Just another conservative?

Watching and reading some of the coverage of the Pope’s failing health, one senses a profound respect, and perhaps a reverence (if modern man can sum up any reverence anymore), for a man selflessly committed to the causes of justice and evangelization. There is one thing, I think, that should be set straight, though. I noticed this last night when watching the News Hour on PBS and Margaret Warner interviewed Michael Novak and some religious studies fellow from Boston College. The Pope gets chastised from time to time, and was last night by Margaret Warner and the BC guy, for being out of step with the times. This is also the point of this piece by theologian Hans Kung. The upshot of the Kung argument is that the Pope is to be criticized for not being a liberal. The problem with the Pope, his critics say, is that he has not fully capitulated to modernity. For instance Kung takes John Paul II to task for not allowing the ordination of women or giving his approval to artificial contraception.  John Paul II does not accept the ideals of the liberal autonomous individual and radical egalitarianism that guides modernity.  To the extent he has not accepted these "enlightened" principles, he is criticized.

Yet I see this as the Pope’s great strength. John Paul II is referred to at times as a “conservative” or a “traditionalist.” Look for this as he is eulogized.  Both of these are false. While clearly the Church gives great importance to the Tradition of teaching (yes, with a capital T), “traditionalism” suggests loving something merely because it is old, not because it is true. This is not the case with John Paul II or any believing Catholic. Is the Pope a conservative? Definitely not. Let me explain with a story. Some years ago while in graduate school at Loyola Chicago, I was lucky enough to attend a symposium sponsored by the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal. The symposium was entitled “The Crisis of Liberal Catholicism,” and was chaired by E.J. Dionne, the liberal Catholic columnist for the Washington Post. We were blessed to be joined by Francis Cardinal George, the Archbishop of Chicago. Cardinal George said this. There is not “liberal Catholicism,” nor is there “conservative Catholicism.” There is simply Catholicism. Cardinal George criticized “liberalism” for being too in love with progress and “conservatism” for apologizing for existing unjust social structures. The Church has no political agenda as such. Its concern is with the propagation of the Truth. The Church will always be counter-cultural because the Gospel is counter-cultural. It will always be in opposition to the world, thus always being “out of step” and disparaged for not accepting the world’s standards of justice. Thus John Paul II can take “liberal” stands against capital punishment, against consumerism, and against war. He can take “conservative” stands against abortion, artificial contraception, and same-sex marriage. His standard is not the world, but the Gospel. The Gospel will always stand as a radical critique of worldly and materialistic standards of justice. Even within the Church, the Gospel, not the world, guides the Pope and the Church itself. There is no right to be a priest; it is a calling. Thus some are excluded. Christ called only men. From the point of view of the Church, this is a rule that cannot be changed because it was instituted by Christ (the single priesthood is another matter). So it isn’t as though John Paul II refuses to allow women’s ordination; he cannot allow it because it is not by his authority, but by Christ’s, that the clergy is all male. By the world’s standards this is a sin against one of the few gods we still worship: the god of equality. But the Church is not the world. It and the Gospel serve to counter the world.  No, John Paul II is niether liberal nor conservative, progressive or traditional. He is simply Catholic and has defended and preached the faith well. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”