Books in Brief: Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Restoration

Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Restoration, by Paul Johnson (St. Martin’s, 216 pp., $11.95). John Paul II had two choices when he assumed the papacy. He could continue in the direction taken by Paul VI, who tried to accommodate the Roman Catholic Church to the powerful currents of the modern world. Or he could steer the Church onto its own solitary course, its compass set not by the Zeitgeist but by its traditional teachings. Actually, if the College of Cardinals had wanted a continuation of Paul VI, it could and would have chosen an Italian. Instead, it reached for the first time into the Slavic East and voted overwhelmingly— 103 votes out of 109—for Karol Wojtyla, a cardinal known for his adherence to traditional Catholic doctrine. In John Paul’s eyes, says Paul Johnson, a former editor of Britain’s New Statesman, the Church is confronted by five “master evils,” each of which poses a major threat to the future of the Church. In Latin America and other parts of the Third World, the problem is how rights can be secured without violence. In the West, the problem is the abandoning of spiritual and moral values for a life of pleasure, the “new slavery,” in the words of the Pope. The Church itself plays host to two more of the evils: a) the erosion of discipline and morale in the ecclesiastical community itself—the denial of the authority of the Church; and b) the forces of anti-truth within the Church, represented most audaciously by Hans Kung. The last and most dangerous evil is Marxism-Leninism, the only one of the five that openly avows its contempt for religion. Quoting extensively from the writings and statements of Karol Wojtyla, both before and after he became Pope, Johnson shows that the 103 cardinals made a divine choice. If any man is equal to the awesome challenges—spiritual, theological, and political—confronting the Catholic Church, it is this titan from the East.

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Kevin Lynch

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Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Restoration, by Paul Johnson (St. Martin’s, 216 pp., $11.95). John Paul II had two choices when he assumed the papacy. He could continue in the direction taken by Paul VI, who tried to accommodate the Roman Catholic Church to the powerful currents of the modern world. Or he could steer the Church onto its own solitary course, its compass set not by the Zeitgeist but by its traditional teachings. Actually, if the College of Cardinals had wanted a continuation of Paul VI, it could and would have chosen an Italian. Instead, it reached for the first time into the Slavic East and voted overwhelmingly— 103 votes out of 109—for Karol Wojtyla, a cardinal known for his adherence to traditional Catholic doctrine. In John Paul’s eyes, says Paul Johnson, a former editor of Britain’s New Statesman, the Church is confronted by five “master evils,” each of which poses a major threat to the future of the Church. In Latin America and other parts of the Third World, the problem is how rights can be secured without violence. In the West, the problem is the abandoning of spiritual and moral values for a life of pleasure, the “new slavery,” in the words of the Pope. The Church itself plays host to two more of the evils: a) the erosion of discipline and morale in the ecclesiastical community itself—the denial of the authority of the Church; and b) the forces of anti-truth within the Church, represented most audaciously by Hans Kung. The last and most dangerous evil is Marxism-Leninism, the only one of the five that openly avows its contempt for religion. Quoting extensively from the writings and statements of Karol Wojtyla, both before and after he became Pope, Johnson shows that the 103 cardinals made a divine choice. If any man is equal to the awesome challenges—spiritual, theological, and political—confronting the Catholic Church, it is this titan from the East.