John Paul II and the Politics of Obedience

By Colman McCarthy

As the secretly elected leader of a male-run, land-rich, undemocratic, hierarchic, dogmatically unyielding organization headquartered in a second-rate European country, Pope John Paul II had few, if any, worries about accountability. He ruled, accordingly, as an autocrat. Organizationally, who could challenge him? Institutionally, he projected an image of loving shepherd endlessly traveling to distant pastures to bless the flock.

Watch out, though, if he thought you were straying. Then John Paul would crook you by the neck and dispatch you to a stony field where black sheep dissidents could do penance.

He found victims early in his papacy. Enthroned only two years, the pope decided in 1980 that Rev.Robert Drinan, a 10-year member of Congress from Massachusetts’ 4th district should get out of politics. Drinan, a Jesuit priest in the Gene McCarthy-Philip Hart wing of the Democratic party, championed human rights, programs for the poor and opposed Pentagon militarism. But his voting record on abortion bills wasn’t exclusively pro-life.

The archbishop of Boston has no problem with Drinan being in politics. His Jesuit superiors had no problem. Paul VI, the previous pope, had no problem, nor did the voters. But John Paul did. Drinan, who vainly asked the pope to reconsider his decree, obeyed and left Congress.

In 1980 John Paul had other troublesome priests on his hit list. Archbishop Oscar Romero was one. A former conservative who moved to the Liberation Theology left when he saw up close the poor killing the poor in El Salvador, Romero was under surveillance by the Vatican. Jonathan Kwitny, a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter and author of “Man of the Century: the Life and Times of Pope John Paul II,’ wrote that the pope “was disturbed about Romero.” Cardinals in the Vatican plotted to reassign Romero elsewhere in Latin American. Days after Romero’s March 24, 1980 assassination, John Paul telegrammed the president of the Salvadoran Episcopal Conference to express grief at the “sacrilegious assassination.” “Not one word of praise,” writes Kwitny” was offered “for the slain archbishop.” Speaking to crowds in Peter’s Square, the pope then expressed heartfelt grief for Catholic martyrs—in Chad, not El Salvador. Kwitney: “John Paul’s treatment of Archbishop Romero, and his continued treatment of Romero’s memory, are an injustice like no other he has done anyone.”

Another victim of papal wrath was Rev. William Rewak, a Jesuit who served more than 20 years as president of two colleges. In Sept. 1998, his order appointed him president of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif. Neither they nor Rewak foresaw any objections from the Vatican which had final hiring and firing power because the school offers pontifical degrees. Papal underlings uncovered some 20-year old writings of Rewak on married clergy and women’s ordination that differed mildly from the pope’s view. It was enough to quash the pending appointment, even after Rewak left a college presidency to take the job.

John Paul is a Catholic fundamentalist. Small wonder he is being hailed by Pat Robertson, Patrick Buchanan and George W. Bush. The same ruler who bullied Drinan, Romero and Rewak—only three of many, many—had no objections when prelates of his own stripe dabbled in politics. During last year’s presidential campaign, Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo, thundered to his 120,000 member diocese: “Anyone who professes the Catholic faith with his lips while at the same time supporting legislation or candidates that defy God’s law makes a mockery of that faith and belief his identity as a Catholic. Voters who defy church teachings “jeopardize their salvation.”

Not only could John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy and other Catholic pro-choice senators spend eternity in hell but voters will be burning with them.

The sorriest scandal during John Paul’s long stint was his refusal to transform Roman Catholicism into a peace church. It remains polluted by the Just War Theory, devised by Augustine in the 5th century and advanced by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th. The pope opposed the two U.S. invasions of Iraq, but he has never renounced the notion that war can be justified. French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran said during the start up of Iraq War II that “the Holy See is not pacifist.” The church has more than 1500 canon laws. Not one applies to warmaking.

With large numbers of American Catholic priests, nuns and lay people imprisoned for anti-war civil disobedience during the 27 years of his papacy, John Paul never once spoke out in their support. Nor did he visit any of them in prison during his seven trips here. Those Catholics who want membership in a peace church have a better chance with the Quaker, Mennonites or Church of the Brethren.

These old line peace churches aren’t much for dogmas, decrees, doctrines or other rubrics favored by John Paul. They favor loving their enemies, laying down their swords, sharing their wealth and doing food to those who harm them—odd notions indeed, but ones that helped an upstart religion get footing 2,000 years back.

Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington DC. His recent book is “I’d Rather Teach Peace.”