Pope against the zeitgeist
From Dr Sheridan Gilley
Sir: Matthew Parris’s attack on the British media (Another voice, 16 April) for lavishing its attention on Pope John Paul II’s death and funeral ignores the intrinsic fascination, to many educated people, of a global institution which is even older than the English monarchy, and which has been bound up, for good or ill, since the pontifi cate of Gregory the Great with 14 centuries of the nation’s history.
Pope John Paul II was, moreover, far more than a celebrity, as Parris calls him, but a world historical figure of the stature of Churchill, embodying the very soul of the Polish nation in its defiance of the two great 20th-century tyrannies of National Socialism and communism. Most modern celebrities are chiefly known for being celebrated. Pope John Paul II was, in the phrase of the Times, ‘the Pope of Popes’, a professional philosopher, the master of many languages, an actor and a sportsman when young; above all a roving evangelist who addressed the largest crowds in Christian history and sought peace and friendship with every race and religion under heaven.
Celebrities are created by our zeitgeist. Pope John Paul II heroically defied it, especially in his teaching on sexual ethics. For his wisdom in this matter, see Roger Scruton’s essay in the same issue of The Spectator.
Sheridan Gilley
Department of Theology, University of Durham
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