Friday, July 14, 2006
JOHN PAUL II'S MARXIST LEANING
A little-known and unpublished work by Fr. Karol Wojtyla has touched off debate among experts across the globe about whether the future Pope John Paul II, as a young academic, had developed an appreciation of some aspects of Marxism as well as a strong critique of U.S.-style capitalism.
The John Paul II Institute in Lublin, Poland, which is charged with Wojtyla’s pre-papal writings, has plans to publish the work in the near future. However, interpretations of the two-volume Katolicka Etyka Spoleczna (Catholic Social Ethics) have been bitterly contested, a debate touched off in Wojtyla’s homeland of Poland and beyond when the authors of this article first wrote about the unpublished volume in a cover story for the British Catholic weekly The Tablet last January.
The text contradicts views promoted by neoconservative thinkers who depict the pontiff as a lifelong fan of U.S.-style liberal capitalism. It also raises questions of why, when every detail of Wojtyla’s life has been combed over by researchers and biographers, mention of this 511-page work has apparently been avoided.
Continue reading...
Seem to be consistent with his attitude toward U.S. "materialism" that he often expressed. It shouldn't come as any great surprise to anyone. I would have thought it was common knowledge that the Pope disapproved of capitalism. His disapproval of the American way of life was most obvious in the lead up to the war with Iraq. The following quote from the article seems rather typical of his thinking, at least to me:
“The church is aware that the bourgeois mentality and capitalism as a whole, with its materialist spirit, acutely contradict the Gospel,” Wojtyla writes.
To me the attitude seemed disingenuous, coming as it did from someone who took full advantage of the perks money could buy to travel the world and hold elaborate ceremonies at each stop, after which he returned home to the palatial Vatican. Made good press, I suppose, but still the comments reflected utilitarian thinking given their source. Sometimes I just wanted to tell him to walk in the shoes of the average American family guy for a while and then we'd talk about it.
It was also thanks to that materialist spirit JPII denigrated that he and Reagan were able to change the nature of Russian politics. One would have thought that communism presented a dire enough picture of the state of the working class under that system for him to reject it in favor of a democratic system that, while admittedly flawed, at least offered everyone some hope for a better life.
Then there were the occasions at my former liberal parish where more than once I left church reeling from what had sounded like an endorsement of communism from the pulpit during the homily.
In all of his objections to the capitalist system, I don't recall JPII ever pointing to another nation that he thought did the job better than America. It was more of a theoretical economic system that he endorsed. That conclusion would seem to be drawn from this controversial work as well:
Wojtyla traces communism itself back to Christian tradition, even subtitling one section “The Objective Superiority of the Communist Ideal.” But he makes clear he is using the term generically to mean common ownership. The church believes “the private ownership principle” can be upheld while “enfranchising the proletariat.”
“In the contemporary communist movement, the church sees and acknowledges an expression of largely ethical goals,” the future pope concedes.
“In line with patristic traditions and the centuries-old practice of monastic life, the church itself acknowledges the ideal of communism. But it believes, given the current state of human nature, that the general implementation of this ideal -- while protecting the human person’s complete freedom -- faces insurmountable difficulties.”
Then there is the spin:
In this context, Wojtyla’s controversial style could be said to reflect the language of the epoch. Although the text’s ideas are couched in Marxist language, the meaning behind them accords with Christian teaching, and conveys in unconventional terms what popes from Leo XIII onward had said about the abuses of liberalism and unchecked competition.
Interesting phrase, "Wojtyla's controversial style." If this early document shares in the same "controversial style" of later years, I'd be more inclined to call it "incomprehensible style," myself. Makes for good spin, though.
Those liberals that concerned Leo XIII history has shown turned out to be the Theosophists who gave us Blavatsky, Besant, and Bailey. Lee Penn's book quickly puts them in context. Marxism in a book may look promising. Marxism on the ground is another animal.
Timing is everything, I guess:
Can a work of such importance as Catholic Social Ethics simply have slipped through the net?
That question is being asked in Poland. In a front-page spread, the Zycie Warszawy daily accused the Lublin institute of attempting to “censor the pope” by withholding the text from John Paul II’s Polish beatification tribunal, which ended April 1 after just five months’ work.
What's to be done with this embarrassing text?
Meanwhile, Szostek has warned that an “authentic version” of the text must be prepared, with “commentaries to help with its understanding.”
“Editing this script isn’t a simple matter,” Szostek cautioned in an April statement. “It requires scientific reliability.”
God forbid that we should be permitted to take JPII at his word!
Blogger credit to New Oxford Review for the link.
