Pave Johannes Paul II : kritiske nekrologer

Som en modvægt mod mediernes massive hyldest til den nu afdøde og dybt reaktionære pave Johannes Paul II (Karol Wojtyla), har vi her samlet et lille udvalg af nekrologer, som forholder sig lidt mere nøgternt og kritisk til paven og hans konservative pavedømme. Leksikale oplysninger om paven og Vatikan-staten kan ses på Wikipedia nederst på siden + et par artikler om hans afløser pave Benedict 16. (Josef Ratzinger).

Bjarne A. Frandsen. 7.4.2005

CounterPunch
- Jim Connolly: The Pope who revived the office of the Inquisition: an American Catholic on the papacy of John Paul II (5. april 2005)
"I am writing not to honor Wojtila; he will (quite frankly) receive more honor in the next week than any individual mortal deserves. I write as a witness to the damage this man did during his 26 years as Roman pontiff to the causes of liberty and peace throughout the world."
- Mark Engler: John Paul II’s economic ethics: moral values and global capitalism (5. april 2005)
"A steady feature in Pope John Paul II’s obituaries has been mention of his unwaveringly conservative stances on issues such as abortion, birth control, gay rights, and the ordination of women ... [but] they far from represent the whole of John Paul’s ethical beliefs. Particularly in his teachings about the global economy, the Pope advanced a vision of social justice that challenges narrow political debate about moral values."

Green Left Weekly
- Barry Healy: Vatican City: Pope John Paul II, a reactionary in shepherd’s clothing (nr.621, 6. april 2005)
"Karol Jozef Wojtya, known as John Paul II since assuming the office of pope in October 1978, will be remembered as one of the most significant, though certainly not the most progressive, figures in the history of the Roman Catholic Church."

The Guardian
- Jonathan Steele: We are rewriting the history of communism’s collapse (8. april 2005)
"It was Gorbachev, not the Pope, who brought the system down."
- Terry Eagleton: The Pope has blood on his hand (4. april 2005)
"The Pope did great damage to the church, and to countless Catholics."

In Defence of Marxism
- Gernot Trausmuth: The Pope is dead: an obituary for Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) (6. april 2005)
"Karol Wojtyla was an extremely political Pope, who knew which side he had to be on. In his work it is clear, exactly which reactionary roll the church, in this concrete case the Catholic Church, plays in this society. He vision of the world and of people categorically rejected any kind of change, unless it touched upon the religious moral code. In praxis, this serves to cement the ruling relations."

Netavisen
- Terry Eagleton: Paven har blod på hænderne (7. april 2005)
"Da de tidlige 70eres økonomiske nedtur begyndte at bide, foretog den vestlige verden et afgørende sving mod højre, og forvandlingen af en obskur polsk biskop fra Karol Wojtyla til Johannes Paul II var en del af denne større vending."

Socialism Today
- Manny Thain: The dark face of the papacy (nr.94, sept. 2005)
"Pope John Paul II enjoyed the spotlight on the world stage. Mass media, modern travel and PR techniques were used to promote his brand of Catholicism. Shown kissing the ground at airports or wracked in pain in his final years were political acts. He also polarised the Catholic church. At the time of his death, mainstream media celebrated his role in directing mass revolt against Stalinism down pro-capitalist channels." A review of a recent, critical biography by John Cornwell: The Pope in winter : The dark face of John Paul II’s papacy. Penguin, 2004.

Socialist Register 1987
- Joel Kovel: The theocracy of John Paul II
"The crisis of superpower authority has been perceived by Wojtyla as an opportunity to overcome the crisis of the Church, by turning it into a third focus of world power, neither capitalist nor socialist, but theocratic. John Paul’s vision of the Church may be seen as of a piece with the global surge of religious fundamentalism in the late twentieth century, in reaction to the crisis of modernity."

Socialist Worker (UK)
- Alex Callinicos: The two sides of John Paul II (9. april 2005)
"Even allowing for the predictable saturation coverage by the media, the death of Pope John Paul II does seem to have touched a genuine chord of grief and respect."

Socialist Worker (US)
- The death of a reactionary (8. april 2005)
"The media haze of kind words and rosy reminiscences about Pope John Paul II can’t change what the man was in real life - a hard-line right-winger who saw his mission as defending the most backward institutions and traditions of the Catholic Church."

Weekly Worker
- Cameron Richards: God’s cold war warrior (nr.571, 7. april 2005)
"The reaction of the mainstream media and ruling classes to the death of pope John II must have, at the very least, bemused many people. How, after all, could this elderly leader of medieval, obscurantist Roman catholicism, which has been mired in so much scandal of late, have beguiled the world in the way the media is now claiming ’John Paul the Great’ did so miraculously?"
- Eddie Ford: An autocratic reactionary (nr.571, 7. april 2005)
"The virulently anti-communist, anti-gay, abortion-banning, ultra-male chauvinist, theological obscurantist, Karol Wojtyla, is now presented as a ’man of peace’ and a shining example of how ’love’ can change the world."

World Socialist Web Site
- Marius Heuser and Peter Schwarz: Pope John Paul II: a political obituary (6. april 2005)
"In John Paul II, the papacy found a figure who combined deeply reactionary views - in both politics and religion - with considerable experience in dealing alike with capitalist states and Stalinist regimes. He marshalled that experience to play a pivotal role in the convulsive events of the past quarter century."

Wikipedia : The Free Encyclopedia
- Pope John Paul II
- Pope Benedict XVI
- Pope
- Vatican City
- Politics of the Vatican City

Om Johannes Paul II’s afløser

- Josef Falkinger: Christian fundamentalism: the theology and vision of Josef Ratzinger (In Defence of Marxism, 5. dec. 2007)
"The present Pope, Ratzinger or Benedict XVI as he has chosen to call himself, far from being a “transitional” Pope is not only following in the footsteps of John Paul II, he is putting his foot on the accelerator of Christian fundamentalism. While talking of reconciliation he promotes conflict, backs reactionary politicians of the Bush type and condemns anyone who wants to really change the material conditions of millions of poor and working class people."
- Peter Schwarz: From ’grand inquisitor’ to pope: Benedict XVI to head crusade vs. secularism, democracy (World Socialist Web Site, 21. april 2005)
"With the selection of Josef Ratzinger as the new pope, the Roman Catholic hierarchy has placed at its head a hard-line enforcer of Church dogma, and one of the Vatican’s fiercest opponents of not only Marxism, but liberalism, secularism, science and virtually all things modern."

Se også:
- Philip Willan: The Vatican’s dirty secrets: Bribery, money laundering and Mafia connections (AlterNet, 5. juni 2009)
"A new book offers an unprecedented glimpse of the inner workings of one of the world’s most secretive financial institutions - the Vatican’s bank."