John Paul II: A Profoundly Rightwing Pope

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
April 8, 2005

Opus Dei and John Paul II
A Profoundly Rightwing Pope
By VICENTE NAVARRO

Vicente Navarro is Professor of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University, USA and Pompeu Fabra University, Spain.


The predominant perception of John Paul II, as extensively reproduced in most of the Western media, is that he was very conservative ("traditional" is the term widely used) in religious subjects but progressive in social matters, as evidenced by his defense of the poor and his concern for human and social rights. His key ideological role in the demise of the Soviet Union is put forward as further proof of his commitment to liberty and democracy. John Paul's support for the Polish trade union Solidarnosc, his numerous speeches in support of the poor and of those left behind by capitalism or globalization, and his frequent calls for human solidarity ­ not to mention his opposition to the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces ­ all are presented as examples of his progressiveness in the social arena.

In this perception of Pope John Paul II, some critical elements are forgotten. Let's detail them. He was groomed for the Papacy, long before he was elected Pope, by the ultra-right-wing sect Opus Dei. This secret organization was founded by Monsignor Escrivá, a Spanish priest who was formerly a private confessor to General Franco, organizing spiritual meetings for the Spanish fascist leadership. Opus Dei chose John Paul as the candidate for Pope very early in his career, when he was bishop of Krakow. His conservatism and anti-communism were very attractive to this sect.

John Paul traveled extensively at that time on trips organized and funded by Opus Dei, developing a very close working relationship with the sect. Opus Dei was the organization that developed the strategy to make him the Pope, assisted by the bishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger; the U.S. cardinals close to Opus Dei, Joseph Krol and Patrick Cody; and a cardinal then close to Opus Dei, Cardinal Franz König from Vienna (who later distanced himself from Opus Dei and from the Pope). The center of operations for this campaign was Villa Tevere, the Opus Dei headquarters in Rome.

Immediately after his election as Pope, John Paul designated Opus Dei as a special order directly accountable to him, not to the bishops. He surrounded himself with members of the order, the most visible being Navarro-Valls, an Opus Dei journalist who had worked for Abc, an ultra-conservative Spanish paper that had been supportive of the Franco regime. Navarro-Valls is well-known for selecting journalists to cover the Pope's international visits who would report on them favorably. He constantly vetoed critical voices, such as that of Domenico del Rio of the Italian paper La Repubblica.

http://www.counterpunch.org/navarro04082005.html

[Skittles]

1. yup

homophobic and misoginystic but please, let's show him respect :o

[Itsthetruth]

3. We Should Be Respectful While Remaining Honest

We can show him the proper respect while honestly looking at his actual record and activity.

Pope John Paul II: Right-Wing Or Progressive? Two Points Of View


CounterPunch
April 6, 2005

"The Greatest Disaster for the Church Since Darwin"
The Pope With Blood on His Hands
By TERRY EAGLETON

John Paul II became Pope in 1978, just as the emancipatory 60s were declining into the long political night of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. As the economic downturn of the early 70s began to bite, the western world made a decisive shift to the right, and the transformation of an obscure Polish bishop from Karol Wojtyla to John Paul II was part of this wider transition. The Catholic church had lived through its own brand of flower power in the 60s, known as the Second Vatican Council; and the time was now ripe to rein in leftist monks, clap-happy nuns and Latin American Catholic Marxists. All of this had been set in train by a pope - John XIII - whom the Catholic conservatives regarded as at best wacky and at worst a Soviet agent.

What was needed for this task was someone well-trained in the techniques of the cold war. As a prelate from Poland, Wojtyla hailed from what was probably the most reactionary national outpost of the Catholic church, full of maudlin Mary-worship, nationalist fervour and ferocious anti-communism. Years of dealing with the Polish communists had turned him and his fellow Polish bishops into consummate political operators. In fact, it turned the Polish church into a set-up that was, at times, not easy to distinguish from the Stalinist bureaucracy. Both institutions were closed, dogmatic, censorious and hierarchical, awash with myth and personality cults. It was just that, like many alter egos, they also happened to be deadly enemies, locked in lethal combat over the soul of the Polish people.

Aware of how little they had won from dialogue with the Polish regime, the bishops were ill-inclined to bend a Rowan-Williams-like ear to both sides of the theological conflict that was raging within the universal church. On a visit to the Vatican before he became Pope, the authoritarian Wojtyla was horrified at the sight of bickering theologians. This was not the way they did things in Warsaw. The conservative wing of the Vatican, which had detested the Vatican Council from the outset and done its utmost to derail it, thus looked to the Poles for salvation. When the throne of Peter fell empty, the conservatives managed to swallow their aversion to a non-Italian pontiff and elected one for the first time since 1522.

Once ensconced in power, John Paul II set about rolling back the liberal achievements of Vatican 2. Prominent liberal theologians were summoned to his throne for a dressing down. One of his prime aims was to restore to papal hands the power that had been decentralised to the local churches. In the early church, laymen and women elected their own bishops. Vatican 2 didn't go as far as that, but it insisted on the doctrine of collegiality - that the Pope was not to be seen as capo di tutti capi, but as first among equals.

http://www.counterpunch.org/eagleton04062005.html

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CounterPunch
April 5, 2005

Moral Values and Global Capitalism
John Paul II's Economic Ethics
By MARK ENGLER

A steady feature in Pope John Paul II's obituaries has been mention of his unwaveringly conservative stances on issues such as abortion, birth control, gay rights, and the ordination of women. While these positions were sources of consternation for many American Catholics, they far from represent the whole of John Paul's ethical beliefs. Particularly in his teachings about the global economy, the Pope advanced a vision of social justice that challenges narrow political debate about "moral values."

Reflecting on the process of globalization during his 1998 visit to Cuba, the Pope contended that world is "witnessing the resurgence of a certain capitalist neoliberalism which subordinates the human person to blind market forces." He claimed that "rom its centers of power, such neoliberalism often places unbearable burdens upon less favored countries." And he remarked with concern that "at times, unsustainable economic programs are imposed on nations as a condition for further assistance."

John Paul elaborated his arguments in his 1999 exhortation, Ecclesia in America. There he asserted that the increasing global integration of the current era presents an opportunity for progress. "However," he warned, "if globalization is ruled merely by the laws of the market applied to suit the powerful, the consequences cannot but be negative." He spoke out against "unfair competition which puts the poor nations in a situation of ever increasing inferiority."

Most specifically, the Pope strongly supported the Jubilee 2000 coalition's call for thorough-going debt relief for the developing countries. He stated in 1998 that "the heavy burden of external debt... compromises the economies of whole peoples and hinders their social and political progress. If the aim is globalization without marginalization, we can no longer tolerate a world in which there live side by side the immensely rich and the miserably poor, the have-nots deprived even of essentials and people who thoughtlessly waste what others so desperately need. Such contrasts are an affront to the dignity of the human person."

http://www.counterpunch.org/engler04052005.html

[northzax]

4. in my opinion, JPII

has as much, if not more, blood on his hands as any 20th century dictator. Without him, the church was moving towards acceptance of the modern reality of Birth Control (especially condoms) and would have dealt with the AIDS epidemic in a better fashion.

Every catholic woman who contracted AIDS from an unfaithful husband, since she couldn't ask him to wear a condom, weighs on JPII's soul. Every mother who died in childbirth because she couldn't use birth control to prevent having another child, weighs on his soul.

Every child molested, from 1995 on, by a clergyman, belongs squarely on his shoulders.

That's a lot of blood.

[Skittles]

6. THANK YOU

you get it

[ooglymoogly]

2. the more i read about opus dei the scarier they appear

[lastliberalintexas]

5. I wouldn't say he was necessarily rightwing

But he certainly set the Church up for years of rule by the Opus Dei followers most likely to succeed him. But truly rightwing people don't give a darn about poverty issues, and he at least gave them passing notice. Even if he was misguided in his beliefs on how to battle poverty, he at least thought there *should* be a battle. Unlike the ODers.

And if you search my posts, you'll see I'm not the biggest fan of Pope John Paul II. I abhorred his refusal to permit contraceptive use by Catholics, and the resulting overpopulation issues we are seeing today in predominantly Catholic developing countries. So I'm not exactly defending him, so much as asking that we remain honest. Was he conservative? Certainly. But does that mean he was rightwing? :shrug:

[Swamp Rat]

7. I'm recommending this for the "Greatest Page."

:thumbsup:

[Padraig18]

8. Call me silly, but some proof would be nice.

Lotsa allegations in the article, but not one shred of anything resembling proof.

:eyes: