Once again Pope John Paul II has escaped death by a hair's breadth. He returned to the Vatican from a Rome hospital, and we see the figure of suffering and of courage at the familiar window, though his voice is now barely audible. Even for non-Catholics like myself, this is an occasion to ponder what the world will lose when the Pope's body finally succumbs to his ailments.
The picture that emerges is one of a mixture of colors. For those of us who regard the collapse of communism in 1989 as a seminal event of twentieth-century history, Pope John Paul is a hero. In Poland, he was the focus of all the activities of civil society. While in other countries, most emphatically in Romania, but also in what was then Czechoslovakia and in Hungary, the alternative to communism was a vacuum or at best a few isolated organizations in civil society, Poland had an alternative source of legitimacy. Before and after his election, the then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow was its most effective representative.
ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
Cardinal Wojtyla's election as Pope therefore had a significance far beyond the confines of the Church. Actually he himself did not like the identification of his church with civil society. In a conversation he protested: "No, the Church is not civil society, it is sacred society." This points to another aspect of John Paul II's papacy, more relevant to insiders than to outsiders. In matters of doctrine and ethics, John Paul II represented the conservative view. He was the counterpoint to Pope John?XXIII, who, through the Second Vatican Council of the 1960's and in numerous other ways, tried to reconcile Catholics with the modern age.
Pope John Paul arrested this process and even tried to reverse it. For progressive theologians like Hans Kng, he was and is therefore a force of anti-modernism, even counter-enlightenment.
At the same time, the Pope became the first great traveling Pontiff of modern times, almost a symbol of a globalized world. This meant that his image if not his words reached out to millions who do not belong to his church. There can be few people who will be recognized as widely all over the globe as John Paul II.
By that fact alone, he added a spiritual dimension to an age which is dominated by worldly concerns, such as wealth and show business. Those of us who believe in a multidimensional culture will be grateful to him for his enormous efforts, thus for his "catholicism" in the original sense of the word, his all-embracing concerns.
On the other side of the balance sheet, and despite his global outreach, Pope John Paul II cannot be described as particularly ecumenical. The beginnings of Christian ecumenicism under his predecessors did not advance much in his 25 years.
Paradoxically, he found it easier to reach out to non-Christian religions. The Catholic-Jewish dialogue in particular was in good hands with him. When a distinguished Jewish scholar thanked him for what he had done to cultivate Catholic-Jewish relations, he replied: "That was not me, that was Providence," and then added with his inimitable smile: "And me."
Has he been a man of peace? Yes, of course. But his reign spans a time in which numerous regional conflicts turned violent. There was little he could do in Kosovo or the Congo.
The years of John Paul II's papacy have not actually been a time in which "soft power" could achieve a great deal anywhere, so that Stalin's famous question, "How many divisions has the Pope?," remained topical. This was all the more relevant to the extent that Pope John Paul II is not enamored with the US. There are indications that he shares the old central European prejudice of America as a materialist civilization that provides the wherewithal -- but not the ideas -- for what needs to be done.
The Pope's legacy is, in other words, a story of great strengths and considerable weaknesses. It would be incomplete, however, were one not to mention the warm, curious, friendly, and humorous human being underneath it all. Pope John Paul II is in many ways an intellectual; he may have been underrated in that regard. However, he is also a simple man who connected without effort to others. He bore his suffering since the assassination attempt of 1981 with dignity. As a person, he never failed to impress his many visitors. Even in his current reduced state due to his illness, Pope John Paul II symbolizes human potential.
Ralf Dahrendorf, author of numerous acclaimed books and a former European Commissioner from Germany, is a member of the British House of Lords, a former Rector of the London School of Economics, and a former Warden of St. Antony's College, Oxford.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
Most schoolchildren learn that the circumference of the Earth is about 40,000km. They do not learn that the global economy depends on just 160 of those kilometers. Blocking two narrow waterways — the Strait of Hormuz and the Taiwan Strait — could send the economy back in time, if not to the Stone Age that US President Donald Trump has been threatening to bomb Iran back to, then at least to the mid-20th century, before the Rolling Stones first hit the airwaves. Over the past month and a half, Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz, which is about 39km wide at
The ongoing Middle East crisis has reinforced an uncomfortable truth for Taiwan: In an increasingly interconnected and volatile world, distant wars rarely remain distant. What began as a regional confrontation between the US, Israel and Iran has evolved into a strategic shock wave reverberating far beyond the Persian Gulf. For Taiwan, the consequences are immediate, material and deeply unsettling. From Taipei’s perspective, the conflict has exposed two vulnerabilities — Taiwan’s dependence on imported energy and the risks created when Washington’s military attention is diverted. Together, they offer a preview of the pressures Taiwan might increasingly face in an era of overlapping geopolitical
There is a peculiar kind of political theater unfolding in East Asia — one that would be laughable if its consequences were not so dangerous. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on April 12 returned from Beijing, where she met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and spoke earnestly about preserving “peace” and maintaining the “status quo.” It is a position that sounds responsible, even prudent. It is also a fiction. Taiwan is, by any honest definition, an independent country. It governs itself, defends itself, elects its leaders, and functions as a free and sovereign democracy. Independence is not a
RSS