And recall that, when the going got tough in ‘41, even ol’ Joe S started reopening churches and giving lip service to religion. Joke as he might but even Stalin respected the power of religion to motivate his people.
I’m not a Catholic, but that’s hardly a “non-Church policy question.” Few moral questions are more significant than when it is justifiable for one person to kill another. The Catholic Church has probably considered the “just war” question about as deeply as any existing institution. Accordingly, the Pope’s view on the validity of a particular war, informed as it is by that tradition, is worthy of a bit more standing in the discussion than that of, say, Tim Robbins.
Continuing from there: I think the Pope has two important reasons to speak out on the justifiability of a particular war:
- The Pope has a duty to the world’s billion or so Catholics to provide moral guidance on this question, as some of them may be faced with a choice of whether to fight for their country in that war.
- The Pope would probably regard it as part of his duty to God to act as a witness to the nations, to inform them of right and wrong, whether those nations be Catholic, other Christian, or non-Christian.
I would say that he has much moral authority but little actual, de facto authority. When the Pope speaks, the world listens (even if they ignore him).
Of course, it would be a mistake to confuse the charisma of Saint John Paul the Great with the position of Supreme Pontiff. Yet, as Supreme Pontiff, whoever is Pope has an obligation to morally guide the world.
WRS
I (a non-catholic Christian) will take under consideration anything any pope says. He is not a “celebrity” opining on something outside his ken; he is a person who has devoted his entire life to the study, pursuit and practice of spirituality, who has risen through a heirarchy and chosen by other learned and mostly quite spiritual humane men. When a pope demonstrates the manifest qualities of humanity and intelligence of JPII, that adds greatly to my attention.
Therein lies his power. He can influence people, and the people have power, even in the most despotic regimes; like, say Soviet Eastern Europe.
Just like Alexander VI! 