Father Daniel Maguire - A Papacy's 25 Years of Unfulfilled Potenti

[realFedUp]

Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2003

COMMENTARY
A Papacy's 25 Years of Unfulfilled Potential
We shouldn't celebrate John Paul II's demeaning view of women and obsession with 'pelvic orthodoxy.'

By Daniel C. Maguire.
Daniel C. Maguire is a professor of moral theology at Marquette University.

When Karol Wojtyla assumed the papacy 25 years ago, my hopes were high. A vibrant, non-Italian pope who still went skiing and who wrote and acted in plays might be independent enough to break the mold and reshape the papacy in humbler and more helpful ways. This hope was shared by people in other religions who saw the advantage of a prominent religious leader who could give voice to the best moral hopes of humankind.

This promise was never fulfilled.

Instead, we saw a pope who squandered his moral authority on issues in which he has no privileged expertise. I did not expect to be writing now that this has been a failed and disappointing papacy.

About 40 years ago, Pope John XXIII threw open the windows of the Catholic Church by convening the liberating Second Vatican Council. But beginning in 1978, John Paul II slammed the door on the council's progressive changes and locked the Catholic Church out of dealing with the issues of a turbulent new age.

Since then, it has been left to other Christian churches to meet the many modern challenges, including the role of women in organized religion, clerical celibacy, moral questions surrounding reproductive science and contraception and even the mere acceptance of gays.

[crispini]

1. Link?

[Demit]

2. In appreciation of a breath of fresh air commentary, a link--

http://www.religiousconsultation.org/Special_Features/Papacys_25_years_of_unfulfilled_potential.htm

[realFedUp]

3. thanks

that's where I got the piece.

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. I feel exactly the same way. There was hope 25 years ago but it

faded in the face of his stubborn refusal to face forward and deal in an open-minded way with major issues facing the church.

"...We saw a pope who squandered his moral authority on issues in which he has no privileged expertise. I did not expect to be writing now that this has been a failed and disappointing papacy....About 40 years ago, Pope John XXIII threw open the windows of the Catholic Church by convening the liberating Second Vatican Council. But beginning in 1978, John Paul II slammed the door on the council's progressive changes and locked the Catholic Church out of dealing with the issues of a turbulent new age."

Yes, that's precisely my view. If the next pope also has that degree of reactionary intransigence and doctrinal backwardness, it will go a long way to finally making the Catholic church obsolete, at least in the countries where people have a choice in their beliefs. JP2 did some good things, especially in trying to foster world peace and healing breaches with Jews and with Muslims, but over all, he wasted a generation and set back resolution of many issues. It's very fitting, for example, that his funeral service, for all its ceremony and rich display, had only a few token nuns and no acknowedged gays, for this is symptomatic of some of the fundamental wrongs to which he refused to open his mind and heart.

[candy]

5. Even when Pope John XXIII was around the pastors were old school---

I walked out of the Catholic Church 35 years ago because of it's attitude on birth control

I never looked back!

[realFedUp]

6. Father Maguire wrote an excellent book called Sacred Choices

in different cultures and religions in
history...

[Demeter]

7. The Only Difference Between the Pope and W

is that people didn't usually want to vomit when they heard the Pope speak. Both are/were absolute dictators to the extent that the people around them permitted.