Pope John Paul II - What Side Was He On?

Over the past week, politics has reared its head in the world of the Vatican and the late Pontiff. Rome (Italy) is a very political place, but not in the right/left obsession this country has. Conservatives have generally accepted the Pope as one of their own, while liberals are yet again waffling between calling him bad on social issues and good on economic ones.

That's right. It seems the Pope had an economic policy agreeable to the Democrats. Of course, that 'policy' amounted to what most of us call Christian Charity. Like most Christians, the Pope stressed the value of feeding the hungry, treating the sick and caring for the poor. He also criticized the accumulations of material posessions over spiritual fulfillment. To Catholic Democrats, this translates to Social Security, Medicaid, redistribution of wealth and progrssive taxes.

The only problem is that the Pope hated socialism. I say that specifically, because not only did his native Poland suffer under Communism, but also under the Nazis whose totalitarianism model was that of a socialist government that decided what people needed to earn, eat, read or worship. Even the socialist democracies in the modern world are creating a formless society where religious faith diminishes every year.

As a Catholic, I have always found the most beautiful part about faith is that we as human being are given the choice to believe or not believe. We also have to live our lives in a way that we feel best expresses our values. In that sense, the liberals have it all wrong. Government mandated 'charity' is not charity at all. It is the decision of a relative few about how people should be treated. The Pope did not tell the people of the world that they have to pay more taxes for government programs any more than he told Jews to convert to Catholicism.

I feel extremely inadequate to the task of interpreting John Paul II message. I can only say that we would like to believe that the goal for good Catholics is a lack of materialism and a try empathy for the disadvantaged. The Church has had a long tradition of caring for people. They don't cut checks so much as offer support, physically, emotionally and spiritually. While the United States may not be charitiable in terms of government funds to the outside world, (a claim I don't agree with for many reasons) the American people are the most charitible people. This is a measure of the moral values of people, not of politicians. Much like nations have rejected religious government, we should reject government handouts and instead pursue personal growth.