The nine contradictions of Pope John Paul II

By Hans Kung
Der Spiegel

Karol Wojtyla was not the greatest pope of the 20th century but he was certainly the most contradictory.

Outwardly, he called for conversion, reform and dialogue with the rest of the world. But this was sharply contradicted by his internal policy, which was oriented toward the restoration of the pre-Second Vatican Council status quo, obstructing reform, denying dialogue within the church and absolute Roman dominance.

While expressly acknowledging the positive sides of this pontificate, which, incidentally, have received plenty of official emphasis, I would like to focus on the nine most glaring contradictions of Pope John Paul II.

Human rights. John Paul II supported human rights while withholding them from bishops, theologians and women. The Vatican has yet to sign the European Council's Declaration of Human Rights: far too many canons of the absolutist Roman church law of the Middle Ages would have to be amended first.

The concept of separation of powers, the bedrock of all modern legal practice, is unknown in the Roman Catholic church. Due process is an alien entity, as well. In disputes, one and the same Vatican agency functions as lawmaker, prosecutor and judge.

Consequences: A servile episcopate and intolerable legal conditions. Any pastor, theologian or layperson who enters into a legal dispute with the higher church courts has virtually no prospects of prevailing.

The role of women. The great worshipper of the Virgin Mary preached a noble concept of womanhood but at the same time forbade women from practising birth control and barred them from ordination.

Consequences: There is a rift between external conformism and internal autonomy of conscience. This results in bishops who lean towards Rome, thus alienating themselves from women, as was the case in the dispute surrounding the issue of abortion counselling (in 1999, the Pope ordered German bishops to close centres that issued certificates to women that could later be used to get an abortion). This in turn has led to a growing exodus among those women who have so far remained faithful to the church.

Sexual morals. John Paul II preached against mass poverty and suffering in the world but made himself partially responsible for this suffering as a result of his attitudes toward birth control and explosive population growth. During his many trips and in a speech to the 1994 United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, he declared his opposition to the pill and condoms. As a result, this long-reigning 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.

Consequences: Even in traditionally Catholic countries like Ireland, Spain and Portugal, the Roman Catholic Church's rigorous sexual morals are openly or tacitly rejected.

Celibacy. By propagating the traditional image of the celibate male priest, Karol Wojtyla bears the principal responsibility for the catastrophic dearth of priests, the collapse of spiritual welfare in many countries and the many pedophilia scandals the church is no longer able to cover up. Marriage is still forbidden to men who have agreed to devote their lives to the priesthood. This is only one example of how this Pope, like others before him, ignored the teachings of the Bible and the great Catholic tradition of the first millennium, which did not require office bearers to take a vow of celibacy.

Consequences: The ranks have been thinned and there is a lack of new blood in the Catholic church. Soon almost two-thirds of parishes, both in German-speaking countries and elsewhere, will be without an ordained pastor and regular celebrations of the Eucharist.

Ecumenical movement. John Paul II liked to be seen as a spokesman for the ecumenical movement. At the same time, however, he weighed heavily on the Vatican's relations with orthodox and reform churches and refused to recognize their ecclesiastical offices and Communion services.

John Paul II did not heed the advice of several ecumenical study commissions or follow the practice of many local pastors by recognizing the offices and Communion services of non-Catholic churches and permitting Eucharistic hospitality.

He also failed to tone down the Vatican's excessive, medieval claim to power, in terms of doctrine and church leadership, vis-à-vis eastern European churches and reform churches.

Nor did he do away with the Vatican's policy of sending Roman Catholic bishops to regions dominated by the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, he preserved and even expanded the Roman power system.

Consequences: Ecumenical understanding has been blocked and relations with the Orthodox and Protestant churches are burdened to an appalling extent. John Paul II's papacy, like its predecessors in the 11th and 16th centuries, is the greatest obstacle to unity among Christian churches.

Personnel policy. As a suffragan bishop and later as archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla took part in the Second Vatican Council. But as Pope, he disregarded the collegiality that had been agreed to there and instead celebrated the triumph of his papacy at the cost of the bishops. Under his rule, the criteria for the appointment of a bishop became not the spirit of the gospel or pastoral open-mindedness but, rather, absolute loyalty to the party line in Rome. Before their appointment, their fundamental conformity is tested based on a curial catalogue of questions, and they are sacrally sealed through a personal and unlimited pledge of obedience to the Pope.

Consequences: A largely mediocre, ultra-conservative and servile episcopate is possibly the most serious burden of John Paul II's pontificate. The masses of cheering Catholics at the best-staged Pope manifestations should not deceive: millions left the church under his leadership or withdrew from religious life in opposition.

Clericalism. The Polish Pope came across as a deeply religious representative of a Christian Europe, but his triumphant appearances and reactionary policies unintentionally promoted hostility to the church and even an aversion to Christianity.

In his campaign of evangelization, which centred on a sexual morality that is out of step with the times, women, in particular, who do not share the Vatican's position on controversial issues such as birth control, abortion, divorce and artificial insemination are disparaged as promoters of a "culture of death."

As a result of its interventions, the Roman Curia has created the impression that it has little respect for the legal separation of church and state. Indeed, the Vatican (using the European People's Party as its mouthpiece) is trying to exert pressure on the European Parliament by calling for the appointment of experts, in issues relating to abortion legislation, for example, who are especially loyal to Rome. Instead of entering the social mainstream everywhere by supporting reasonable solutions, the Roman Curia is in fact fuelling the polarization between the pro-life and pro-choice movements, between moralists and libertines.

Consequences: Rome's clericalist policy strengthens the position of dogmatic anti-clericalists and fundamentalist atheists. It also creates suspicion among believers that religion is being misused for political ends.

New blood in the church. As a charismatic communicator and media star, this Pope was especially effective among young people, even as he grew older.

But in keeping with his ideal of a uniform and obedient church, John Paul II saw the future of the church almost exclusively in easily controlled conservative lay movements.

This included the Vatican's distancing itself from the Jesuit order. Preferred by earlier popes, the Jesuits, because of their intellectual qualities, critical theology and liberal theological options, were perceived as spanners in the works of a papal restoration policy.

Instead, Karol Wojtyla, even during his tenure as archbishop of Krakow, placed his full confidence in the financially powerful and influential, but undemocratic and secretive Opus Dei movement, a group linked to fascist regimes in the past and now especially active in the world of finance, politics and journalism. By granting Opus Dei special legal status, the Pope even made the organization exempt from supervision by the church's bishops.

Consequences: Young people from church groups and congregations (with the exception of altar servers), and especially the non-organized "average Catholics," usually stay away from major youth get-togethers. Catholic youth organizations at odds with the Vatican are disciplined and starved when local bishops, at Rome's behest, withhold their funding. The growing role of the arch-conservative and non-transparent Opus Dei movement in many institutions has created a climate of uncertainty and suspicion. Once-critical bishops have cozied up to Opus Dei, while laypeople who were involved in the church have left in resignation.

Sins of the past. Despite the fact that in 2000 he forced himself through a public confession of the church's historical transgressions, John Paul II drew almost no practical consequences from it. The baroque and bombastic confession of the church's transgressions, staged with cardinals in St. Peter's Cathedral, remained non-specific and ambiguous. The pope only asked for forgiveness for the transgressions of the "sons and daughters" of the church, but not for those of the "Holy Fathers," those of the "church itself" and those of the hierarchies present at the event.

John Paul II never commented on the Curia's dealings with the Mafia, and in fact contributed more to covering up than uncovering scandals and criminal behaviour. His Vatican was also extremely slow to prosecute pedophilia scandals involving Catholic clergy.

Consequences: The half-hearted papal confession remained without consequences, producing neither reversals nor action, only words.

For the Catholic Church, this pontificate, despite its positive aspects, has on the whole been a great disappointment and could, ultimately, prove to be a disaster. As a result of his contradictions, John Paul II has deeply polarized the church, alienated it from countless people and plunged it into an epochal crisis — a structural crisis that, after a quarter century, is now revealing fatal deficits in terms of development and a tremendous need for reform.

Contrary to the intentions of the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II restored the medieval Roman system, a power apparatus with totalitarian features, through clever and ruthless personnel and academic policies. Bishops were brought into line, pastors overloaded, theologians muzzled, the laity deprived of their rights, women discriminated against and national synods and churchgoers' requests ignored, not to mention sex scandals, prohibitions on discussion, liturgical spoon-feeding and a ban on sermons by lay theologians.

The upshot is that the Catholic Church has completely lost the enormous credibility it once enjoyed under the papacy of John XXIII and in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.

Reposted by Bulatlat

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