EDITORIAL Worlds applause hides church
flaws
We once may have thought that he
appealed to the masses because he was robust and energetic, knew how to use the
camera to his advantage and how to use that schooled voice to move us. For a
pope, he was refreshingly young and outgoing.
Maybe that was a large part of his appeal at the time. But now he
is frail and stooped, his voice is slurred, the camera no longer does him any
favors, no microphone can filter out the age or the infirmity. No longer moving
with grace or power, he shuffles.
But then God is paradox. And perhaps it is fitting irony that Pope
John Paul II, this representative of the ultimate paradox, should show in his
diminished state the real power of his papacy.
It has been both the prerogative and the privilege of this papacy
to wade into cultures around the globe and speak truths that, in local
circumstances, often go unsaid.
We saw the power of such pronouncements in Poland and throughout
the communist bloc. We saw it again and again in his repeated passionate
statements on behalf of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable; in
critiques of dehumanizing economic and political systems, including unfettered
capitalism.
Now, in what presumably was his last visit to the Americas, this
suffering figure, like a global teacher rehearsing his class one more time,
went through the staples of the curriculum: protect life at every stage; do
justice, especially to the poor; end abortion; cease execution, even of those
who have done great evil; stop the economic exploitation that often
accompanies globalization; end environmental degradation.
There is no arguing with the basic impulse, even if the devil is
in the details, particularly of the thorniest issues. What political agenda,
for instance, will inspire the broadest consensus while diminishing the numbers
of abortions? Do all the zygotes in a lab really have souls as one
archbishop exclaims elsewhere in this issue? Do spontaneous abortions in the
earliest stages of pregnancy involve persons?
Those are just some of the questions confronting Catholics of
conscience, legislators and those involved in the medical sciences. But who can
argue with the basic impulse that sees abortion as an evil -- even if one views
it as a necessary one -- that diminishes us all?
So it is with capital punishment. It is no secret that many who
ardently oppose abortion just as ardently uphold the states right to kill
those who murder. And what about the popes uncompromising opposition to
the U.S. embargo and military attacks on Iraq?
Can the business leaders among us hear his call for justice in the
Third World, can we allow his powerful, if economically uncomplicated,
challenge alter the way we exploit business opportunities?
Prophets rarely provide the blueprints along with their goading.
John Paul II speaks broad truths to the worlds cultures in a way that no
one else can at this time. That will certainly be a major part of his
legacy.
But it would be incomplete to limit a discussion of this giant
late 20th-century figure to his role on the world stage, for powerful as he
might be even the pope cant deliver on his own.
The evidence strongly suggests that John Paul will leave a church
deeply divided, with an infrastructure in serious decay and a growing cabal of
narrow-minded bureaucrats in charge.
If he has challenged the world at large to think, he has largely
sent his own thinkers cowering and scurrying for safe theological terrain.
His governance has become characterized by harshness and a quick
resort to punishment.
If trends continue, the sacramental nature of the church will be
in jeopardy, hostage to an absolute unwillingness to alter the tradition of
male celibate clergy unless one comes from another tradition, such as Lutheran
or Anglican.
John Pauls latest visit to the Americas shows once again
that the church has significant truths to convey to the rest of the world. The
church of the future, however, will have to be as bold in assessing its own
internal weaknesses as John Paul is in his approach to the wider world. A
broader application of collegiality on all levels and greater participation by
non-ordained men and women are among the institutional changes that will be
essential to bringing those truths to life.
National Catholic Reporter, February 5,
1999
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