The festivities of John Paul II

The Globe and Mail
Saturday, July 27, 2002

Though fewer than the hoped-for number of pilgrims materialized to celebrate the Roman Catholic Church's week-long World Youth Day, it is impressive that an estimated 200,000 adherents would journey abroad to see and hear firsthand their spiritual leader. Youths from around the world have connected with each other. The passion and idealism put us in mind of Woodstock, without the drugs.

As for the man himself, there is awe at the stamina and drive of an 82-year-old leader who, struggling with Parkinson's disease and other infirmities, makes the eight-hour flight from Rome and dismisses the offer of a hydraulic lift so that he can walk painfully down the airplane steps. He could have chosen to stay within the comfort of the Vatican. Instead, he has set forth to inspire the devout, as he has so often before -- including his momentous visits to Poland that helped break the Soviet Union's hold on Eastern Europe.

The very purpose of his creation of World Youth Day in 1985 was evangelical -- to reach out to younger Catholics, the key to maintaining a flock in a world with so many other opportunities and temptations. The pilgrims' reaction has been ecstatic, reminiscent of fans who dissolve in the face of pop stars. This extraordinary outpouring springs from devotion to the spiritual leader, admiration for his perseverance and, no small ingredient, the very fact of fame. There is no reason these young people should be immune to the cult of celebrity that affects so many of their peers in the presence of more secular heroes. They may also respect his unyielding promotion of human rights and his calls on wealthy countries to do far more to assist the poor.

Just what the flock takes away with it is another matter. A number of youths interviewed in the Toronto crowds were happy to accept only part of the Pope's message. They weren't sure, for instance, that they could live up to the injunctions against premarital sex.

In this they reflect a broader ambivalence. Many devout Catholics who have accepted Christ as their saviour and believe deeply in the church quarrel with some of the particulars. In an Ipsos-Reid poll of 1,000 people last month, four-fifths of Canadian Catholics and non-Catholics considered the Pope to be honest, sincere, forgiving, a peacemaker and a force for good in the world. But even among those who identified themselves as Roman Catholics, 42 per cent said they disagreed with his views.

The disagreement may be over the refusal to ordain women, or over the church's unbending stand against contraception. This issue transcends birth control; the church's opposition to condoms flies in the face of the campaign to control the pandemic of HIV-AIDS, most urgently in Africa. The church should put life first.

Many have been rightly offended by the church's slowness to apologize for the sexual abuse of minors by priests and to impose strict safeguards against future abuse. They have objected to John Paul's drive to canonize Pope Pius IX despite concerns over Pius's anti-Semitism. The Vatican showed its anti-ecumenical colours in 2000 when it said "there exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church," and Anglicans and other Protestants "are not churches in the proper sense." In the opening mass of this week's festival, the Archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, restated that idea in a way that should offend non-Catholics and Catholics alike: "We must refuse to feign the politically correct tolerance which imagines that all religions . . . are equally valid."

Ironic, given that Toronto's welcome for hundreds of thousands of the world's Catholics has been in the spirit of ecumenism. The passion and energy of the festivities, and the overarching theme of the event -- of love, of peace, of harmony -- have brought a zest to the city. It has been wonderful to watch John Paul II receive and return the love of so many pilgrims. We hope the remaining two days of his visit go as smoothly.