John
Paul II: An Assessment
John Paul’s resilience was exemplary.
He saw first-hand the Nazi occupation of his beloved
Poland
, only to witness, without letup, the Communist takeover and brutal suppression
of his people. Throughout the
decades of totalitarian savagery visited upon the nations of
Eastern Europe
he never softened in his recognition of and resistance to a godlessness no less
wicked because it came from the political left.
(Many people naively assume that the left is less monstrous than the
right.) Amidst it all he continued
to hope for the day, in God’s own time, when Communism would finally expose
itself as unambiguously cruel and deceptive.
His support of Lech Walesa and of the Polish populace leavened public
awareness and fortified private conviction until Marxist leaders had to admit
they could no longer manage the people.
Even as he discerned evil in the world-at-large
when other appeared not to, John Paul was just as quick to discern sin in the
“heart-at-small” as he confessed the arrears of sin in himself and repented
it. No one questioned his outpouring
to the priest he named his confessor and through whom he sought to hear the Word
of pardon from the crucified. No one
regarded as poor taste, or worse, poor theatre, his protracted periods of lying
prostrate, face-down, when he deplored the innermost shame and guilt he never
attempted to deny.
Yet while he knew the church to consist of penitent
sinners, he was always aware that the powers of death will never prevail against
the church (Matthew
16:18
) not because of the church’s inherent virtue (he had no illusions here) but
because of God’s promise and patience. God
has pledged himself to the people who are his “peculiar treasure”. (Exodus
19:5 KJV) Only by grace, yet
assuredly by grace, the church remains a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, God’s own people” – and all of this precisely for the purpose
of declaring the truth and mercy of the God who still calls us out of darkness
and into his marvellous light. (1st Peter 2:9)
Trusting God’s faithfulness to God’s own promises, John Paul
exhibited a patience that always found him diligent in his work with an
appropriate urgency, yet never frenzied or frantic.
He rooted himself in the church, that ship that could ride out the worst
storms of sin, treachery and disgrace.
Disgrace trumpeted itself during his tenure.
The sex-scandals involving priests, all of whom were sworn to celibacy,
became increasingly notorious as clergy betrayal and exploitation of children
surface first in Newfoundland, was heard of in many venues (including aboriginal
schools in Canada’s north), and came to most concentrated attention in
Boston
, where dozens of historic Roman Catholic church buildings had to be sold in
order to defray the lawsuits of disillusioned and outraged families.
John Paul was unyielding; resolutely he insisted that there is no place
in the priesthood for sexual exploiters. Whereas
ecclesiastical officialdom had falsified itself shamefully in a vain attempt at
keeping skeletons closeted, John Paul frankly owned the perfidy of
fellow-priests and pledged assistance to their victims.
No less movingly he recognized victims of a
different sort with a different history; namely Jewish people.
As a pole he was singularly equipped in this regard, for
Poland
had had the highest concentration of Jewish people of any country in the world,
only to have ninety percent of them liquidated (4.5 million).
In addition John Paul’s detailed reading of history allowed him to
grasp what few North Americans have yet; namely, that for the Jewish people the
Middle Ages was one, dark, endless, night of suffering visited on them by
Christians both ignorant and learned, indifferent and devout.
His frank acknowledgement of the church’s centuries-long abuse gained
him the admiration and affection of Jews around the world.
His overture in this area continues to bear fruit as Roman Catholic
Christians have re-owned the Jewish root of the faith, as well as the place in
God’s economy of the Jewish people as
Jews (i.e., not merely as potential converts to the church).
The pope built bridges between church and synagogue that continue to
bring blessings to both.
A learned theologian and philosopher (see his
encyclical, “Faith and Reason”), he had additional gifts that erudite people
frequently lack. One such gift was
an ability to handle the media. Never
gullible concerning the “power of the press” and its capacity for
misrepresentation, John Paul knew that his “management” skill concerning the
print and electronic vehicles was an opportunity for him to commend gospel,
kingdom, church and papal office.
His ability to relate to young people was a similar
gift. Whenever he spoke, wherever he
appeared, young people “fell” for him. No
one can forget the aged man winsomely attracting and addressing young people in
Toronto
on the steamiest day of the summer while radio and TV interviewers sought
(unsuccessfully) to dilute young Catholics’ ardour by interjecting reminders
of the church’s shadow side.
Yet there is “another side” to John Paul that
has to be noted. Whereas Pope John
XXIII had spoken of Protestants as “separated brethren”, John Paul never
acknowledged us to be brothers of any sort.
He never recognized us as part of the body of Christ.
While his stand against homosexual behaviour and
abortion was encouraging, his intransigence on the ordination of women was not.
While Protestants of orthodox conviction uphold the virginal conception
of Jesus, John Paul’s Mariology threatened the sole, saving sufficiency of
Jesus.
Worst of all, his Millennial Indulgence,
promulgated in 2000, recalled the occasion of the Sixteenth Century Reformation
in
Germany
when Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in
Wittenberg
(1517), challenging readers to his “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of
Indulgences”. Luther gave
ninety-five reasons why he deemed it utterly anti-gospel to think that temporal
punishment for sin is remitted in exchange for a fee.
In 2000 John Paul’s Indulgence decree, signed by a subordinate
cardinal, confirmed Protestants in their understanding of the battle-cry of
their Reformation ancestors: Ecclesia
Reformata Et Semper Reformanda. The
church – reformed by the gospel, ever stands in need of being reformed at the
hands of the selfsame gospel.
God is to be praised for the witness of the late
Pope John Paul II, even as Protestants will invoke that gospel whose purity
alone can – and will – fashion the church, the Bride of Christ, whose
splendour is ultimately “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she
might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:27)
Victor
Shepherd
