Pontiff Doesn't Fear Politics
The Vatican has said the pope's tour to the Holy Land is a spiritual journey and that he wants to stay above the political fray.
However, Pope John Paul II’s encouraging words and actions for Palestinians seeking statehood are fresh evidence of his willingness to take stands on tough political issues.
CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports that in one of John Paul’s early visits to Latin America, he publicly admonished a local priest for meddling too openly in politics.
Yet, he has been called God’s politician, and the pope’s so-called pastoral visits have often had a political as well as religious purpose.
In his native Poland his support for the Solidarity movement was credited -- even by former Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev -- with speeding the fall of communism.
Particularly in the Third World, John Paul has felt temporal issues require his spiritual guidance.
Vatican writer Marco Politi says, ”He speaks about the right of the workers, he speaks about the right for medical care, or for a house for young couples.”
Longtime Vatican observer Wilton Wynn says that during his trip to Cuba, John Paul sent out two messages: ”To the United States -- lift the sanctions on the Cuban people. To Castro the message was -- give freedom to your people.”
From the very beginning of his papacy Pope John Paul II realized that to be effective he would have to leave the comfortable but limiting confines of Vatican City. Gone were the days of the Ivory Tower pontiffs. To be a player on the world stage, John Paul would have to be out there on it.
On all these trips there is public business and private.
John Cornwell, a Vatican affairs writer, says, ”Behind closed doors, and this is particularly true in North America, he was lambasting local bishops for not saying enough about homosexuality, about the demand for women priests.”
In fact, having aided the rise of freedom and democracy, John Paul often seemed disappointed by it.
John Wilkins, editor of The Tablet catholic newspaper, says, ”He's never really taken on board democracy. I think he is suspicious of democratic societies, he thinks that they're the rule of the majority and they bring in laws, for example on abortion, which he thinks are wrong.”
Although the Vatican has sought to downplay the political side of John Paul’s trip to the Holy Land, the pontiff has not shied away from expressing his long-standing support f the Palestinian people.
With the world watching, John Paul kissed a golden bowl of Palestinian soil in a highly charged gesture normally reserved for sovereign states
The pope told Arafat that the Vatican had always recognized that the Palestinians have a natural right to a homeland.
John Paul said, "No one can ignore how much the Palestinian people have had to suffer."
Just a day earlier, while flying over the West Bank en route from Jordan to Israel, the pontiff had sent a telegram of good wishes to Arafat -- again a papal recognition normally awarded only heads of state.
Again the Vatican is calling this current trip strictly religious. Again John Paul's hosts wonder what else he has on his mind.