The millennial missionary

Conversion? The saffron-clad agitators please note: Karol Wojtyla has only one mission and that is Conversion with a capital C. Communism as a political faith was as ambitious as Christianity. Both sought to create the New Man in a Kingdom of Justice. Ten years ago, the Jehovah who lay defeated on the streets of Eastern Europe was not the Biblical one, but the bearded German one whose script was the alleged8217; source of this century8217;s biggest salvation theory.

The Pope8217;s pilgrimage to Poland, his homeland, in 1979 was the prologue to the end of communism. He, the helmsman of theChurch, was taking on the state of lie. He, the Missionary Number One, was supervising conversion. Without the Pope there would have been no Solidarity, the first organised rejoinder to communism. As Gorbachev, co-author of 1989, admits with modesty, 8220;Everything that happened in Eastern Europe would have been impossible without the presence of the Pope.8221; Irony: In the communist demonology, religion was the opiate of the masses, and it took the most successful opium merchant to challenge the salesmanship of the communist.

But the end of communism didn8217;t mean the end of conversion. For him the alternative to communism was not soulless capitalism. Though his post-communist encyclical, Centesimus Annus, was a centenary celebration of Leo XIII8217;s Rerum Novarum, a counter-blast against Marxism and revolutionary socialism, the real text was a manifesto for the liberated. A warning against selfish materialism and consumerism. For Karol Wojtyla, Big Mac was as bad as Big Marx. After political liberation, it wastime for social salvation. So the second decade of the papacy was devoted to soul-cleansing. In the catechism of the 8217;90s, the Biblical parameters of sins are stretched to include items like drug trafficking, tax evasion and alcoholism. The larger theme: capitalism with a moral face. The Willy Brandt in Catholic robes of the 8217;80s has transformed himself into a compassionate conservative of the 8217;90s.For him, the difference between communism and capitalism is superficial: Underneath is where the people are8221;8217;.

Underneath the jackboots of Fidel Castro. Underneath Clinton8217;s Gulf War or Thatcher8217;s Falklands war. This Pope has taken more than 80 foreign trips. The mission: Liberation. Nothing unusual for Karol Wotjyla, born on 18 May 1920 in the Polish countryside of Wadowice. A witness to the Holocaust and communist terror, he still can8217;t get Poland out of him. When he became the first non-Italian Pope for 455 years in 1978, he said: 8220;From now on, the particular nature of our country of origin is of littleimportance.8221; Wrong, it continues to be the most defining thing in the personality of this entirely Polocentric Pope. It is still the story of Brother Albert, played out on a stage larger than Poland. In a play written by the young Karol, Albert fought for the independence of Poland and was wounded in battle. He became a painter and later gave up art for founding a pro-poor religious order. The idealism of Albert is still visible in the actions of the playwright. And the battlegrounds are widening before his eyes. Within the Church, this activism is not fully appreciated. Pope John Paul may say: 8220;Some Christians depict Jesus as a political activist, as a fighter against Roman domination and the authorities, even as someone involved in class struggle. The concept of Jesus as a political figure, a revolutionary, the subversive from Nazareth, does not tally with the Church8217;s teaching.8221;

It is a clear indictment of Latin America8217;s liberation theologists who have reduced the sociological distance between theHoly Spirit and Karl Marx. But the image of subversion perfectly tallies with Karol Wojtyla8217;s teaching. His theological fundamentalism no abortion, no contraception is catholic dictatorship for feminists. Galileo was of course rehabilitated. Many more are waiting 8212; in abortion clinics, in the seminar rooms of spiritual feminists who are fed up with the He God.

He may have overlooked the cracks in the rock of St. Peter. But this Pope prefers the State to the Church 8212; in a revolutionary evangelical way. And that is why many non-churchgoing humanists argue that he is the greatest world leader of our times. He has answered Stalin8217;s question: How many divisions has the Pope? Today the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is asking the same question. Silly. They don8217;t understand what conversion is all about in the theology of Karol Wojtyla. That too at a time when even Saddam Hussein is realising the benefits of the Papal divisions. Pope John Paul is planning a millennial party at the birthplace of Abraham. That isapparently a Kurdish no-fly-zone in Saddamistan. Clinton is not happy about the Papal mission. Saddam is very happy, and you know why.

Which is the bigger sin 8212; Saddam8217;s or Bill8217;s? Karol Wojtyla is too intelligent to miss the irony.

8212; S. PRASANNARAJAN