THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040048
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
To read what many commentators say about Pope John Paul II, you would think him one of the world's least popular men. After all, he is criticized endlessly for opposing everything right-thinking people seem to favor: married priests, women priests, divorce, contraception, abortion on demand, etc. So how come when he publishes a book setting forth and elaborating his stands on these issues, it flies off the shelves and soars onto the best-seller lists?
Publisher's Weekly this week has the pope's book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, at No. 2, behind only the latest O.J. Simpson tell-all. Clearly, what the pope has to say appeals to a considerable number of people who, like him, are less than enchanted with the reigning spirit of the age. Far from seeking to appease his critics, this collection of responses by the pope to questions from an Italian television journalist for a program that never aired shows he intends to further sharpen and define the debate.
None of this should be surprising. The pope, after all, came to early manhood under one tyranny, Nazi Germany, which was immediately followed by another, the Soviet Union. He has lived to see both ideologies tossed into the dustbin of history. It will take more than a few trendy intellectuals to intimidate him.
Theologically, he has no truck with notions of social relativism. Hell, he insists, is a real place reserved for those whose crimes are so heinous and unjustifiable that no lesser punishment can properly be meted out. Goodness, he says, must be present on an individual level, or efforts to instill it on a collective or public level are doomed to failure.
The popularity of the pope's book - as well as the 3 million copies sold since June of the new Vatican catechism - indicates there is a yearning among the wider public for his message. Crime - the ultimate result of a breakdown in self-discipline - is the No. 1 issue this election year. Church attendance is rising. So let the smart set in Hollywood and academia sneer. The reaction of the public to the pope's words indicates that traditional morality might not be such a bad long-term investment after all. by CNB