Wojtyla: Story of a (non)eternal father

As anarchist communists, we have constantly followed the policies and mass-media strategy of this pope, like a malicious special correspondent dogging John Paul II (hereon JPII). In the early years of his pontificate our members were among the first to inspire and promote the first Anti-Clerical Meetings, which launched the alarm on the danger of the cocktail of his colonializing drive and the use of television, and the post-Concordat clerical revenge on Italian society which has hit education, healthcare and culture. This pope, let us remember it, came to the throne following the sudden and hierarchically-convenient death of John Paul I who, from the first days of his reign, had made murmurings about renewal and invitations to the Vatican to renounce its earthly goods. Afterwards, instead, everything changed for the better - for the eternal establishment of the Vatican: strong watchwords were required so that there would be no doubt regarding the supremacy of the Catholic religion over all others and on the obligation of being a believer. This was amply demonstrated by the recent debate in the European Parliament on the Christian roots of Europe.

JPII had a "monster" to fight which was borrowed from the Cold War (and for which IOR-Marcinkus financing was useful). A first "publicity" breach was opened with the conquest of Poland in Eastern Europe. Obviously seeking to take all the merit for the fall of the regimes, and acting only in the interests of his Church, irrespective of the effect on the world's social and political equilibrium.

But the dream of the evangelization of Eastern Europe ran into the reality of cultures which did not and do not have any intention of being evangelized by Catholicism, instead consigning those countries, after years of fierce State dictatorships, to a rampant capitalism controlled by local mafias, resulting in the barbarization of those societies.

As an anti-communist, he had no difficulty in blessing the stadium in Santiago where thousands of political opponents had been massacred by the butcher Pinochet, praised as a fine example of Catholic government, nor with silence over the death of Romero, or the silencing of that liberation theology which was close to the sufferings of the working class in Latin America.

Under this pope, who will be undeservedly remembered as a pacifist, several fierce world conflicts were unleashed. At least one of these, which bloodied Europe after 50 years, was directly caused by the ill-advised recognition of the fascist and nationalist secession of Croatia which sparked off a ferocious war of religion (amongst other causes).

So much for ecumenical dialogue.

Thinking back to those years of fiery sermons against the "atheists" who were responsible for the world's ills, we had to smile at JPII's recent admonitions of Bush, at this attempt to interpret the desire of all for peace by inviting Bush to soften his approach in the Middle East. The president of the United States, in fact, is an astute imitator of the arrogant policies of this pope - anti-secular (Bush is of course only too willing to substitute clerics for judges), ready to silence any murmurings of dissent with his anger. Look at the purges carried out among the Vatican's hierarchy of all those who dared speak up, cast away to the furthest corners of the empire to "serve christ" in some mission or other (if they were lucky), somewhere with plenty of work but nothing to command.

As for today, all you have to do is look at the conclave to see how Wojtyla has assured his line continues: 93% of the Cardinal electors were ordained by him. A good tyrant, an authoritarian father, a touchy king? Certainly a man who compromised his will to win with dangerous economic-political alliances, first and foremost with Communion & Liberation (CL) and all the business-minded clerics who have turned subsidiarity and devolution into an incredible font of private wealth and power. An accommodating pope happy to see the clergy intervening every area of lay distribution, in the belief that all morality and ethics must be inspired and guided by priests. A person who now, with death brought on by Parkinson's disease, now decidedly clashes with the hale and hearty image of himself of some years ago, when he thundered against another disease, AIDS, and seemed to lay the blame of its appearance on the "disorderly" human sexuality.

Except for the cover-up of the scandals which in recent years have involved the Church with accusations of paedophilia and abuse. The words of Cardinal Ratzinger during the Easter service regarding the corruption which had to be fought even within the Church, seemed indicative of the approach of a nightmare for Catholics: as if the "corruption" of the body of this pope, plastered all over the media, were uncovering at the same time all the sores that God's mastiff had been keeping under control for the last 26 years with a series of belts of the papal crozier. The presence of Cardinal "Ruini" at the deathbed appears as a presage of future "ruin". The "pro-life movement" with its hypocritical name, at the moment when efforts to keep this pope in life were becoming pathetic, now reveals its deepest significance: a desperate fear, the fear of death. The same fear that in recent days forced an American woman to have to agonize without euthanasia as a result of the religious mania of her parents.

The fear of death, the search for a guide, the melting into the mass: these elements are all mixed up in the single body of thousands of half-hypnotized people who are drawn to the big pincer-shaped magnet of Bernini's colonnade in St. Peter's Square. These elements, and the desire to be on the winning side, are the same elements which our glorious Italian Prime Minister exploits, a man who is equally skilled in the use of TV make-up and who seeks to silence his critics, or anyone who speaks freely, with a flood of accusations or simply by pulling the plug.

In a world where poverty and ignorance are exploited by unscrupulous people, skilled drovers of flocks and political hypocrites, we can understand Salman Rushdie's worry: "And perhaps... American Democrats will reach the understanding that today, in an America split right down the middle, they have more to gain by opposing the Christian Coalition and its adepts, and preventing Mel Gibson's world view from shaping social policy and American policy". Maybe some of us think it would have been fun if Cardinal Milingo could have become pope now, and got married later... it would have changed something. Instead we can only wait for the power games to give us the next non-eternal father: will it be a dark figure with a whip for the doctrine of the faith, or an accomplished organizer of inter-faith encounters in search for the conquest of souls?

Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici
3 April 2005