity of every human life and resisted the superficial with an honesty, fearlessness and finesse that we will not likely see again.

____________________________

A wonderful article worthy of a full posting!! - ConservativeStLouisGuy