Disinformation and John Paul

I have been speaking of late of the dulling of thinking and feeling generated by our present culture. As someone who has come very **slowly** to realise that the Catholic Church represents a great force standing against many, many aspects of this cultural decay – to say the very least about its true work – I have become poignantly aware of the vast amount of disinformation, that is also spawned around Catholicism.

Recently this became marked for me, when a dear American friend of mine related how most Americans saw the late John Paul II as little more than ‘pro-life, anti-communist’. My friends, this is a monstrous caricature. And addressing such injustice is definitely one thing I have in mind with this webblog.

But today I will simply say that years of reading a great amount of reporting on all sides (from bitter anti-papal polemics to adoring hagiographies) have led me to the conclusion that John Paul’s true work has been buried under lies. And by way of illustration, I want to quote from what I judge to be one of the most balanced books I’ve found, by Jonathan Kwitny who explains:

“I undertook this book because years of reporting-for the Wall Street Journal, previous books, and Kwitny Report documentaries in Poland - persuaded me that the story of the Cold War is widely misperceived.

On the evidence, the Cold War was won not by Washington, but by a nonviolent mass movement, like those of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., led by a man whose religious office has precluded him from talking about it openly.

Karol Wojtyla, as bishop of Krakow, forged the Solidarity revolution - in his philosophy classes, his community synods, his secret ordination of covert priests, his clandestine communications seminars, the smuggling network he oversaw throughout the Eastern Bloc, and above all by his example.

Even in its name, Solidarity was not just a shipyard union, but an idea rooted in Catholic tradition and formulated afresh by Wojtyla starting with a 1953 book daringly published underground ...

In interviews, colleagues reveal how Wojtyla guided them into a major hunger strike that was the Boston Tea Party of the Solidarity revolution and handed out envelopes of cash to sustain their work. Time and again, as pope, he singlehandedly rescued the revolution he begat, often in dramatic private confrontations.

Fabrications, widely repeated in the press, led people to misjudge his alliances and adversaries. Not only did the White House deny aid to a desperate Solidarity, by evidence it tried to help John Paul's opponents destroy Solidarity. The Vatican has been at odds with Washington over fundamental issues throughout John Paul's reign …

One obstacle to understanding John Paul is summarised by his friend and former student Halina Bortnowska: 'Most people are interested just in his teaching on sex … they miss what is important.' Contrary to popular belief, his clearest changes in Catholic doctrine as pope have been toward pacifism, respect for other religions, and willingness to admit error.”

I don’t know if the late Kwitny was Catholic or even Christian. I saw no evidence that he was, while reading his book: Man of the Century. And I saw plenty therein that – unlike the Catholic hagiographies – was not afraid to address John Paul’s limitations and shadow.

For me, this made his book all the more reliable. This and thousands of pages of further reading, have convinced me that what I quote here is only the **beginning** of what John Paul – this giant of the human spirit - contributed to our civilisation. Only the beginning … more will definitely be said as this webblog continues.