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The Death
of a Great Pope
-- Carlos T. Mock, MD
http://www.pinkagenda.com
Author: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003.
Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association
Round Table
Chicago, IL
773-561-6617
There are those who are already --- perhaps prematurely --- hailing Pope
John Paul II as the greatest pope of this century. Because he
reigned for more than 26 years, many of these same people admit that Pope
John Paul II is the only pope they have ever known.
I am sad for those people, too young to have known the exhilaration of
watching their Church be revolutionized with the gust of fresh air that
Pope John XXIII brought to his flock with the Second Vatican Council in
1963.
As a child, I remember the spiritual excitement of suddenly hearing Mass
said not in syllabic Latin but in a language I understood, joyfully
playing guitars and tambourines --- the instruments of our generation ---
in church, shaking hands with strangers during Mass for the first time,
and adorning the altar with brightly decorated burlap banners we made
ourselves. Or, watching the nuns slowly shed their scary, burqa-like
habits and don a more approachable skirt-and-blouse outfit, and no longer
having my Mom embarrass me by putting my mucus-laden handkerchief on
her head when she forgot to bring her mandatory mantilla (lace head scarf)
to church.
Pope John XXIII was the architect of the new Catholic Church which
was brought into synch with our modern world and we loved him for it.
Because he modernized our Church for us, we thought Pope John XXIII
was a great pope.
On the other end of the spectrum, one of the legacies of Pope John Paul II
is destined to be, as noted by the New York Times, “that of a man
who used the tools of modernity to struggle against the modern world.”
With his passing, many of the wounds which have existed for decades in the
Catholic Church are already beginning to re-open. Perhaps, to his
credit, it was his personal charisma that kept so much hurt and alienation
in his Church repressed; buried just beneath the surface. Is there a
meaningful role for women in the infrastructure of the Catholic Church or
will they continue to be relegated to their second-class support role,
out-of-synch with where we have evolved as a post-patriarchal society?
Pope John Paul II never answered the question, but how about the next
Pope?
The Church, now without the “Traveling Pope” as its head, will be
forced to deal with other long ignored, yet highly relevant issues of the
21st Century. For example the theological basis for continuing to require
celibacy of its priests (initially imposed to allow the Church to maintain
control of its wealth), has created significant problems; the most
important one is that the Catholic Church has seen a 22 percent loss in
the total number of priests since John Paul II became pope. By the
summer of 2003, 16 percent of Catholic parishes had no resident pastor.
John Paul leaves a Catholic Church that has yet to sufficiently atone for
its institutional cover-up of the sexual abuse of the most vulnerable of
its flock in America. John Paul never addressed the pedophilia
scandal. His lack of leadership and institutionalizing of the
problem has forced the Church to spend almost $1 billion in Boston alone
(the hardest hit) in dealing with the painful scandal. The
Archdiocese of Boston, epicenter of the crisis, sold chancery property to
cover over $85 million in legal settlements. The Vatican has
remained troublingly detached from its institutional responsibility for
these abuses, almost always failing to offer protection and comfort to the
real victims of the abuse.
Not happy with denying women an important role in the church, John Paul II
abused his authority by denying a woman’s exclusive right to control her
own health and reproduction. He constantly preached against the use
of life-saving condoms (especially in places like AIDS-battered
Africa), going against all scientific data for the sake of “morality.”
He used the same arguments with which he fought against the
life-saving measures of stem cell research to support his position on
sustaining the “dignity” of one life. Life became more important
than the dignity of death, thus increasing the stress of families that
were faced with very difficult decisions about the end of life in “brain
dead” patients.
To his last breath he fought the reality of divorce and remarriage in the
modern family. He used “moral values” to stigmatize its
heart-broken, gay and lesbian faithful while advocating “human
dignity” for everyone else. Not only did he vehemently fight
civil marriage for same sex couples, but he also fought the GLBT community
for basic human rights. While Equality Illinois worked to pass SB
1632 adding sexual and gender orientation to the human rights act of the
state of Illinois, Cardinal George (perhaps in search of a promotion due
to the decaying health of the pope) made personal calls to Illinois
legislators threatening them with excommunication if they voted for the
law. The law passed and was signed by the Governor on January 21,
2005. The church since has started a costly campaign trying to erode
the rights attained by the law.
On April 18, the conclave to elect John Paul’s successor begins. John
Paul II elevated a large majority of the cardinals that will be voting for
his successor making the election of a modern pope quite unlikely.
Over the next few weeks, the Catholic Church has an opportunity to
confront the difficult issues of our time and where appropriate, begin the
healing process, as it selects its new pope. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will
guide these cardinals in their choice and begin the healing of the
Church’s wounds. Just like the Jewish faith is still waiting for
their Messiah, I am still waiting for the true successor of Pope John
XXIII.
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Los
Martes de Enkidu
[06.04.2005]: