Since the death of Pope John Paul II it has been interesting to watch the Bush Republicans and neocons embrace the pope as one on their own. And certainly with respect to family issues there is some overlap between the official positions of the Vatican and the ideology of the radical right in the US. But did the pope agree with the neocon geopolitical worldview? Fred Barnes sees the pope as in the same league with his own god – Ronald Reagan.
In more than one sense, Pope John Paul II and Reagan alike, though you might not have guessed it when Reagan dozed off while visiting the Pope in the Vatican. They were men who reached greatness in their later years and, oddly enough, had an amazing attraction to young people. The Pope held youth gatherings all over the world and the turnout was extraordinary. And in the political realm, Reagan instilled conservative principles in millions of young Americans.
President Bush has certainly been vocal in his praise of Pope John Paul II, hailing him for his commitment to "the culture of life" (code for opposition to abortion). But Andreas Englisch in the Abendblatt sees the pope’s open condemnation of the neocon doctrine of preemptive war as the prime galvanizing force for younger followers:
Daß der Papst sich zu einem starken Symbol für den Frieden entwickelt hatte, das war auch ein Ergebnis der Darstellung des Papstes in den Medien. Da empfing im Vatikan ein körperlich schwacher, auf fremde Hilfe angewiesener Papst den starken Kriegsherren George W. Bush. Wahrscheinlich ohne es zu wollen, schufen die Massenmedien mit den Bildern dieses Treffens vor allem für junge Menschen in Europa eine neue Ikone. Der Papst galt als das beste Beispiel für die Hilflosen, die guten Willens sind, die Schwachen, aber nicht mutlosen, die sich der Macht einer Kriegsmaschine hilflos, aber couragiert entgegenstellen.
In today’s Boston Globe Derrick Jackson has a scathing critique of President Bush’s hypocisy in embracing the pope in death but dismissing him when he was alive and speaking out against the US invasion of Iraq:
Now that the invasion has been revealed to be a lie, with no weapons of mass destruction ever found, it makes it even more appalling how the pope’s efforts were rebuffed. Bush said the pope had profound influence on children. On Iraq, Bush treated the pope like a well-meaning but naïve child.
Bush and his entourage are now in Rome and the US media is once again playing along by depicting the pope as a champion of neocon ideals. The pope’s unswerving condemnation of the War in Iraq has been completely forgotten. Will his true message of peace ever be heard?
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David,
forgive me, but it is simply not true that the media have “completely forgotten” Pope John Paul’s opposition to the war in Iraq and the death penalty. Perhaps this article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24938-2005Apr4.html
and this one
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/international/europe/03pope.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1112828412-ElYgLW/Hv/qxHV51gTvuEQ&pagewanted=print&position=
shall put things in perspective. Forgive me, I don’t know how to hyperlink on your site.
Hi all,
the common in the pope’s vision as well as neocon is “being responsible in freedom – responsible for the weak”.
Both opposed totalitarian views (left movements in Latin America as well as communism in the east). Right: the pope and the neocons (and the evangelicals) are closer than it looks – but of course: in pre-emptive wars there is a disagreement.
Of course the neocons have much more in common with the Pope than the American left does. While liberals avoid faith, and some even proclaim that the religeous faithful are mindless, at least the neocons embrace their belief in Christ. Would anybody really expect the Pope to come out and support the war in Iraq? After all, he was also non-supportive of the first war with Saddam which removed him from Kuwait. It takes a faithful maturity for the neocons to judge this Pope upon the totality of his legacy. The liberals only raise questions about how this man should be judged because he disagreed with their abortion views.