John Paul the Not-So-Great

Posted on Sun, Apr. 10, 2005

John Paul II
A charismatic and flawed figure
By Frida Ghitis

Like millions of people across the globe, I had the privilege of witnessing the charisma of John Paul II in action. I covered some of his international travels and attended at least half a dozen of his gigantic public events. I, too, came away moved by his magnetism and unexpectedly charmed by his sense of humor.

That's why the words I heard only days after one of those events all but knocked the air out of me.

I was on pope duty when a powerful earthquake struck Colombia. I was sent to cover the aftermath and arrived there with John Paul's image still vividly in my mind. Seeing the quake's survivors reach for comfort in their faith, I happened to mention to a local activist that I had just seen the pope.

"The pope?" she repeated, shaking her head only slightly. "That horrible, horrible man."

With commentators today exhausting every superlative to describe the late pontiff's greatness, it turns out there are many who think this was John Paul the Not-So-Great.

The Colombian activist told me stories from her work -- stories of desperate women living in poverty with violent men, enduring pregnancy after pregnancy, beating after beating, and afraid to change their lives because the pope unequivocally said that contraception and divorce went against God's will.

John Paul II mesmerized those who saw him. He spoke forcefully for the dignity of all men. But this champion of compassion also spoke forcefully against the use of condoms, even as AIDS killed tens of millions.
Stop for a moment and picture the lives of 12 million children orphaned by AIDS. Twelve million, and the pope would not relent. Because condoms might encourage sex, and the church cannot countenance sex except to make more babies, no matter how many babies already live without parents or without enough food, clothing or shelter.

When American Catholics discovered to their horror that the church in the United States had become a criminal pedophilia ring, with hundreds of priests victimizing thousands of children, John Paul II expressed his "sense of solidarity" with the victims -- and proceeded to protect the perpetrators.

The pontiff deserves praise for his achievements. He spoke in favor of the powerless and the dispossessed; he atoned for some of the church's sins, and he played a key role in ending communism.

But this champion of human rights also warmly, inexcusably, welcomed Saddam Hussein's deputy, Tariq Aziz, to the Vatican, lavishing attention on a key member of a regime that tortured and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of its citizens and started wars that killed more than a million people.

This was accepted as a symbol of the pontiff's opposition to the Iraq war. John Paul II also tried to stop NATO's intervention in Bosnia, even as millions of civilians there pleaded for help.

The pope rightly apologized for some of the actions -- or inaction -- of the church during the Holocaust.

But he praised Pope Pius XII's immoral silence as the leader who said nothing while the Nazis systematically murdered millions. And he bestowed honors upon Kurt Waldheim, the former Austrian president and U.N. Secretary-general, an active accomplice to that genocide. The honors came years after the discovery of Waldheim's past as a Nazi officer who participated in massacres of civilians and deportations to Nazi death camps.

The mild criticism of the pope that we hear usually centers on philosophical issues, such as his opposition to stem cell research, women in the priesthood or gay marriage. But his impact was felt in the mundane.
Like other masterful politicians, he could charm even those who disagreed with his policies and the impact of his actions.

As John Paul's unstoppable apotheosis proceeds, many who despise his views still venerate him, as if somehow the man and his actions could be separated.

Centuries from now, however, another pope propably will offer apologies for some of the church's actions during the reign of the charismatic -- and imperfect -- Pope John Paul II.

Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs