April 21, 2008
Of Popes and Presidents
KT McFarland
Of Popes and Presidents
KT McFarland In watching Pope Benedict’s visits to Washington and New York last week, most of us were reminded of Pope John Paul II’s several visits to America, and of the extraordinary things he accomplished in his two decades on the Throne of Peter. One of the greatest of these was the role he played in encouraging Eastern Europeans to stand up to their Communist rulers, and ending the Cold War.
When Pope John Paul II first set foot on American soil, in Boston in October 1979, the world was divided into two camps – the Democratic West and the Communist East. The United States and the Soviet Union seemed to be trapped in an endless Cold War, wherein one side would gain a temporary political or military advantage, only to see it surpassed by the other a few years later. But by the late 1970s, the Communist East and the Soviet Empire were ascendant. Their military machine seemed invincible. To some, including even President Carter, a certain “malaise” had set in the United States. After our defeat in Vietnam, and the oil shocks and stagflation in the 1970s, it seemed to many that America’s best days were behind us and that our claim to American “exceptionalism” was something of the past. Much of the world has stopped thinking of us a moral beacon to be followed. Western European economies were lagging, and they too seemed to have lost faith in themselves. Most of the world had come to see Communism and the Soviet Empire as inevitable; as necessary evils to be accommodated.
By the time Pope John Paul II made his seventh and final visit to the United States, 20 years later, the world was hardly recognizable. The Soviet Empire had broken apart, the Soviet Union had collapsed, and Communism had been tossed on the ash heap of history. The United States was the world’s only superpower, and enjoyed a booming economy and renewed sense of national purpose. It seemed the entire world wanted to adopt democratic capitalism.
It might not have happened without Pope John Paul. In June 1979, just eight months after his consecration, the Pope returned to his native Poland. Communist Poland was officially atheist, and its dictators had tried to smother the Catholic Church for decades. As a young priest, the Pope had been threatened, intimidated, and his efforts thwarted at every turn by the Communist authorities. When he arrived in Warsaw, at the height of the Cold War, no one was quite sure what kind of a reception he would receive. Yet hundreds of thousands of people gathered, spontaneously, at Victory Squareto celebrate mass with the Pope. He told them, “Be Not Afraid.” His very presence, and willingness to defy the Communist dictators, gave courage to his fellow Poles. A year later, Polish dockworkers started the Solidarity Trade Union movement and within time it grew to ten million members. A decade later Solidarity played a critical role in bringing down Poland’s communist government and replacing it with a democracy. According to Lech Walesa, Solidarity’s founder and later Poland’s president, “the Pope started this chain of events that led to the end of communism.”
And the spark the Pope lit in Poland started a series of fires throughout East Europe, as one after another Communist governments fell and were replaced by democracies. Ultimately, the Soviet Union itself collapsed, and Communism died with it. The forces of democracy and freedom won the Cold War without firing a shot. The Pope alone did not bring down the Soviet Empire. But in 1979 he set the process in motion, and provided the moral authority for it to grow from a quite prayer into a political movement.
A year after Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II, America elected Ronald Reagan. He reversed a decade of neglect of our military. He cut taxes to stimulate economic growth. He repaired relations with our allies. He stood firm against the Soviet Union, and put in place the policies that ultimately won the Cold War. The Pope and the President, working in concert if not always together, defeated Communism without firing a shot. The world today has many similarities. The greatest threat to peace is radical Islamic terrorism. The United States is entering a period of economic dislocation, and we don’t know how long or deep it will be. Our political environment is poisonous. We seem to have lost confidence in ourselves. Many nations no longer see us as worthy of our role in the world.
Hopefully in November we can elect a President like Reagan – with the experience, wisdom, and fortitude to stand up to our enemies, rebuild our alliances, stimulate our economy and restore common purpose to American politics.
And hopefully, the new Pope Benedict will give us the moral leadership in helping rid the world of radical Islamic terrorism and their cult of death.
