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Interview Prior to Benedict XVI’s Visit to the US in 2008

By tedlipien | August 15, 2009 | Religion | Comments Off

benedictxvi
Voice of America (VOA) Interview with Ted Lipien, author of Wojtyla’s Women: How Women, History and Polish Traditions Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church

 

INTRO: The head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Benedict XVI is paying his first visit to the US April 15-20. What message might he bring to American Catholics? Will the conservative pope heed the call of liberal American Catholics, who advocate more freedom, an end to priest celibacy, and women in the priesthood? To shed light on some of these questions, VOA’s Ivana Kuhar recently spoke with Ted Lipien – a Vatican observer and author of an upcoming book on the late pope John Paul II.

 

Kuhar: In a few days, we will witness the first visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the US. How different is the Catholic Church in the United States now, as compared to the time of the first visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979?

 

Lipien: Indeed, pope Benedict XVI will be coming to a much different and much more conservative American Catholic Church than Pope John Paul II when he made his first historic visit to the US in 1979. The American Catholic Church has become much more conservative, largely due to Pope John Paul II, and, of course Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who later became Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Ratzinger was Pope John Paul II’s primary advisor and associate. So, he also is responsible for this trend.

 

Ivana Kuhar , VOA: Studies and statistics show that many liberal Catholics have left the Catholic Church in the US. Why are liberal Catholics leaving the church?

 

Ted Lipien : Well, it’s widely assumed that they left because they disagreed with many of the positions that Pope John Paul II took on such issues as abortion, birth control, women priests, gay marriages and a general democracy within the Church. So, about one third of Americans who were raised Catholic had left the Church. This is unique because no other major religion or church has lost such a large proportion of its followers. Now, when I say that the Catholic Church is more conservative in the United States, it is still, I think, more liberal than some of the conservative movements within the Catholic Church in Europe.

 

Ivana Kuhar, VOA: In what respect?

 

Ted Lipien : For example, the conservative wing of the Catholic Church in the US is not highly nationalistic or xenophobic. Conservative Catholics in the US do not express anti-immigrant sentiments, as you will hear from some of the Catholic conservative groups in countries like Poland, or in some of the other countries in Europe.

 

Ivana Kuhar , VOA: Do you think that Americans essentially expect Pope Benedict XVI to continue with the same message as Pope John Paul II?

 

Ted Lipien : Now, I don’t think that American Catholics expect Benedict XVI to offer any major changes within the Church – they simply expect that he will continue the conservative positions on issues that John Paul II took, and in fact he may be even more conservative than John Paul II.

 

Ivana Kuhar , VOA: What is the main difference between the two pontiffs?

 

Ted Lipien : John Paul II, when he assumed his papacy, was much younger. He was a former actor. He communicated with gestures, rather than words. There was an excitement about his election and his papacy. Benedict XVI is in fact in some ways more conservative than John Paul II. He will continue all of the major policies of John Paul II. But, I think John Paul II was more careful, more conciliatory to other religions, more open toward the Third World. He saw the future of the Catholic Church in the Third World. It’s really hard to tell where Benedict XVI sees the future of the Catholic Church – whether he sees it in Western Europe and in the US, or whether he thinks that Catholicism will bloom in the Third World and will continue to decline in Western Europe.

 

Ivana Kuhar , VOA: What about Benedict’s view on priest celibacy and on women priesthood? Is Benedict’s view different than John Paul IIs?

 

Ted Lipien : Not at all. In fact, if anything, I think Cardinal Ratzinger was responsible to some degree for some of John Paul II’s strong pronouncements on these issues. So, don’t expect women priests, do not expect gay marriages, and do not expect changes in the Church’s position on birth control and abortion under Benedict XVI.

 

Ivana Kuhar , VOA: Are American Catholics asking for changes? Are they expecting any changes?

 

Ted Lipien : Well, those who have still remained within the Church, yes. There was a survey done in 1996, in which American Catholics were asked what they expect from a new pope. And anywhere from 65-70 percent said they are in favor of women priests, that they are in favor of more democracy within the Church, and they are in favor of married priests.

 

Ivana Kuhar , VOA: Does the Catholic Church have an answer for declining number of priests and nuns?

 

Ted Lipien : For example, in 1965, there were about 180 thousand nuns in the US. In 2005, there were only about 70 thousand. At the same time, the Catholic Church in the US has grown since then, largely due to immigration. But I don’t think that John Paul II, when he was alive, or Cardinal Ratzinger then and now, really thought that changing positions on these issues was the right answer. They would not change them, certainly not on abortion. Benedict XVI will probably not change the Church’s position on birth control. They would not want the Church to be in favor of abortion, of birth control or of radical feminism. I think they were willing to accept a smaller church, perhaps a church that is more conservative, and is dominated by Catholic churches in the developing world, although these churches are also changing as the result of globalization and media coverage. So, who knows what the future will bring.

 

Ivana Kuhar , VOA: Mr. Lipien, thank you for your time and insight.

 

Ted Lipien : My pleasure, Ivana.

 

Ted Lipien is the author of Wojtyla’s Women: How Women, History and Polish Traditions Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church. It was published by O-Books, UK, in June 2008, http://www.o-books.com/ .

 

Ted Lipien ’s email address is: mail@tedlipien.com. For radio, TV, Internet and print media interviews with the author, please call: 415-793-1642. For more information about Ted Lipien and his book on Pope John Paul II, please visit: www.TedLipien.com

 

This interview is in public domain and can be republished without additional permission.

 

Pope Benedict XVI Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djsacche/185335570/ |Author=eürodäna @ Flickr |Date=2006-06-07 | This photo is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License.

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A fount of revelation of John Paul II’s theories on feminism

By tedlipien | November 6, 2008 | Religion | Comments Off

Wojtylas_Women_PBWOJTYLA’S WOMEN

 

by Ted Lipien

 

published by O Books £14.99

 

Reviewed by Elizabeth Price

 

This book is a fount of revelation of John Paul II’s theories on feminism, the ordination of women, the USA and contraception and abortion, not merely this, it brings alive the reality that this man is an ordinary human being driven in his thinking by his own childhood, background, national culture, the fast-held opinions of a few friends etc, rather than some sort of supernatural inspiration of the Holy Spirit given him through Papal office. In other words this book suggests his teaching could/should be considered fallible and human rather than divinely inspired, and ought therefore to be treated as, in some cases, erroneous and in need of reform!

 

The blurb on its back cover describes Ted Lipien as a former director of the Polish Service of the Voice of America, and a journalist with more than thirty years of reporting and writing about politics, society, women’s issues, and the Catholic Church in Poland . He is also an avid researcher of the internet, giving various website references on almost every page, attractively boxed.

 

Every page of this superbly written book is of interest, but particularly informative is Lipien’s analysis headed WW II Genetic Killings – Key to understanding Wojtyla’s Pro-Life Stands. “His acquaintance with women imprisoned in the Nazi camps, sterilization and euthanasia were particularly disturbing to John Paul II.”. He formed a close friendship with one of these ex-prisoners, a doctor/psychiatrist Wanda Póltawska, (Lipien describes her experiences). With her Wojtyla discussed human sexuality, leading to his inclusion in his book Love and Responsibility, mention of the female orgasm, which to my mind (having read that book) has given some commentators on it, a false impression of his degree of understanding of marital love. Both he and Wanda believed contraception leads to abortion. Lipien provides some very convincing statistics to prove the contrary which Wojtyla stubbornly rejected. Together he and Wanda coined the phrases “The Culture of Death” and “The Contraceptive Mentality”. It also emerges from the book that Paul VI consulted Wojtyla before publishing Humanae Vitae; Lipien suggests that some of it was written by Wanda. He also tells us that Wojtyla ordered all his priests to question their penitents about their use of contraception and to withhold absolution and ban from Communion those refusing to reject its use. He set up groups of lay advisors to teach NFP, and gives website references for organizations such as Marriage Encounter which descend directly from these efforts. On p.298 there is this revealing sentence “What made this method (NFP) acceptable in Wojytla’s and Dr. Póltawska’s view was its less than full reliability, thus leaving open the possibility of conception.”

 

Lipien’s research is equally copious on the question of the ordination of women. He reports conservative and liberal arguments about women priests, including too the treatment of Fr.Tissa Balasuriya , stating that it was significant that the first theologian since the Second Vatican Council to be excommunicated for doctrinal disagreement was a Third World priest. He mentions too the existence of We Are Church and its protests in Europe . Feminism and the USA , Lipien shows, were anathema to John Paul II because he never understood or was prepared to listen and discuss their views on issues which clashed with his own firmly entrenched thinking.

 

For me the only flaw in the whole book is Lipien’s omission of the influence on Wojtyla of theology of Augustine (the unnamed source of inspiration for The Theology of the Body) about the effect of original sin on human sexuality (the unruly phallus), although he documents massively Wojtyla’s views on the danger of lust and the need for the intervention of the clergy to control the behaviour of married couples.

 

Since I bought it in October, I have been unable to stop dipping into what is the best, most even handed, thorough analytical biography I have ever read. Admirers, or no, of John Paul II, all thinking Catholics should treat themselves to it as a Christmas present.

 

Elizabeth Price is Chairman of Movement for a Married Clergy, Vice Chairman of Catholics for a Changing Church and is the author of their pamphlet Seeing Sin Where None Is

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A New Book About Pope John Paul II and Feminism Also Deals with Cold War Spying at the Vatican and Attempts to Influence Reporting by RFE/RL and VOA

By tedlipien | August 25, 2008 | Religion | Comments Off

Wojtylas_Women_PB
I included here more information about “Wojtyla’s Women,” my book on Pope John Paul II and feminism. In the book, I discuss at some length the attempts of the Polish communist secret police and the KGB to recruit agents among Pope John Paul II’s friends, as well as their attempts to influence the reporting of journalists working at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America. Some of these efforts were successful. Considering what has happened to the independent media under Mr. Putin’s leadership, there is little doubt that his secret police, the FSB, is just as busy now as they were when they were still Mr. Putin’s old employer, the KGB. (Mr. Putin is an ex-KGB operative.)

 

Some of the brave radio station owners in Russia told me in confidence that they had visits from the FSB officers who forced them to stop rebroadcasting VOA and RFE/RL programs. They were courageous to tell me about these visist because they could be prosecuted for revealing state secrets. Still, the Broadcasting Board of Governors cavalierly shuts down Voice of America radio broadcasts to Russia originating from Washington and thinks it is safe to do radio broadcasting from Moscow. RFE/RL journalists, many of whom are Russian citizens living in Russia with their families, are vulnerable to intimidation from the FSB.

 

Certainly, RFE/RL has many courageous journalists. During the Cold War, surrogate broadcasting was done from the West. But many journalists working within the Soviet Bloc became agents of the secret police and the majority were forced to write stories in support of the local regimes. The communist intelligence services even managed to recruit some agents who later worked for U.S. international broadcasters, although their number was very small. Any journalists and U.S. broadcasting resources placed within easy reach of Mr. Putin’s secret police are far more vulnerable than U.S.-based broadcasting and Voice of America journalists working in the U.S.

 

The BBG staff, some of whom know Russia quite well, should have advised the BBG members about these threats before shutting down VOA radio to Russia. It is also amazing that neither the BBG staff nor the Senate staff of Senator Biden did not see the implications of ending VOA Russian radio broadcast in terms of political symbolism and U.S. ability to communicate quickly with the Russian people in any future crisis. It is also amazing that they did not see that such a crisis would come sooner rather than later. It did 12 days after they shut down VOA Russian radio.

 

My guess is that they did know about these risks, while some BBG members may have not, but their desire to take resources from VOA in order to boost RFE/RL was just too great for them to resist.

 

I believe RFE/RL is a great institution and should be supported. RFE/RL broadcasting to Russia has some advantages over VOA broadcasting, just as VOA broadcasting to Russia has some advantages over RFE/RL broadcasting. At this time, however, due to the BBG decisions from the era of Mr. Pattiz and his consultants, RFE/RL has been put in a very dangerous position in Russia. My understanding, based on conversation with various sources, is that the current RFE/RL president, Jeff Gedmin, is trying to repair some of this damage, but he has not yet developed a new concept of safe surrogate broadcasting to countries like Russia, where the secret police is basically in charge of the media.

Wojtyla's Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church“Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church,” a book about Pope John Paul II and feminism by international journalist Ted Lipien who had interviewed Karol Wojtyla, offers a unique perspective on the late Pope’s views on women and American society.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, June 24, 2008 — John Paul II warned about the dangers of secular feminism but accepted of some of its ideas. A new book — “Wojtyla’s Women“ — explores the role of remarkable women who shaped the life of Pope John Paul II, supported his concept of “New Feminism,” and changed the Catholic Church.

 

Ted Lipien’s new book, “Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church,” published by the UK publisher O-Books and available on Amazon, reveals for the first time the role of remarkable women in the life of Karol Wojtyla and their impact on his papacy and the Catholic Church. The book also explores John Paul II’s views on feminism, gender roles, love, sex, abortion, and contraception in the context of unprecedented threats against human dignity during his lifetime, from pre-World War II anti-Semitism to the Holocaust, Nazi medical experiments on women prisoners, and communist dictatorship.

 

The book shows how John Paul II, the most charismatic and influential Pope in centuries, reshaped many facets of Catholic thought. Yet, as Ted Lipien demonstrates, Church policy on women during John Paul II’s papacy remained deeply resistant to popular modern ideas on gender roles. Wojtyla’s Women explores John Paul II’s views on women, marriage, family and sexual ethics from both feminist and conservative Christian perspectives. Previously untapped sources reveal the influence of his upbringing in Poland at the outset of the Twentieth Century, a time when deeply rooted traditions collided with rapid social change and new ideas, against a backdrop of war, genocide, and political oppression.

 

As the book reveals, Polish women were a remarkable and unexpected influence on John Paul’s understanding of gender issues and the Catholic Church’s theology. They were also the main force behind his advancement of New Feminism and Theology of the Body as alternatives to the Sexual Revolution and to radical and Marxist feminism in the West and in the communist world.

 

The future Pope John Paul II told Polish Catholics before becoming pope that “the affairs of the Kingdom of God” cannot be left only to women and that “social advancement of women has in it a little bit of truth but also a great deal of error.” John Paul II was strongly opposed to ordaining women priests.

 

But while he could not reach an understanding with liberal Western women because of vast differences in how he and they were shaped by culture and history, Karol Wojtyla nevertheless supported many ideas embraced by secular feminists and broke with many misogynist Christian traditions.

 

“Wojtyla’s Women” also analyzes the considerable impact of John Paul II’s views and papacy on the abortion debate in the United States and his conflict with the Clinton Administration over U.S. policies on birth control programs and abortion in the Third World. Lipien writes in his book that John Paul II was successful in raising awareness of the moral aspects of abortion through his campaign of “the culture of life versus the culture of death.” The book demonstrates, however, that Wojtyla’s campaign to promote natural birth control methods for women has not succeeded in any country, including his native Poland.

 

The author points out that John Paul II would have been appalled that the majority of U.S. presidential contenders in 2008 have been pro-choice, including the majority of those who are Roman Catholic: Joe Biden (D), Christopher Dodd (D), Rudolph Giuliani (R), Dennis Kucinich (D), Bill Richardson (D); only Senator Sam Brownback (R) and Alan Keyes (R), among former candidates who are Catholic, are pro-life.

 

Barak Obama (D), Hillary Clinton (D), and Senator McCain (R) belong to Protestant Christian Churches. Both Obama and Clinton are strongly pro-choice, while McCain is pro-life.

 

Ted Lipien reports in his book that Senator Joe Biden, who is a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, had said that he is prepared to accept the Catholic Church teaching that life begins at conception. Ted Lipien points out that John Paul II would have been gravely disappointed that abortion has not emerged in the U.S. as a major presidential campaign issue in 2008.

 

Ted Lipien’s book also reveals Pope John Paul II’s deep mistrust of Western liberalism and his condemnation of the United States as “a continent marked by competition and aggressiveness, unbridled consumerism and corruption.” In addition to abortion, he was particularly troubled by the growing support among Americans for ordination of women priests and social and legal acceptance of gay marriages.

 

John Paul II doubted that the emergence of the United States at the end of the Cold War as the only superpower was good for the rest of the world and he strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

 

Ted Lipien also reveals in his book how the KGB and the Polish communist security service recruited spies among John Paul II closest friends and their attempts to manipulate media coverage of his papacy. This part of Lipien’s book was cited in a recent news story about Senator Biden’s staff and the shutting down of the Voice of America radio broadcasts to Russia by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG, shortly before the Russian attack on Georgia in early August. To see the news story, please visit www.TedLipien.com, Pope John Paul II and Women Blog, http://tedlipien.com/WojtylaWomen/, www.FreeMediaOnline.org, and Free Media Online Blog, http://freemediaonline.org/freemediaonlineblog/.

 

Ted Lipien is a former director of the Polish Service of the Voice of America and a journalist with more than 30 years of reporting and writing about politics, society, women’s issues, and the Catholic Church in Poland. He interviewed Karol Wojtyla shortly before the Polish cardinal became pope. Ted Lipien is also president and founder of FreeMediaOnline.org, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization supporting media freedom worldwide. He lives in San Francisco.

 

For more information, please visit his website: www.TedLipien.com.

 

Wojtyla’s Women is available for purchase on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Wojtylas-Women-Shaped-Changed-Catholic/dp/1846941105/

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Press Release About the Publication of Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church

By tedlipien | June 21, 2008 | Religion | Comments Off

Wojtylas_Women_PB

Visit our website www.tedlipien.com

John Paul II Warned About Dangers of Secular Feminism But Accepted of Some of Its Ideas: A New Book — “Wojtyla’s Women” — Explores the Role of Women Who Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II, Supported His Concept of New Feminism, and Changed the Catholic Church

 

The future Pope John Paul II told Polish Catholics before becoming pope that “we cannot leave the affairs of the Kingdom of God to women” and that “social advancement of women has in it a little bit of truth but also a great deal of error.” But he also accepted many ideas embraced by feminists.

 

/24-7PressRelease/ – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, June 17, 2008 – Ted Lipien’s new book, “Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church,” published this month by the UK publisher O-Books and available on Amazon, reveals for the first time the role of remarkable women in the life of Karol Wojtyla and their impact on his papacy and the Catholic Church. The book also explores John Paul II’s views on feminism, gender roles, love, sex, abortion, and contraception in the context of unprecedented threats against human dignity during his lifetime, from pre-World War II anti-Semitism to the Holocaust, Nazi medical experiments on women prisoners, and communist dictatorship.

 

The book shows how John Paul II, the most charismatic and influential Pope in centuries, reshaped many facets of Catholic thought. Yet, as Ted Lipien demonstrates, Church policy on women during John Paul II’s papacy remained deeply resistant to popular modern ideas on gender roles. Wojtyla’s Women explores John Paul II’s views on women, marriage, family and sexual ethics from both feminist and conservative Christian perspectives. Previously untapped sources reveal the influence of his upbringing in Poland at the outset of the Twentieth Century, a time when deeply rooted traditions collided with rapid social change and new ideas, against a backdrop of war, genocide, and political oppression. As the book reveals, Polish women were a remarkable and unexpected influence on John Paul’s understanding of gender issues and the Catholic Church’s theology. They were also the main force behind his advancement of “New Feminism” as an alternative to radical and Marxist feminism in the West and in the communist world.

The future Pope John Paul II told Polish Catholics before becoming pope that “the affairs of the Kingdom of God” cannot be left only to women and that “social advancement of women has in it a little bit of truth but also a great deal of error.” But while he could not reach an understanding with liberal Western women because of vast differences in how he and they were shaped by culture and history, Karol Wojtyla nevertheless supported many ideas embraced by secular feminists and broke with many misogynist Christian traditions.

 

“Wojtyla’s Women” also analyzes the considerable impact of John Paul II’s views and papacy on the abortion debate in the United States and his conflict with the Clinton Administration over U.S. policies on birth control programs and abortion in the Third World. While John Paul II was successful in raising awareness of the moral aspects of abortion through his campaign of “culture of life versus culture of death,” Ted Lipien points out that he would have been appalled that the majority of U.S. presidential contenders in 2008 have been pro-choice, including the majority of those who are Roman Catholic (Joe Biden (D), Christopher Dodd (D), Rudolph Giuliani (R), Dennis Kucinich (D), Bill Richardson (D); only Senator Sam Brownback (R) and Alan Keyes (R) are pro-life). Barak Obama (D), Hillary Clinton (D), and Senator McCain (R) belong to Protestant Christian Churches. Both Obama and Clinton are strongly pro-choice, while McCain is pro-life. John Paul II would have been disappointed that abortion has not emerged in the U.S. as a major presidential campaign issue in 2008. Wojtyla’s campaign to promote natural birth control methods for women has not succeeded in any country, including his native Poland.

 

Ted Lipien’s book also reveals Pope John Paul II’s deep mistrust of Western liberalism and his condemnation of the United States as “a continent marked by competition and aggressiveness, unbridled consumerism and corruption.” In addition to abortion, he was particularly troubled by the growing support among Americans for ordination of women priests and social and legal acceptance of gay marriages. John Paul II doubted that the emergence of the United States at the end of the Cold War as the only superpower was good for the rest of the world and he strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Ted Lipien also reveals in his book how the KGB and the Polish communist security service recruited spies among John Paul II closest friends and their attempts to manipulate media coverage of his papacy.

Ted Lipien is a former director of the Polish Service of the Voice of America and a journalist with more than 30 years of reporting and writing about politics, society, women’s issues, and the Catholic Church in Poland. He lives in San Francisco.

 

www.tedlipien.com

 

Reviews of Wojtyla’s Women

 

Extremely detailed research into a heretofore unexamined aspect of the beloved Pope John Paul II’s life. This book is worthwhile reading for anyone interested in the personal network of highly influential women who shaped John Paul II’s attitudes, particularly on the debate of women’s roles. Dr. Nancy Snow, author of Information War

 

Ted Lipien has written an incisive and penetrating book on the role remarkable women, such as the Albanian-born nun and Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, played in shaping John Paul II’s outlook on important and controversial issues that defined his papacy. Much of the ground that Lipien covers in his meticulously documented book is not familiar to students of John Paul II’s papacy. He presents new information on the Pope’s enduring relationships with women who had an enormous impact on his life, offers original interpretations, and makes a significant contribution in advancing the theoretical discussion on John Paul II’s papacy. WOJTYLA’s WOMEN’s greatest strength lies in the author’s impassioned analysis of astonishingly complex issues and events. Lipien’s landmark book opens new paths for other scholars and is essential reading for specialists as well as the wider public. Dr. Elez Biberaj, author of Albania in Transition: The Rocky Road to Democracy

 

I read Ted Lipien’s important book with enormous interest. Few persons are as qualified as he is to enlighten readers about Pope John Paul II’s Polish roots — and the impact that they had on his views on women. Lipien provides a stimulating analysis of the Pope’s ideas on gender roles and how John Paul believed the Church should deal with sexual issues. While he does not agree with many of the Pope’s stands on women, Lipien makes a laudatory effort to understand — and explain — them. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between feminism and Catholicism, a key issue of our times. Dr. John H. Brown, former U.S. diplomat in Poland

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New Liberal Image for Benedict XVI for His Trip to Australia; But Is It Accurate?

By tedlipien | June 14, 2008 | Religion | Comments Off

benedictxvi
Writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian religion editor Barney Zwartz has tried to create a new image for Pope Benedict XVI on the eve of his visit to Australia. According to Mr. Zwartz, Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is a far more gentle and liberal figure than his immediate predecessor and former boss, Pope John Paul II. “There have been continuities,” Mr. Zwartz writes, “but in many ways he has been a stark contrast – more self-effacing, gentle and intellectual – to the previous Pope, for whom he was chief adviser and doctrinal watchdog.” According to Mr. Zwartz, since Benedict XVI took over the papacy from John Paul II, “there have been no heresy hunts, few confrontations, a much less visible presence and much less travel. His writings, including encyclicals on love and hope, have been optimistic. A profound and subtle theologian, he has sought to engage and to persuade, inside and outside the church.”

 

The masters of papal image making at the Vatican could not promote such comparisons openly, but Mr. Zwartz’s article does the job for them. Whether what he wrote has any element of truth to it is, however, debatable. After all, the “heresy hunts” under Pope John Paul II, to which Zwartz refers to in his article, were conducted by Cardinal Ratzinger.

 

While doing research for my book Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church, (O-Books, June 2008) I saw plenty of evidence that Cartidinal Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II saw eye to eye on nearly all the issues affecting women: such as abortion, birth control, and women priests. They were in total agreement on all principle points. If anything, Cardinal Ratzinger was the one advocating slightly less flexible positions on the role of women in the Church.

 

Benedict XVI has always been a great admirer of Pope John Paul II. As a former close advisor to John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger did not think conservative Polish upbringing and life under fascism and communism made the Polish Pope incapable of understanding Western cultures and Western women. He was convinced John Paul II had a unique ability to combine his vast experience, intellectual analysis, and faith to investigate with unprecedented human empathy “the nature of virginity, marriage, motherhood and fatherhood, the language of the body, and, thus, the essence of love.”

 

I found plenty of evidence of John Paul II’s deep faith, as well as many examples of his unprecedented human empathy on a personal level, but even Cardinal Ratzinger admitted that “when the Pope speaks, he does not speak in his own name.” His personal empathy may not extend to matters that affect the whole Church if he thinks his public statements might encourage unwanted behavior. Cardinal Ratzinger also defended John Paul II from criticism that, being a Pole, he only knew “the sentimental, traditional piety of his country and hence cannot completely understand the complicated issues of the Western world.” Ratzinger concluded that such a criticism is both “foolish” and “shows a complete ignorance of history.” He pointed out that Poland has always been at the intersection of various cultures: Germanic, Romance, Slavic, and Greco-Byzantine.

 

In 1988, Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) took action against American Catholic priest Father Matthew Fox who is a leading exponent of Creation Spirituality. In 1992, Father Fox was expelled from the Dominican Order and subsequently became an Episcopal priest. One of the reasons for the Vatican’s harsh treatment of Dr. Fox may have been his advocacy of equal treatment of women in the Catholic Church. Fox accused John Paul II of taking action against feminist philosophers, preventing girls from serving at the altar and denying priesthood to women. According to Dr. Fox, Cardinal Ratzinger called his work “dangerous and deviant.”

 

U.S. Catholic newspaper, The National Catholic Reporter, published a list of 24 prominent theologians and others who had been silenced or subjected to various forms of papal discipline under Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger. The list includes such names as: Fr. Hans Küng, Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, Fr. Charles Curran, Leonardo Boff, Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, Fr. Karl Rahner, Fr. Matthew Fox, a sister of Mercy Mary Agnes Mansour, the former archbishop of Seattle Raymond Hunthausen, Fr. Robert Nugent and Sr. Jeannine Gramick who ministered to homosexuals, a Brazilian Sister of Notre Dame Ivone Gebara and several others. While Mr. Zwartz makes a big deal of a recent meeting between Benedict XVI and Father Küng, when the Vatican took the initial action against Father Küng, Cardinal Ratzinger strongly supported and carried out John Paul II’s instructions.

 

Cardinal Ratzinger also shared John Paul II’s low opinion of American liberalism, and Western liberalism in general. In a 1984 interview, he suggested that being rich is a measure of one’s worth in North America and “the values and style of life proposed by [American] Catholics appear more than ever as a scandal.”

 

Ordinatio sacerdotalis, the 1994 Apostolic Letter on reserving priestly ordination to men alone, was one of many documents and statements from Pope John Paul II designed to counter radical feminist influences within the Church and to quiet demands for ordination of women-priests. In October 1995, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a letter signed by its then Prefect, Cardinal Ratzinger. In the letter, Cardinal Ratzinger amplified, explained and defended papal arguments against the ordination of women by stressing the constancy of the Church’s tradition and teachings on the subject from the very beginning of Christianity. Cardinal Ratzinger explained that while John Paul II did not invoke papal infallibility, his ban on the ordination of women should nevertheless be considered as infallible because it is based on the infallibility of the “ordinary magisterium” of all the bishops agreeing with a particular Church teaching. At the same time, Cardinal Ratzinger repeated the argument used by John Paul II that the denial of priesthood to women can only be properly understood in the context of what the Church teaches about “the equal personal dignity of men and women”—as exemplified by the role of Virgin Mary, who was not selected by Jesus to be an Apostle or a priest. In Cardinal Ratzinger’s words, “diversity of mission in no way compromises equality of personal dignity.” In an attempt to diffuse the claim of male domination within the Church, Cardinal Ratzinger also argued that the ministerial priesthood is “not a position of privilege or human power over others.”

 

Barney Zwartz describes Benedict XVI as “a profound and subtle theologian” who “has sought to engage and to persuade, inside and outside the church.” Catholic liberals and women demanding ordination to priesthood would have disagreed with this assessment. Cardinal Ratzinger had revoked the ordination of Ludmila Javorova, who had been ordained as priest by a Catholic bishop in communist Czechoslovakia to enable her to hear confessions and serve communion in prisons, to which males priests had no easy access. Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, also asserted that it would be incorrect and even absurd to consider the ordination of women to the priesthood as one aspect of the liberation of women. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which through its members and Cardinal Ratzinger invariably reflected the views of the Pope, has implied among other things that allowing women to become priests could undermine the Church’s current position on the complementarity of the sexes and lead to the neutering of society.

 

In 1997, Dr. Jeannine Gramick, a Roman Catholic nun, and Fr. Robert Nugent, a Roman Catholic priest, co-founded New Ways Ministry, an organization providing ministry and support to gay and lesbian Catholics in the United States. In 2000, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the leadership of Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger disciplined both Gramick and Nugent and ordered them to stop writing and speaking out on issues of homosexuality. Gramick rejected the order and transferred from the School Sisters of Notre Dame to the Sisters of Loretto, which support her in her ministry on behalf of lesbian and gay people. After being silenced, Father Nugent remains a priest in good standing. In 2005, New Ways Ministry raised concerns about the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy: “Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s record at the Vatican has been marked by decisions to end discussion on important questions and issues facing Catholics and the world. His hard-handed tactics of silencing theologians and using language that offends rather than heals have caused much alienation and anger….His record on lesbian/gay issues has been notoriously insensitive. Instead of listening to the voices of the laity, or even of other bishops, he has been the architect of documents and policies that reveal a tremendous lack of understanding of homosexuality and of the experiences of lesbian/gay people.” A conservative Catholic web site, OurLadyWarriors.org describes New Ways Ministry as “militant advocate of homosexuality which also demands ordination and ministry for homosexuals.”

 

In his 2004 Letter to the Bishops on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, Cardinal Ratzinger blamed radical feminism for overemphasizing the subordination of women and forcing them to seek power, although he did not specifically use the words “feminism” or “feminists” in the letter. This tendency, according to Cardinal Ratzinger, leads to competition between sexes with “lethal effects in the structure of the family.” He also blamed radical feminism for minimizing and obscuring the differences between the sexes. In Cardinal Ratzinger’s view, this kind of reasoning makes “homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent” and calls into question the role of “the family in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father.”15 The document was approved by Pope John Paul II.

 

There is strong resistance to radical feminism, homosexual marriages, legalized abortion, contraception and ordination of women-priests among conservative Catholics who applauded Cardinal Ratzinger’s election as pope. At the very beginning of his papacy, John Paul II also put his faith in this group of dedicated religious conservatives. At that time, he was strongly encouraged and supported by Cardinal Ratzinger. Australian religion editor Barney Zwartz’s article in The Sydney Morning Herald was an attempt to change Pope Benedict XVI’s image and make him look more liberal before his trip to Australia, but there is little historical and factual support for Mr. Zwartz’s arguments.

 

Wojtyla's Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic ChurchTed Lipien is a former director of the Polish Service of the Voice of America (VOA) and a journalist with more than 30 years of reporting and writing about politics, society, women’s issues, and the Catholic Church in Poland. His book, Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church, has been published in June 2008 by O-Books in the U.K. There is more information on his website: http://www.tedlipien.com

 

Pope Benedict XVI Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djsacche/185335570/ |Author=eürodäna @ Flickr |Date=2006-06-07 | This photo is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License.

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By tedlipien | May 1, 2008 | Poland, Religion | Comments Off

Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church by Ted Lipien can be ordered on Amazon. Click on the title or the cover image below. In addition to the story of the life of Pope John Paul II in Poland, the book’s major topics include: feminism, new feminism, theology of the body, abortion, contraception, women priests, Poland under Nazi occupation, the struggle against communism, and the women who had a significant influence on the development of Karol Wojtyla’s views on gender issues.

Wojtyla's Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church by Ted Lipien

Order on Amazon - Wojtyla's Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church by Ted Lipien

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