Compassionate but conservative

Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore him, for he straddled the world8217;s stage and dwarfed other religious figures for most the twenty...

Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore him, for he straddled the world8217;s stage and dwarfed other religious figures for most the twenty-six years of his Pontificate. He exploded on the global scene as a surprise8212;the first non-Italian Pope in 450 years, and a Polish one at that! Now, he has made his exit in a dramatic death struggle, televised and witnessed by all the world.

But what is the bigger picture that this Pope leaves us? In the first year of his Papacy on his first visit to Poland, he asked a million strong audience: Why did God choose a Polish Pope? As their shepherd, Karol Wojtyla stood up for his people against overwhelming odds, and when they rallied behind him, their cause was invincible. With the moral authority of the Papacy behind his just cause, the effect on his people and the world was electrifying. Surely, John Paul II was not the only factor in bringing down the Iron Curtain. We may have doubts about his collaboration with President Reagan in ending the 8216;8216;evil empire8217;8217;; we may question the extent to which he affected Soviet leader Gorbachev; but we cannot gainsay his critical and catalytic role in ending the Cold War. As a Polish Pope, he has crucially changed Poland and Europe.

The Second Vatican Council in 1962 opened the Roman Church to the world. It redefined a 8216;fortress Catholicism8217; into a more positive dialogic encounter with the secular world and other religions. But countries behind the Iron Curtain were hardly able to internalise this vision. Now the world was his parish and John Paul played the dramatic role of parish priest!

The Churches of the First World that he had to shepherd were very different from their Second World sisters. The Church here was not under political threat, but her people were still searching for ways to live a full Christian life in a fast changing and increasingly unfamiliar world. This was not a world of black and white but a complex, confusing one that had to be discerned not condemned. In Asia and particularly India, inter-religious dialogue is the key to harmony and peace. The Pope pursued this relentlessly, not just in ecumenical dialogue between the Churches, but even reaching out to those that have been in historic conflict with his Church.

So in many way this Pope had left us with many contradictions and for one of his stature, this is but to be expected. However, the basic dilemma that he faced and which the Church will inherit is still to be resolved. The first Vatican Council was as much of a conservative tour de force as the Second one was for an aggiornamento, as Pope John XXIII had proclaimed, an updating of the Church in openness to the world. Neither of these Ecumenical Councils can be negated by the Catholic Church, but the dilemma is precisely this: Should Vatican-I be interpreted in the light of Vatican-II or vice versa? Perhaps it will take Vatican-III to bring both together and carry forward the aggiornamento and openness that John XXIII began.

The writer is editor Social Action, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi