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Pope John Paul II was criticised for, amongst other things,[1] an alleged lack of response tochild sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
John Paul II was criticised by members of the abuse victims' groupSurvivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), for failing to respond appropriately to thesex abuse crisis.[2] In 2002, he wrote that "there is no place in the priesthood andreligious life for those who would harm the young".[3][4] The Church instituted reforms to prevent future abuse by requiring background checks for Church employees[5] and, because a significant majority of victims were teenage boys, disallowing ordination of men with "deep–seated homosexual tendencies".[6][7] They now require dioceses faced with an allegation to alert the authorities, conduct an investigation and remove the accused from duty.[5][8]
In addition to cases of abuse, much of the scandal has focused around members of theCatholic hierarchy who did not report abuse allegations to the civil authorities. In many cases they reassigned those accused to other locations where they continued to have contact with minors.[9] In defending their actions, some bishops and psychiatrists contended that the prevailing psychology of the times suggested that people could be cured of such behavior through counseling.[10][11] Members of the church hierarchy have argued that media coverage has been excessive.[12]In response to the widening scandal, Pope John Paul II emphasised the spiritual nature of the offenses. He declared in 2001 that "a sin against theSixth Commandment of theDecalogue by a cleric with a minor under 18 years of age is to be considered a grave sin, ordelictum gravius."[13] With the approval of theVatican, the hierarchy of the church in the United States said that it instituted reforms to prevent future abuse including requiring background checks for Church employees and volunteers, while opposing extensions of the statutes of limitations in sex abuse cases.[14]
John Paul II was criticised for his support of theOpus Dei prelature and the 2002canonisation of its founder,Josemaría Escrivá, whom he calledthe saint of ordinary life.[15][16]
John Paul II has been criticised for hindering[17][18][19] the investigation into the charges of sexual immorality leveled against FatherMarcial Maciel Degollado. This is despite the fact that Maciel was already under investigation by the Vatican in 1956 for drug addiction when he established the Legionaries in Ireland. At the time the Vatican had removed him as superior of the Legionaries and was investigating allegations that he abusedmorphine.[20]
Allegations about Maciel began resurfacing in the 1980s but were consistently ignored by the Vatican hierarchy, which approved bylaws for the group that effectively banned internal criticism of Maciel and allowed a personality cult to flourish around him. He was eventually found to have molested many seminarians and abused children he had fathered with different women despite his vows of chastity. Campaigners accuse John Paul II more generally of putting the interests of the Catholic Church above all and turning a blind eye to child sex abuse allegations.[21][2]
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John Paul II's defense of teachings of the Catholic Church regardinggender roles,sexuality,euthanasia, artificialcontraception andabortion came under criticism. SomeChristian feminists challenged views of his on therole of women in society, including theordination of women.
The legacy of Pope John Paul II is vibrant and extraordinary, yet painfully inconsistent. The contradiction in his legacy lies in his teaching and actions on the dignity of women. John Paul II called for women to be included as decision makers in secular governments. However, when it came to bringing women into the decision making bodies of his church, he slammed the door in our faces, barring us from ordination and locking the door by stating the discussion about women’s ordination is closed.
— Aisha Taylor, Women's Ordination Conference 2005[22]
In addition to all the criticism from those demanding modernisation,traditionalist Catholics sometimes denounced him as well. These issues included demanding a return to theTridentine Mass[23] and repudiation of the reforms instituted after theSecond Vatican Council, such as the use of the vernacular language in the formerly LatinRoman Rite Mass,ecumenism, and the principle ofreligious liberty. He was also accused by these critics for allowing and appointing liberal bishops in their sees and thus silently promotingModernism, which was firmly condemned as the "synthesis of all heresies" by his predecessorPope Pius X. In 1988, the controversial traditionalist ArchbishopMarcel Lefebvre, founder of theSociety of St. Pius X (1970), wasexcommunicated under John Paul II for theunapproved consecration of four bishops, which was called by theHoly See a "schismatic act".
TheWorld Day of Prayer for Peace,[24] with a meeting inAssisi, Italy, in 1986, in which the Pope prayed only with the Christians,[25] was heavily criticised as giving the impression thatsyncretism andindifferentism were openly embraced by the PapalMagisterium. When a second 'Day of Prayer for Peace in the World'[26] was held in 2002, it was condemned as confusing the laity and compromising to "false religions". Likewise criticised were his kissing[27] of theQur'an inDamascus,Syria, on one of his travels on 6 May 2001. His call for religious freedom was not always supported; bishops likeAntônio de Castro Mayer promotedreligious tolerance, but at the same time rejected theVatican II principle of religious liberty as beingliberalist and already condemned byPope Pius IX in hisSyllabus errorum (1864) and at theFirst Vatican Council.[citation needed]
Some Catholics opposed hisbeatification andcanonization for the above reasons.[28]
John Paul's position against artificial birth control, including the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV,[29] was harshly criticised by doctors andAIDS activists, who said that it led to countless deaths and millions of AIDSorphans.[30] However, Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies said "We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.[31] James Shelton, of the US Agency for International Development, said that one of the ten damaging myths about the fight against AIDS is that condoms are the answer. Shelton wrote that "Condoms alone have limited impact in generalised epidemics [as in Africa]".[32] Critics have also claimed that large families are caused by lack of contraception and exacerbateThird World poverty and problems such asstreet children in South America. TheCatholic Agency for Overseas Development published a paper stating "Any strategy that enables a person to move from a higher-risk towards the lower end of the continuum, [we] believe, is a valid risk reduction strategy."[33]
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John Paul II was criticised forrecentralising power back to the Vatican following what some viewed as adecentralisation byPope John XXIII. As such he was regarded by some as a strictauthoritarian. Conversely, he was also criticised for spending far too much time preparing for and undertaking foreign travel. The frequency of his trips, it was said, not only undermined the "specialness" of papal visits, but took him away from important business at the Vatican and allowed the Church, administratively speaking, to drift and rot within. Especially inSouth America, he was criticised for conservative bias in his appointments of bishops; with an unusually long reign of over 25 years, the majority of bishops in place at his death had been appointed by him.
Some Catholictheologians disagreed with the call for beatification of Pope John Paul II. Eleven dissident theologians, includingJesuit professor Jose Maria Castillo and Italian theologianGiovanni Franzoni raised seven points, including his stance against contraception and the ordination of women as well as the Church scandals that presented "facts which according to their consciences and convictions should be an obstacle to beatification".[34]
Born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005
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