The progressive Pope John Paul II

[xray s]

Juan Cole's post today touches on the many progressive stances taken by Pope John Paul II, on war, the death penalty, the environment, the middle east and workers rights.

A must read if you want to understand the legacy this man has left us.

http://www.juancole.com/

Sunday, April 03, 2005 Juan Cole
The Other Pope

John Paul II was a complex man and among the more intellectual popes in history. Because of his admirable stance against Stalinism in Eastern Europe (which did not in fact involve any denunciation of communism or socialism per se) and his anti-abortion stance, he is often claimed as an ally by the American Right (which is mainly Protestant and mainly about the best interests of wealthy business people).

But John Paul II was often an inconvenient man, whose moral vision would be upsetting to the US Republican establishment if it were taken seriously. He opposed the death penalty, to which George W. Bush is so attached. He opposed the Iraq War. He condemned laissez-faire capitalism and cared about the exploitation of workers, who he felt should have a dignity that is seldom bestowed upon them by the Walmarts and other firms in the US. And he cared about the rights and welfare of the Palestinian people in a way that virtually no one in the American political establishment does. He symbolically blessed the Palestinian claim that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Palestinian people.

That is, the Pope's message sometimes had a strong progressive content, and he was in some important ways on our side. That progressives might have had differences with him on some issues should not forestall our celebrating his progressive legacy. The American Right appropriates shamelessly anyone who even halfway agrees with them. We on the left must learn to make sectional alliances and commemorate those areas of agreement we have with people like John Paul II.

In honor of his passing I am posting some of his challenging statements.

Refer to the link to read much much more... http://www.juancole.com/

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. What a great article!

:D

[Dookus]

2. He opposed

the death penalty, but not enough, evidently, to change the Church's official stance, which supports it.

He opposed the war, but not enough to actually DO anything about it.

He supported the poor, but not enough to enact policies that would ensure that there would be fewer of them.

He supported social justice, but by opposing liberation theology.

He supported human dignity by calling gays part of a system of evil and opposing women's equality.

It's unusual to see history re-written this quickly.

[Hokie]

4. Exactly right

John Paul II was a conservative Pope who set back human progress 50 years. You can rewrite rewrite history as you wish but the facts remain. That is what should be debated.

[catbert836]

10. And he did this how?

He advanced the progresiveness of the church. Just because he didn't reverse 2,000 years of church tradition in one papacy dosn't mean we progressives should loathe him without end.

[hlthe2b]

7. thank God, we are going to have Pope Dookus, soon, eh?

There's the Dookus agenda in a nutshell. :toast:

[catbert836]

8. The Church does not support the death penalty!

n/t

[ewagner]

3. Thank You!

bookmarked in case some Repub tries to tell me that the (popular) Pope favored the Republican agenda....

Bushco is already trying to hitch on to the Pope's popularity...

[coloradodem2005]

5. He was complex.

I admire him in some ways, but I think he could have done a lot more.

[oscar111]

6. Food and Shelter: Human rights bottom line

without them, nothing else comes into existence.

Starve in the streets, and political freedoms mean nothing.

He was an ultra RW, on the bottom line issues. On human rights.

The "progressive" policies of his are by comparison too minor to mention.

[catbert836]

9. Yeah, just like Bill clinton was ultra right wing

Right? According to your standards.

[BuddhaGirl]

11. not so progressive

I found author Thomas Cahill's editorial interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/opinion/cahill.html?incamp=article_popular_2&pagewanted=print&position=

excerpt:

"Despite his choice of name, John Paul II shared little with his immediate predecessors. John Paul I lasted slightly more than a month, but in that time we were treated to a typical Italian of moderating tendencies, one who had even, before his election, congratulated the parents of the world's first test-tube baby - not a gesture that resonated with the church's fundamentalists, who still insist on holding the line against anything that smacks of tampering with nature, an intellectual construct far removed from what ordinary people mean by that word.

But John Paul II's most lasting legacy to Catholicism will come from the episcopal appointments he made. In order to have been named a bishop, a priest must have been seen to be absolutely opposed to masturbation, premarital sex, birth control (including condoms used to prevent the spread of AIDS), abortion, divorce, homosexual relations, married priests, female priests and any hint of Marxism. It is nearly impossible to find men who subscribe wholeheartedly to this entire catalogue of certitudes; as a result the ranks of the episcopate are filled with mindless sycophants and intellectual incompetents. The good priests have been passed over; and not a few, in their growing frustration as the pontificate of John Paul II stretched on, left the priesthood to seek fulfillment elsewhere.

Sadly, John Paul II represented a different tradition, one of aggressive papalism. Whereas John XXIII endeavored simply to show the validity of church teaching rather than to issue condemnations, John Paul II was an enthusiastic condemner. Yes, he will surely be remembered as one of the few great political figures of our age, a man of physical and moral courage more responsible than any other for bringing down the oppressive, antihuman Communism of Eastern Europe. But he was not a great religious figure. How could he be? He may, in time to come, be credited with destroying his church."