| Silver Jubilee |
20 October 2003
|
John Paul II -- The First 25 Years
Pope John Paul II celebrated his silver jubilee on the throne of St. Peter last week. The spiritual leader of the world's 1+ billion Catholics is now an old man, suffering from Parkinson's disease, and yet remains firmly in control of the church's apparatus. His reign has been analyzed in detail in the last few days, but a great many pundits have been too one-sided in their assessments of him.
For better or worse, he is a social conservative. For example, he opposes not only abortion but also contraception in all cases. He rejects the ordination of women. To many, that means his time has been a delaying action against the forces of progress. To others, he has been the bulwark against the moral decay that seemingly began in the 1960s.
On the other hand, he is a voice in favor of the individual, downright liberal in the American sense. His role in the collapse of communism is usually overblown, but he did help push on the house of cards that Marx built. At the same time, he has warned against the evils of unbridled capitalism. He opposes the death penalty and war (including the war of liberation in Iraq).
His true legacy shall be his effect on the church itself. He has centralized power into the Vatican as few could have imagined. He has appointed to the College of Cardinals men who share his theology. He has been to the Church what FDR was to the United States, a man who changed it forever through both longevity and vision.
It is hard for Catholics to be dispassionate about him, and it is almost impossible for non-Catholics to fully understand his spiritual role (but the cheering throngs of teen-agers who have greeted him like a rock star gives some insight). For those who think that one person, in the right place at the right time, can change the world have another example in this pope, Karol Wojtyla.
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