John Paul II: 25 Years As Pope

John Paul II: 25 Years As Pope

Oct. 12, 2003


As pope, John Paul II has visited 130 countries and has spoken out against the excesses of capitalism, the death penalty, and war - including the U.S. invasion of Iraq. (Photo: AP)



The pope has silenced dissenting Catholic theologians and has vigorously opposed moderating the Church´s opposition to contraception, abortion and stem cell research involving human embryos and fetuses.


(CBS) From the beginning Pope John Paul II has been different, as the first non-Italian pope in four-and-a-half centuries.

Karol Jozef Wojtyla was from communist Poland. And, CBS News Sunday Morning´s Charles Osgood explains, while he has traveled the globe over the past 25 years, to take any measure of John Paul II you need to remember where he came from.

"I think John Paul will go down in history as the most important leader in the second half of the 20th century because of his impact ending the Cold War, bringing about the freedom for the people in Poland, the beginning of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and ultimately the Soviet Union," says Thomas Reese, the editor of the Jesuit magazine America. "He was the right man at the right time to make a difference in changing the course of history."

His legacy began in the overwhelmingly Catholic Poland, where the church embodied Polish aspirations for freedom. When the pope returned home, his appearances were political as well as religious. The worker groups who were pushing for political reforms appeared at his outdoor masses with their banners.

"He gave hope to the people of Poland, that they could have liberty, that they mattered," Reese says. "He became the person that they came out for. Millions of them showed their opposition to communist rule."

There are other ways the pope is a product of where he was raised. The young Karol Jozef Wojtyla went to school with Jews, and his landlord was Jewish. But anti-Semitism ran deep in Poland.

When the Nazis invaded his country, the future pope was pressed into forced labor and studied for the priesthood in an underground seminary. Yet he survived. Most of his Jewish friends did not — murdered at Auschwitz.

In his first visit to Poland as pope, he went to the death camp to make amends for what some saw as the church´s insensitivity to anti-Semitism.

"This pope has done more to bring about the reconciliation of the church with the Jews than any previous pope," says James Carroll, author of "Constantine´s Sword." " We have to confront the legacy of anti-Semitism and finish the healing and the reckoning with it. And he´d begun that. That´s the most important thing about him."

Just three years ago, the pope prayed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and visited Yad Vashem, a memorial to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.

"The Catholic Church is deeply saddened by the hatred and persecution, and display of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians," John Paul II said on his past visit.

But this pope has been more than a politician. He has been a pastor. And his parish is the world. He has visited 130 countries — setting foot on parts of Africa, to New Guinea, to Cuba, to Central Park in the United States. He shook many hands and hugged numerous small children.

"I would say in terms of social teachings on justice and peace, this pope is second to none in the 20th century," says Sister Janice Farnham, who teaches church history at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass.

She says Pope John Paul II has criticized the excesses of capitalism, is against the death penalty, and opposes all war — including the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"He had made no bones at all about where he stood from the beginning … that the war had no moral justification at all," says Sister Farnham.

Because of his travels, John Paul II has become a media star. He is a visible symbol of his church. Sister Farnham says that has a down side.

"Every word out of their mouths really becomes the norm for what it means to be Catholic," she explains. "To be Catholic means to obey the pope. This is something really recent in church history. Too much emphasis, too much papalization and too much centralization around the pope is unhealthy."

The pope has silenced dissenting Catholic theologians. He has vigorously opposed moderating the Church´s opposition to contraception, abortion and stem cell research involving human embryos and fetuses.

"What the Vatican is talking about when it talks about human sexuality has very little to do with the lives that are lived by men and women and children in the 21st century," says one time Catholic priest James Carroll. "It´s a tragedy that when the church speaks on important moral issues, the majority of Catholics — certainly in the United States, and I think also in Europe — feel free to make their own decisions about whether to take church pronouncements seriously or not."

Others defend the pope.

"A favorite phrase of his from one of his encyclicals is: ´The church imposes nothing. She only proposes,´" says Richard John Neuhaus, a personal friend of the pope, and editor of First Things: A Conservative Catholic Journal.

He says the pope does not stand for freedom that is generally understood in the United States.

"What the great dispute about is over the meaning of freedom," Neuhaus explains. "Is freedom simply to do whatever you want to do? Or is real freedom the freedom to do what you ought to do? Now the herd of independent thinkers in the dominant western culture believes the first. It´s simply being shackled to one´s own passions and desires and impulses."

John Paul II has rejected calls for greater participation of Catholic lay people in the governing of the church. His supporters say the Church is not a democracy.

"I think he´s open to suggestions," Neuhaus says. "He´s not much interested in administrative questions and structural questions."

Critics say that during the recent sex scandals in the United States, bishops appeared more concerned with protecting abusive priests than protecting abused children.

People like James Carroll say the church must exercise authority. But he believes a broader definition of the church institutions is needed to include those that are married in the priesthood, as well as women in the priesthood.

Jesuit Father Thomas Reese says the pope has produced a church struggling to find enough priests.

He says, "We´re getting to the point today where if someone is dying... and it´s late at night, you call the rectory, you´re going to get voice mail. You know, the chances of getting a priest is pretty slim."

The pope has shown special devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Yet by refusing women a greater role in the church, many Catholic women feel alienated.

"These are issues not so much of theology and scriptures," says Sister Farnham. "These are issues of power and control."

Yet despite such criticisms, in the past 25 years there has been a 40 percent increase in the number of Catholics world wide, to 1.1 billion.

By any measure, this has been an impressive and energetic papacy.

When elected at age 58, the pope still hiked and skied. He survived an assassination attempt in 1981. But, he has not been able to avoid growing old.

In 1978, he once kissed the ground when visiting a new country. Now a bowl of soil is brought to his lips. He is 83. It is impossible for him to walk because of Parkinson´s disease and other ailments. Also, his words are often slurred.

There have been as many as 10 pontiffs who have resigned in the past, but John Paul II has said on a number of occasions that the father of a family never resigns.

"The pope, is the father of the family," explains Neuhaus. "He has said Christ did not come down from the cross."

John Paul II presses on. This past week he presided over a 3-hour ceremony at a church built on the ruins of Pompeii. His principal biographer says the pope´s motto is "be not afraid. "

He writes, "The pope looks at the world not as an evil place. But as a sign of God´s love. Affirming the values of existence, the value of creation, and the hope of a future live."


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