I was born and raised a Roman Catholic but like most of my Irish 20-something contemporaries I have happily lapsed into a state of occasional church visits brought about more by guilt than any real conviction about catholic teachings or doctrines. Doesn’t mean that I’m not a spiritual person or even that I’m an atheist but there’s a strong degree of gnostic scepticism in my attitudes to all religious organisations, creeds & their underlying/supporting rituals. However, I was fascinated to read this article on Kuro5h1n today. Whatever your personal opinion on his legacy as pope or his pronouncements on socioethical matters such as abortion, divorce or, most controversially, contraception he was undoubtedly one of the truely great figures of the 20th century. Not just because of his longevity in the office of pope but because of his profound impact in bringing about the demise of communism in eastern europe and the end of the “eastern-bloc” of communist countries that opposed the US during the cold war of the 70s and 80s.
An extract from the kuro5h1n post is telling
Karol Wojty?a, Archbishop of Krakow, was the leading figure in the movement by which the Polish Catholic Church became involved in politics. It was he who successfully led the movement to force the state authorities to authorize the building of a church in Nova Huta (by, essentially, embarassing them into it). It was his decision as Archbishop which allowed dissidents to use church basements to set up discussion groups for anti-regime agitation. It was he who stood as the foremost advocate for the notion that there was a Truth besides that which the state had authorized.
The catholic hierarchy in Poland, led by Wojtyla, bet that the Polish government was too afraid of the church’s power to punish this insurrection. They gambled with their lives and won.
in so doing, they turned the Polish Catholic Church into something unique: it became the only entity in the entirety of communist Eastern Europe which held a moral authority independent of the state. It was the only independent source of power which was tolerated in the communist world anywhere.