April 5, 11:13 p.m. Thoughts on the pope

A mixed legacy of life, bigotry and peace.

By: Hank Kalet
   I have been holding off on comment on Pope John Paul II, because I am having difficulty understanding his legacy. I come from the left side of the political world and have been critical of the pope and the larger Catholic Church over the years for its treatment of women, relegating them to subservience and stripping them of control of their own bodies (birth control, abortion); for its denigration of gays (I am probably being too nice here – the Church’s rhetoric goes well beyond denigration) and its position on numerous other positions.
   I could allow the political filters to obscure the rest of his legacy, which would be a shame, because Pope John Paul II ultimately proved to be a far more positive presence in the world. He played a large role in toppling the communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe and has been equally critical of rightwing and paramilitary dictatorships around the globe. He has denounced our consumer capitalist culture as soulless, sounding like the purest of socialists, and has demanded that the world pay attention to its most vulnerable citizens (and, yet, homosexuals and lesbians are excluded – oh, the contradictions). And he opposed President George W. Bush’s bankrupt policy of pre-emptive war.
   And in what may have been his most significant gesture, he has mended fences with the Jewish community, canceling venal doctrines blaming Jews for killing Christ and apologizing for the church’s silence during the Holocaust. And he has reached out to Muslims and Hindus and people of all faiths – hoping to create a less confrontational world.
   There is a lot more to digest – this was a man who passionately believed in the rightness of his own moral worldview, to the exclusion of the rest of us (as David Corn pointed out Monday on his Web log). It has been a surreal several days, with the world turning Catholic before my Jewish eyes and the various filters, political, cultural, religious, coloring it all.