Is the Pope doing too much?
Peter Nichols
Rome Creaks and groans heard these days in the Eternal City can largely be ascribed to the weighty process of getting the papal caravan on the road again for John Paul II's October visit to Ireland and the United States. The Pope has now laid down his priorities which, to the officials around him, must amount to a very tiresome series of choices. Journeys, the mass audiences, and his extremely active work as Bishop of Rome come first. This much he has spelled out clearly, and if any further proof were required it is there in the complaints of visiting ecclesiastics. They not only find the formerly customary visit to the Pope extremely difficult to obtain but, once inside, are given too little time to explain their business before the murmurs from the masses in the square remind the Pontiff that he Must go off to make another spectacular appearance.
Clearly the Pope has chosen to do the things he likes best, and is best at doing. All of them are time-consuming and, more important for people around him, prodigal in the amount of physical and mental energy they absorb. One high prelate from the United States used the• phrase that 'something would have to give.' He found the Pope tired, much thinner than at the time of his election, and slipping for comfort from English into Italian which he probably speaks best after Polish. He himself has been heard to say that he works no harder as Pope than he did as Archbishop of Cracow but feels the strain more because he cannot work in his own language. But clearly the strain itself is much greater than that, and the signs are there.
Over-activity is not the only reason for his officials" despondency. The Pope also has a tendency to tell occasional visitors what his projects are without first lettingi his civil servants know, or the civil servants of countries that might be interested. The visit to Ireland, for exam ple, was a rumour at the beginning of the month for which there was no official confirmation. But it was clear that the Pope was thinking about it in quite an explicit way, according to people outside his entourage who talked to him. Once the Curia knew, they loyally began to inform, in strict confidence, diplomatic missions accredited to the Vatican about the whole October journey a month before the official announcement was due. In fact, on that same day, the United Nations in New York officially told the world that the Pontiff would visit them during his stay in the United States.
The visit to the United Nations has its precedent: Paul VI addressed a session of the general assembly. John Paul H will go further afield: his plans include Chicago and Washington, where he will talk to President Carter. Already there have been some efforts to forewarn the Pope that he must not expect a replica of his Polish visit in the United States. It is true that he will find plenty of Poles in Chicago. But they are rather different Poles to those who stayed in Poland. They take for granted the capitalist system which the Pope is apt to criticise quite strongly. And they belong to a huge Archdiocese which is a byword in American Catholicism for the extremely bad relations between the Archbishop, Cardinal Cody, and many of his priests. The story is told with real sorrow in Chicago that Paul VI was about to complete the process of moving Cody out by giving him a post in Rome, where his difficulties of temperament would be absorbed by the Roman atmosphere., But the Pontiff died too soon. Temperament aside, Cody's view of how priests should conduct themselves is close to the Pope's strongly held convictions on the subject, which were summed up by a Curial official as 'short back and sides.'
The Irish visit is described as purely pastoral and the invitation has come solely 'from the Irish Bishops' National Confer encc. So far there is no proposal for a visit to Ulster. The Vatican spokesman was twice asked specifically whether Northern Ireland would be included. His first reply was to the effect: Yes, His Holiness will be visiting several American cities. When asked the same question again, the answer was: Yes. His Holiness would make some speeches in English. And then the matter was generously allowed to drop.
Irish Catholics probably feel themselves closer to Polish Catholicism than do American Catholics of Polish origin. The Pope has talked about Poland, Mexico and Italy as countries which are naturally Catholic as part of the character of the people. Ireland can be added to the list but in another way it is unique: the religious quarrel is strong in Ulster because there has never been a political issue which cuts across the two communities. Even if the Pope does not go to Ulster, he will once again face a problem which cannot be settled by spectacular public appearances. What he might hope to do is stimulate the British government into a fresh approach.
Here in Rome, the mass-audiences have now become a part of the summer. The complaints about the huge traffic jams which papal appearances inevitably bring are less frequent now, because Romans seem disinclined to go away on holiday this year and so, with Romans as well as tourists in the city, there are perpetual jams in a great many places. Irate ecclesiastics, with what they feel is urgent business to discuss with the Pope, are still unhappy about his activity as Rome's Bishop. Here there is more than spectacle. He likes to descend on a parish, with the television cameras comfortably purring. But the drill is clear, and preparations have been made. An auxiliary Bishop studies the parish about to be visited, and prepares a dossier for the Pope on its problems. Then comes the papal appearance, with the idea that the prob. lenis mentioned in the 'dossier continue to be worked on after the visit.
Prelates anxious for more of the Pope's time say that his attempt to grasp the issues facing the Catholic world's most difficult diocese (due partly to the fact that it includes the Vatican) take up too much of his attention. Moreover, he has a Cardinal-vicar with a group of auxiliary Bishops who are supposed to be directly charged with Rome's ecclesiastical affairs. So why the Pope? The fact he shows not the slightest interest in Italian political affairs, unlike Paul VI who was greatly absorbed by them, is still not felt to give him the space necessary each day to be the sort of Pope he has chosen to be. 'He is splendid in every way' was the remark of an eminent monk, 'except in his concept of the papacy.' The current rumours for his next journeys are the Phillipines and — a more modest one — Vienna, which would give him the chance to address the Hungarians and Czechs.
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