US embassy cable - 03VATICAN4751

UNCLAS VATICAN 004751 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT. FOR EUR/WE-LEVIN 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINR, SOCI, VT 
SUBJECT: JOHN PAUL II: 25 YEAR CHAMPION OF HUMAN DIGNITY 
 
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Summary 
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1. (U) Pope John Paul II marked the 25th anniversary of his 
Pontificate October 16 with over 70,000 well-wishers in St. 
Peter's square.  The Pope is one of the most compelling 
public figures of the 20th Century, and continues to garner 
international attention even as he struggles with physical 
limitations of Parkinson's disease and ageing.  John Paul 
II has transformed the Papacy, making it not only the 
spiritual guide to the world's billion Catholics, but 
perhaps the leading moral voice in the world today, 
respected and listened to even in countries with limited 
Catholic influence.  Under his leadership, the Holy See has 
become a visible and effective political force for freedom, 
justice, and reconciliation.  It has also greatly expanded 
its diplomatic presence, more than doubling from 85 to 174 
the number of countries with whom it maintains diplomatic 
relations.  The Pope's untiring determination to promote 
human dignity has distinguished every aspect of his papacy, 
leading him to place himself on the side of the poor, the 
disinherited, the oppressed, the marginalized and the 
defenseless.  The United States has no better partner for 
achieving our primary national security goal of promoting 
human dignity worldwide.   End Summary. 
 
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Champion of Human Dignity 
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2. (U) Pope John Paul II has put an indelible mark on the 
papacy and on the Church he leads.  Elected to the Papacy 
October 16, 1978 with keen intellectual gifts, a tenacious 
will and clear, uncompromising values, he has traveled the 
equivalent of three times to the moon visiting over 1000 
cities in his dual roles as pastor and statesman, 
evangelizer of the Catholic faith and promoter of human 
rights and freedom.  What has most distinguished his Papacy 
has been his constant affirmation of the centrality of the 
human person and his or her dignity, and his ability to 
place this advocacy in the context of the modern world and 
the Church's traditional social teachings.  For example, he 
took on the United Nations community as it dealt with 
women, population, and the family at Cairo and Beijing, and 
he has tirelessly campaigned against the death penalty and 
abortion -- defining these as signs of a culture of death. 
The Pope has shaped the Holy See into a moral compass that 
is listened to, if not always followed, by people on every 
continent. 
 
3. (U) John Paul II's papacy has been marked not only by 
its message, but very much by its messenger.  The Pope has 
brought the papacy to the world in a way that has 
revolutionized expectations of who a Pope is and what a 
Pope should do.  Before John Paul II, Popes rarely traveled 
outside Rome.  John Paul II, by contrast, has been the 
first truly international pope, one who has traveled to the 
most remote regions of the globe.  In his travels, he has 
taken a message of hope and faith, expressed in his 
frequent personal appeals for peace, for human rights, for 
international justice, religious freedom, for medical 
ethics and in his innovative gestures of dialogue and 
openness towards Jews, Muslims, Orthodox Christians and 
other world religions.  His message has also been reflected 
in his calls to close the gap between rich and poor and for 
prosperous nations to embrace immigrants fleeing oppression 
and poverty.  The target of an assassin's bullet, he has in 
recent years suffered painfully and publicly with 
Parkinson's disease and a series of ailments that have 
limited the once athletic Pope to a rolling throne used to 
move him where he needs to go - a limitation that has not, 
however, dampened his determination to continue to carry 
out his mission. 
 
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Shepherd of a Restive Flock 
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4. (U) While revolutionizing the Holy See's engagement with 
the world, the Pope has also sought to re-package Christian 
practice and teaching.  In his speeches, encyclicals, 
personal reflections, and pastoral letters, in his focus on 
youth and family, and in his defense of human life, the 
Pope has sought to explain the complex nexus that draws 
together God, man, politics, Church, and civil society.  In 
this effort, he has won the admiration of millions, but has 
also been pilloried by critics on the left and right for 
his positions on birth control, the role of women in the 
church, homosexuality, and the excesses of capitalism and 
secularism.  His personal popularity has not always 
translated into action or adherence among Catholic 
 
faithful, many of whom ignore the Pope's teachings on birth 
control, divorce, abortion, and homosexuality.  While the 
church is growing in Africa, the Americas and Asia, in the 
Pope's home ground, it is gasping for survival in an 
increasingly secular Europe that was unwilling to include a 
reference to Europe's Christian roots in its constitution 
despite the Pope's persistent lobbying of European leaders 
and people.  Nevertheless, the Pope's pre-Millennium 
meetings in Rome with hundreds of bishops from the five 
continents generated a series of internal policy documents 
that will guide the Catholic Church's activities in those 
regions for decades.  (Septels will explore the Pope's 
contribution to and challenges in specific regions.) 
 
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Crusader for Peace 
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5. (U) From the beginning of his papacy, the Pope has 
sought not only to engage Catholics, but to reach out to 
the world and embrace its many cultures, religions, races 
and ethnic groups.  In doing so, he has built bridges 
between cultures and religions that have helped overcome 
divisions in troubled regions of the world.  The Pope's 
messages and efforts on behalf of international peace have 
been a prominent and consistent feature of his Papacy. 
Since his election, the Pope has issued annual Peace 
Messages to world leaders and civil authorities that have 
encouraged nuclear disarmament and opposed arms transfers, 
analyzed the economic roots of armed conflict, promoted 
national reconciliation efforts, explored the links between 
peace and the dignity of women and children, and expressed 
support for the role of the United Nations to guarantee 
world peace.  The Pope has also issued specific appeals for 
peace and placed in motion the Holy See's diplomatic 
machine when the clouds of war have rolled over the horizon 
-- most recently over the war in Iraq. 
 
6. (U) But Pope John Paul II has not only talked about 
peace, he has engaged both himself and the diplomatic 
machinery of the Holy See to achieve peace in the face of 
conflicts in many parts of the world.  In his nearly 1700 
meetings with heads of state, heads of government, and 
other senior government leaders, issues of war and peace 
have inevitably been high on the agenda.  The Pope's 
diplomatic efforts were crucial to avoiding war between 
Chile and Argentina over the Beagle Channel border dispute 
in 1978.  This set the tone for a papacy that recognized 
the potential of timely mediation by a Holy See acting 
"super partes."  In another conflict involving Argentina, 
the 1982 Falkland crisis with Britain, Pope John Paul II 
invited the Catholic cardinals from England, Scotland and 
Argentina to Rome to concelebrate a Mass of Reconciliation 
with him in St. Peter's.  Observing then that "peace is an 
obligation, peace is a duty", the Pope announced that he 
would visit not only Great Britain, to which Queen 
Elizabeth II had already invited him, but also Argentina. 
His subsequent papal visits to the two countries underlined 
his role in promoting reconciliation among parties to a 
conflict. 
 
7. (U) Pope John Paul II has likewise supported efforts to 
achieve reconciliation between conflicting parties in 
troubled areas such as Lebanon, the Balkans, the Great 
Lakes, and East Timor, where Vatican diplomats were 
particularly active in achieving a resolution to a long- 
festering zone of conflict.  Though not all Vatican 
diplomatic efforts have been successful, the Pope has never 
weakened in his conviction that the Holy See should do 
everything possible to prevent war, encourage fractious 
parties to dialogue, and promote the greater value of peace 
over war.  This conviction has put him at odds with the 
United States over both the Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq 
war this year.  In both cases, the Pope believed that the 
international community had not exhausted all peaceful 
means short of war, though he also criticized the actions 
and inactions of the Iraqi government that had provoked 
both conflicts and acknowledged that decisions of war and 
peace must be made by legitimate civil authorities. 
 
8. (U) While the Pope is a man of peace, he is not a 
pacifist.  In fact, he has frequently called for 
"humanitarian intervention" or peacekeeping in trouble 
spots such as Kosovo, Bosnia, Central Africa, and East 
Timor -- even if that meant using force to "disarm the 
aggressor."  He has also strongly condemned terrorism, and 
recognized that the United States needed to respond in 
self-defense after the September 11 attacks.  In fact, he 
has often observed that genuine peace must be built of a 
foundation of liberty, justice, truth, and love, and he 
recognizes that the international community needs to strive 
to create these conditions if it is to achieve a more 
 
peaceful world.  That is why he has so vigorously advocated 
religious liberty and human rights during pastoral visits 
to many countries, including Cuba and Nigeria in 1998. 
 
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Advocate of Reconciliation and Dialogue 
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9. (U) The most original of John Paul II's efforts to craft 
a culture of peace have been his continuing and deepening 
efforts to promote inter-religious dialogue and to overcome 
religious divisions - including those among Christians. 
For example, the Pope has done taken sometimes dramatic 
steps to appeal to the Orthodox and Protestant churches, as 
those closest to Catholicism in doctrine and practice, to 
strive for unity not just in the abstract but also in the 
concrete -- even to the extent of asking for their input on 
how a Pope should exercise his ministry in an ecumenical 
age.  In Greece, the heartland of the Orthodox Church, the 
Pope made a sweeping apology on behalf of Catholics for 
misdeeds committed over centuries against members of the 
Orthodox Church saying it was time to "heal the wounds" 
that have divided Eastern and Western churches for nearly 
1,000 years.  He has been willing to talk systematically 
with Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and animists. 
Wherever possible, if it did not already exist, Pope John 
Paul II has set up continuing commissions and other fora in 
which honest and serious efforts to understand and resolve 
differences in theology, science, philosophy and culture 
can be constantly addressed. 
 
10. (U) Pope John Paul II's spirit of humble certainty has 
often translated into significant gestures of repentance 
and reconciliation -- gestures sometimes criticized by his 
most senior advisors but which have helped overcome 
centuries of distrust and division.  In particular, he has 
made great strides to repair Catholic-Jewish divisions. 
After becoming the first Pope since Peter to step inside a 
Jewish synagogue, John Paul moved to open relations with 
Israel in 1993 and in 1997 authorized a Vatican conference 
on the roots of anti-Judaism in Christianity.  In 1998, the 
Holy See published its official document on the Shoah, 
acknowledging Catholic failings in failing to counter a 
climate of persecution that resulted in the holocaust. 
During the jubilee year of 2000, he lead his most senior 
advisors in a Vatican "Day of Parson" to apologize for 
Christianity's errors towards Judaism, Islam, and 
Protestant Christians.  Later that year the Pope prayed at 
Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall, and, in an 
unprecedented gesture of reconciliation, asked Jews to 
forgive centuries of Christian sins against their people. 
"We are deeply saddened," he told the Israelis, "by the 
behavior of those who in the course of history have caused 
these children of yours to suffer and, asking your 
forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine 
brotherhood with the people of the Covenant." 
 
11. (U) On a visit to Syria that same year, John Paul 
reached out to Muslims with words of sorrow and prayed in a 
Damascus mosque, observing:  "It is my ardent hope that 
Muslim and Christian religious leaders and teachers will 
present our two great religious communities as communities 
in respectful dialogue, never more as communities in 
conflict.  For all the times that Muslims and Christians 
have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from 
the Almighty and offer each other forgiveness."  He has 
also visited other predominantly Muslim countries from 
Morocco to Kazakhstan, earning respect and drawing large 
crowds eager to see the Pope who entered a mosque.  Among 
the most visible manifestations of the Pope's commitment to 
breaking down religious barriers have been the three 
interfaith meetings he hosted in the Italian town of 
Assisi.  The 1986, 1993 and 2002 encounters brought 
together Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and 
representatives from a variety of other religious 
expressions to pray for peace.  In 2002 following the 
September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., the delegates 
in Assisi denounced all violence in the name of religion 
and rejected the idea of a war of civilizations or 
cultures. Many religious leaders have commented that these 
gatherings were only possible because of the Pope's moral 
stature and record of reconciliation. 
 
12. (U) The Pope has not limited his reconciliation efforts 
to religious matters.  In 1992, on the Senegalese island of 
Goree, he made a heartfelt apology on behalf of Christians 
who took part in centuries of slavery.  Describing the 
slave trade as an "unknown holocaust and an enormous 
crime," he said it was imperative to confess with humility 
this crime against humanity."  John Paul II also had no 
qualms about rehabilitating Galileo Galilei and encouraging 
scientists to continue their inquiry into the "big bang" 
 
theory behind creation.  As a churchman Pope John Paul II 
has never been afraid of engagement with the scientific 
world because, in his words, "we know that the truth cannot 
contradict the truth."  While such gestures have sometimes 
been criticized within the Catholic Church as threats to 
traditional doctrinal positions or as undermining the 
prestige of the papacy and the Catholic Church, Pope John 
Paul II has been willing to accept this criticism for the 
sake of healing wounds and overcoming divisions. 
 
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Catalyst for Freedom 
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13. (U) When John Paul II took up his papacy, communism was 
all but bankrupt in Poland and the conditions necessary for 
a popular revolt against the Soviet-sponsored regime were 
in place -- economic stagnation, state persecutions of 
intellectual and religious leaders, and a series of 
workers' strikes and student protests.  Into this sea of 
discontent, Karol Wojtyla returned to his homeland in June 
1979 as the Pope.  During open-air Masses and other events, 
millions of Poles saw or heard their native son challenge 
the moral premise of the totalitarian system, demand 
freedom for the church, and affirm the right of the workers 
to organize.  Poland's leaders heard his courageous 
admonition, "Order flows from respect for the rights of the 
nation and for human rights."  The papal attack on the 
morally bankrupt system continued in subsequent visits, 
when John Paul chided the Polish premier for his regime's 
human rights abuses and reminded workers that "solidarity" 
means that burdens are shared, in community -- not through 
the class struggles promoted by Marxists.  The Polish Pope 
reawakened the spirit of resistance and freedom in the 
Polish people, giving them the courage to seek the freedoms 
too long denied. 
 
14. (U) In this case, as in many others during his Papacy, 
the Pope's direct approach broke with traditional Vatican 
policy, which previously had emphasized official dealings 
with sovereign powers, either through concordats or 
dialogue.  However, Pope John Paul II recognized that in 
the emerging milieu of global communications, the church 
would have greater impact by "acting" within civil society 
rather than acting in collaboration with sometimes corrupt 
or bankrupt national governments.  The Pope carried this 
message directly to the masses - not only in Poland but 
also in Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia.  His 
engagement in these communist countries became a catalyst 
for change, resistance, and freedom, which together with 
the U.S. efforts to oppose communism, exposed the 
hollowness of the communist system and hastened its demise. 
 
15. (U) In Poland as elsewhere, the Pope has been 
constantly aware of the power of his presence and his moral 
voice.  His ability to read the ecclesiastical and 
political situation of a particular region or nation led 
him to develop travel itineraries designed to achieve the 
most benefit -- masses with the masses in Poland as 
communism suffered its death throws, a visit to the 
Philippines during the Marcos regime to cement his 
friendship with Cardinal Jaime Sin and to give a papal 
"nulla osta" to the eventual peoples' revolution, an 
accusing finger pointed at Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti 
and a bold call for change in that dictatorship, a blunt 
challenge to Sudan's Islamist leaders that there could be 
no peace without justice and respect for human rights, a 
controversial visit to Chile and the seeming embrace of the 
Pinochet regime that in reality strengthened the local 
church's efforts for human rights and led eighteen months 
after the papal visit to a process of reconstructing 
Chilean civil society, a national plebiscite to move beyond 
military rule and to restore democracy. 
 
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Comment 
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15. (U) In his inaugural homily 25 years ago, the Pope told 
the world:  "Be not afraid."  This admonition has been the 
distinguishing characteristic of his pontificate, as he has 
repeatedly acted as no Pope had done before, reshaping the 
Papacy and public expectations of the Pope.  He has brought 
the Papacy to the modern world with a directness and 
immediacy that was unimaginable before his pontificate, and 
made the Holy See a central player on the international 
scene -- as seen this year in the stream of world leaders 
who called on the Pope during the lead-up to the Iraq war. 
Now the fourth-longest serving Pope in history, John Paul 
II's increasing frailty will give his presence, at both the 
ecclesiastical and international level, a new quality -- 
physically more subdued though still morally compelling. 
 
Our reading is that the Pope is still very much in charge 
of the Vatican, with an intellectual acuteness that 
continues to impress his closest collaborators.  As he 
reportedly told one of his Cardinals, "I don't run this 
Church with my feet."  It is likely that the Pope's 
international travels will be more limited, though he has a 
number of invitations pending for the coming year. 
Nevertheless, we can expect his moral reach will continue 
to extend worldwide through his appeals on international 
issues, teachings and commentaries.  As one of the world's 
leading individual voices for human dignity, Pope John Paul 
II -- even with his physical limitations -- remains a vital 
partner for advancing U.S. efforts worldwide to champion 
human dignity.  As we seek to promote freedom, break down 
religious and cultural barriers, promote development, 
relieve human suffering, and stand up for human life, we 
have no better partner than John Paul II. 
 
Nicholson 
 
 
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 2003VATICA04751 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED