The peripatetic pope
Collins, Paul
THE PERIPATETIC POPE PAPAL VISITS ARE A MIXED BLESSING PAUL COLLINS An entirely new phenomenon has emerged in the church — the omnipresent papacy. This has been created by the speed of...
...Many participants in papal ceremonies or viewers of papal TV feel an intimacy with John Paul...
...TV can create a situation as images are more important than reality...
...In India in 1986 there was a strong emphasis on the values enshrined in Indian society and REVEREND PAUL COLLINS is an Australian priest...
...But the way in which the tours are organized prevents any chance for input during the actual visit...
...In another example, in 1985, he visited Togo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Central African Republican, Zaire, Kenya, and Morocco in twelve days...
...In third-world countries the emphasis is on mass gatherings of people...
...People begin to believe the simple equation that the pope equals the church...
...A close examination of the Australian trip shows that images — settings and the groups with whom the pope identified (handicapped, youth, aborigines, workers, politicians) — were more important than what he said...
...Is it a failure to incarnate the Catholic Christian tradition in this time and this milieu...
...in 1987 he has added trips to Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina and then to Poland, Germany, and the United States...
...There is no doubt that the pope is a humane and kind man...
...But the problem is, does this certainty come as the result of a retreat to the past, through identification with the central figure in a powerful institution...
...In other words, is it a failure to confront the very reality that the pope mentions so often — inculturation...
...we see only him...
...It can so easily become a personality cult, a form of manipulative dem-agoguery...
...Some critics have argued that John Paul gets in the way, that his personality obtrudes, and that God is hidden...
...The ministries of others pale into insignificance beside his...
...Come home...
...This is not because I think the papal tours will change the local church...
...Having intimately experienced the pope's tour of Australia in November 1986 — I covered it forthe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, saw every move on TV, and heard every word spoken — I can attest that there certainly were good effects for the local church in Australia...
...His influence flowed from the power of the Spirit within him, from the strength of his personal conviction, from the gentleness of his humanity, and from his intimacy with God...
...The problem is that the media create a false sense of intimacy — and this is especially true of television...
...culture, and during his twelve-day tour to Africa in 1985 John Paul told the young people of Cameroon that the Christian faith must be "fully assimilated into the language of other people...
...This article will appear in The Church in Anguish: Has the Vatican Betrayed the Council?, edited by Hans Ku'ng and Leonard Swidler...
...What is the purpose of these pastoral visits...
...The pope visited the parish grade school...
...The human image belies a tough determination to bring the church under control...
...By the end of 1986 he had made thirty-two pastoral trips...
...The pope has given a new lease on life to the papal monarchy...
...In theory, at least, there is no doubt about the pope's commitment to inculturation...
...The pope covered the whole of Australia (a country the same size as the United States) in six and a half days...
...The problem is that a high-profile pope destroys the balance that makes up the reality of the Catholic church...
...Henri Fesquet has commented perceptively: "When John Paul II visits France . . . one reason for his popularity is that, deep down, the French have remained monarchists...
...A critical regression occurs as complex realities are reduced to simplistic slogans and ideologies...
...But it is always he who is the evangelist...
...One can admire John Paul's stamina, but the purpose of such speed must be questioned...
...Local leadership, bishops, and communities fade into insignificance...
...The Australian experience can be duplicated in other countries...
...But he is also a strong man with a clear agenda for the church...
...11 September 1987: 485 Obviously, papal trips differ according to the area visited...
...He is, but he is also an instinctive master of media imagery...
...Issues concerning religion, church, and faith were widely debated in the media...
...It is this conflict between image and reality that troubles many loyal Catholics...
...He sat in grade four with the children gathered around him on the floor and answered their questions...
...A focus on Roman leadership inevitably weakens the position of local leadership...
...Peter Hebblethwaite has emphasized that John Paul is very much the catechist...
...He also emphasized that the Gospel must be fully integrated into the local culture and called for "a second evangelization...
...But in most countries Rome is content to go along with the local preparation...
...People see him, especially on television, as an accessible and humane figure who stands for justice and for a return to traditional values...
...There was a sense that the local church really participated...
...The first was during a visit to an ordinary parish in working-class suburban Melbourne...
...They certainly give many Catholics a sense of identity, belonging, and certainty in a world involved in one of the great transition periods of history...
...In places where Rome has a clear agenda because of specific issues or because of the importance of the religion or country visited — such as Latin America or the United States — there is no doubt that the Vatican keeps tight control of what is said...
...This equation — the origins of which lie in the nineteenth century — cannot be sustained since Vatican II...
...For them it was a real religious experience — although any well-celebrated liturgy, especially with a large faith-filled community and effective music, can give participants a real sense of God's presence...
...This has been created by the speed of travel and by the media, especially television...
...There is a real danger of this with Pope John Paul II...
...And Jesus — as the New Testament and the Catholic tradition constantly maintain — is the sole norm and final judge of all that is Christian and Catholic...
...And, as he has consistently done in Western countries, the pope made a stand for minority groups...
...He gave strong support to aboriginal Australians, stressing the worth of their culture and supporting their claim for land rights...
...The spontaneity of the children, the warmth of the pope, the charming contrast between Australian and Polish accented English, even the difference in colors between the red uniforms of the children and the white of the pope created a marvelous television image...
...In all of this, collegiality has been pushed into the background...
...Previous popes have claimed a uni-versal jurisdiction and pastorate...
...But many who attended the liturgies denied this...
...But there is a danger built into his style...
...In a country which sees itself as "secular," the pope placed spiritual and Catholic values squarely on the national agenda...
...A graduate of Harvard University, he is a research scholar at Canberra's Australian National University and is the author of Mixed Blessings: John Paul II and the Church of the Eighties...
...Used with permission from Harper & Row...
...It is the captain, not the team, that is highlighted...
...Television focuses on John Paul alone...
...Local participation has to be vetted well in advance...
...He is no longer remote, like the "quasi-divine" Pius XII, but a man of the people...
...The TV evangelists are clear examples of this...
...He avoided using the term "messiah" precisely because of its overtones...
...He always pointed beyond himself to the God who sent him...
...It was so good, the overseas networks picked it up...
...Is it to avoid having to hear the local people, to prevent the expression of agendas different from that of the Vatican...
...A rupture between Gospel and culture would be a tragedy...
...At Mass in Sydney, in a powerful (if overlong) sermon, he cried out to those who had strayed from Catholicism, "Do not be afraid...
...There may be some local input, but the speeches are clearly designed to express the papal agenda...
...But the core agenda is always the same — the pope must be at center stage...
...At heart he is probably a populist evangelist...
...The pope's speeches were prepared in Australia and the changes made by the Vatican were insignificant...
...During the very week he was demanding 486: Commonweal justice for aborigines, workers, and the unborn in Australia, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was beginning an investigation of one of the country's best theologians — a man from the center of the Catholic tradition — on the say-so of unknown and unnamed accusers...
...Certainly, this visual approach is part of the Catholic tradition, for it conjures up the sacramental nature of the church — persons, actions, and experiences that symbolically make present the power and reality of God...
...He has constantly called for incultura-tion, demanding that the church must become an integral part of the local scene...
...Can you reach out and touch him...
...John Paul joined hands with the youngsters, sang, and kissed them...
...Local bishops' conferences — which should speak for the local church — are marginalized...
...The sheer length and speed of such trips prevent any time for discussion, let alone a chance to sto^p and experience the local church or local environment...
...John Paul II has made it a reality...
...Media — especially TV — assume much more importance in developed countries...
...Does it imply an abandonment of the commitment in faith and hope to live a Christian life and build up the Body of Christ in everyday reality...
...He refused to allow the crowd to project onto him any political or ecclesiastical role...
...But the question is, are they intimate...
...An unreality creeps in wherein viewers believe that the image conveys the whole truth...
...I doubt it...
...Lip service may be paid to the authority of local bishops, but as Archbishops Emmanuel Milingo and Raymond Hunthausen discovered, there are limits to Rome's tolerance of local churches...
...The large public liturgies attracted enormous crowds and gave many people a sense of belonging to the church again, a pride in being a Catholic...
...I am not suggesting that Pope John Paul is merely a cynical power broker...
...Pope John Paul II has exploited these new possibilities to the full...
...It seems to be precisely for this reason that Jesus was so careful to avoid it...
...Despite all of this, the peripatetic pope leaves me with a deep sense of uneasiness...
...Copyright 1987 Harper & Row Publishers, Inc...
...Two extraordinary scenes from the trip to Australia linger in the imagination...
...That is one trip every three months since his election in 1978...
...The pope's words were lost in the visual images...
...Certainly the Australian church will muddle along 484: Commonweal much the same way as it always has, and one suspects that France, India, and Cameroon will not change much either...
...The second scene that lingers is that of the pope at a youth rally in Sydney...
...As a populist, John Paul's lifeblood seems to be enormous crowds...
...His visits could be more helpful if they were much more low key — and less expensive — and if he came, listened, and learned and, after dialogue, reenforced the efforts of Catholics to confront local realities...
...John Paul spent less than two hours with the Australian bishops as a group...
...But the tours effect a shift at a deeper level of perception, for they change the image of the papacy by making the pope seem present...
...Pope John Paul has great ability, to fit into a scene and dominate it...
...The pope has said they are to strengthen the faith of the local church and to be a visible symbol of the unity of the universal church...
...Thus I must admit that I think Pope John Paul's "pastoral visits" to the local churches are, at best, mixed blessings...
...In my view, it is...
...It is a need deeply embedded in many people as they search for certainty in a world of shifting values...
...As one priest remarked, such trips "are like summer rain — refreshing without lasting effects...
...While Jesus was surrounded by crowds, he was constantly on his guard against the cult of personality...
...It is not the French alone who long for a "monarch...
Vol. 114 • September 1987 • No. 15
