COMMENTARY: Pope Used Religious Engagement for Political Relationships

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The political legacy of John Paul II is based on policies driven by his theological beliefs. Central to his understanding of politics was the notion that each human being is made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore, worthy of dignity and respect. Early in his papacy, […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The political legacy of John Paul II is based on policies driven by his theological beliefs. Central to his understanding of politics was the notion that each human being is made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore, worthy of dignity and respect.

Early in his papacy, John Paul sought to control internal church ideology, rejecting liberation theology _ the belief that the church should play an active role in bringing about the social, political and economic transformation of society. Rejecting partisan politics and clerical involvement in political affairs, he reminded priests that they were pastors, not politicians.


As head of the Vatican state, as well, John Paul carried out the church’s mission to preach, teach and sanctify its adherents in a variety of ways. Through the religious engagement of states, he attempted to reconcile the Holy See with Israel, Russia and Cuba. He evangelized for, and challenged governments to implement, human rights, social justice and economic freedom.

To John Paul, this necessitated preaching for a “third way,” the support of an “authentic democracy” and an economic system independent of both capitalism and communism.

Politically, he called for structures built on a judicial framework that favored freedom, dignity and decision-making by citizens. He believed that government should focus on the common good and be able to be replaced or corrected when necessary. Most critically, he believed that the political process should allow religion’s spiritual mission to go unimpeded, and that it should respect and implement superior universal values.

Economically, he supported a reconsideration of the notion of private property, called for special treatment for the poor, and supported debt relief for Third World countries.

John Paul began his political involvement by speaking at the United Nations in 1979, challenging its diplomats to look beyond their national interests and act for the dignity of all.

Later, he castigated dictators who repressed the rights of those in their care. Filipino Fernando Marcos, Polish General Wojciech Jaruselski, Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega, Haitians Jean-Claude Duvalier and Jean Bertrand Aristide, and Sese Seko Mobuto of Zaire were but a few who drew his open criticism.

John Paul used religious engagement as the basis for new political relationships. He pursued discussions on religious freedom with a wide number of states, eventually drawing many of them into negotiations on social and economic issues.


During the 1980s, he developed ties with the Reagan administration, leading the White House to establish diplomatic relationships with the Vatican in 1984. This cooperation was designed to defeat a mutual, atheistic enemy _ communism.

In 1989, the pope also opened a dialogue with Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to normalize church-state relations. Their relationship was built on a new respect for values such as pluralism, religious toleration and mutual understanding.

John Paul also sought to create other alliances between the Vatican and the states that emerged after communism’s fall. The Vatican was one of first to recognize post-communist Poland, for example.

Geopolitical breakthroughs also occurred. In 1994, after the establishment of a Vatican commission to “examine the conscience of the church,” the Holy See recognized the state of Israel, promising to eradicate anti-Semitism. In 2000, John Paul confessed to institutional anti-Jewish behavior, and hoped to bring the church to true repentance. All this led to a new and important relationship with all Jews around the world.

John Paul sought religious reconciliation with states that were non-Christian, anti-Catholic and officially atheistic. He visited Muslim states such as Jordan, and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

He visited India, evangelizing for greater religious freedom for Christians. He attempted to engage the Orthodox churches of Russia and Eastern Europe. He journeyed to Cuba in 1998, meeting with Fidel Castro and challenging the leader to open up Cuba to the world so that the world would also open itself up to that nation.


Leaving the country, the pope claimed that Cuba’s material and moral poverty was the result of limited fundamental freedoms, lack of encouragement of the individual and restrictive economic measures imposed from outside the country.

John Paul leaves a more involved and powerful Vatican, one that questions geopolitics, one that argues for social justice as it reaches out to developing states, and one that challenges the self-interested policies and wealth of the First World.

(Jo Renee Formicola is professor of political science at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. She is author of “Pope John Paul II: Prophetic Politician,” published in 2002 by Georgetown University Press. She wrote this article for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.)

KRE/JM END FORMICOLA

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