Nicholas F. Benton

A Pope for the Ages

Pope John Paul II was a giant of a man among men and not simply because he was a pope. Over and over again over the course of his tenure as pope, from the time he was elevated in 1978 until his death last week, the John Paul II spoke out powerfully and fearlessly against popular thinking.

In particular, his relentless insistence on solutions other than war and on addressing the plight of the world's truly poor and oppressed, was too often a veritable voice in the wilderness. But when it spoke, it resonated with an authenticity and an authority that was not rooted simply in his role in his church.

He impacted the world often as its true conscience. Unfortunately, as with our own consciences, he was often bowed to, revered and then ignored.

In particular, with regards to issues of war and poverty, it has simply become unfashionable, in the world of ordinary politics and the major media, to give them anything but lip service at best. The pathetic disconnect between words and actions on these subjects is not new to the world, but becomes more deadly the higher tech and more entitled we become.

Now, there's no doubt John Paul II and I did not see eye-to-eye on everything. He was "Old School" in many ways, as is his church and apparently deliberately so by its extraordinary commitment to tradition. But one could not doubt his conviction and the fact that his conviction was rooted in love for and what he perceived to be the best for humankind.

I have learned in life that there are some things you just cannot expect older folks to accept, even if you can chip away at their sensibilities by references to more core values of fair play and equal opportunity.

Maybe I didn't try hard enough to convince my dear old dad, may he rest in peace, not to be as prejudiced as he was in many ways. That's where subjects like baseball come in so handy. You can enjoy spending quality time with folks like him, and deepen your genuine mutual affection, by keeping the focus on something other than religion or politics.

In that kind of relationship, there develop special opportunities for the so-called "teachable moment," when the opportunity to engender some degree of understanding arises, but they can't be forced and are seldom anticipated in advance. You just have to be on your toes.

OK, so Pope John Paul II fell short, in my own point of view, on some of the issues that matter to me most deeply, as matters of civil rights and fairness. Matters like the role of women in his church, of a woman's right to choose and gay rights, including the right of gays to adopt children.

But I see progress in these areas, if they are to come in the Roman Catholic Church, to come from younger leaders more sensible to the realities of the world above and beyond yesterday's values and traditions.

I tend to be far less patient with someone my own age or younger who hold onto irrational prejudices that should have died with their elders.

I have misgivings, in particular, with those who presume to have the right to judge the behaviors of others, as long as they are within the guidelines of civil law. That reflects my mixed feelings about organized religion, generally, even though I am a member of an organized Protestant denomination, myself.

Religiously and spiritually-directed pursuit of truth and guidance in life is one thing. Slavish adherence to the dictates of authority is something else, entirely. One is based in opening oneself to God, the other based in fear of men.

It is particular amusing to me how the most strident leaders of the most demanding religious institutions assail the shortcomings of each other based on completely secondary matters, ignoring the way in which they all are structurally based on their demands for slavish conformity by their respectively flocks.

As for Pope John Paul II, despite whatever shortcomings I, personally, may assign to his church or even to many of his own views, his life's impact on this planet was of a monumental good. He was not a conservative. He was a radical progressive on the issues of peace and poverty. Every shade on the political spectrum will try to claim him as their own. But true men and women of God are not bound by man-made claims, definitions, institutions or traditions of any stripe.

Nicholas F. Benton may be emailed here.