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How John Paul II turned the Papacy into Vatican Idol.
Behold Pope John Paul II. Whereas prior pontiffs hunkered down with grizzled advisers in Rome, he took his show to the youth of the world, visiting roughly 130 countries and logging some 700,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) in his 26 years at the Vatican. Along the way, he cleverly exploited media of all sorts to spread his curious combination of conservative social teachings (no condoms!) and progressive politics (no capital punishment!). While the cult of the pope likely began around the time the Church declared the dogma of papal infallibility in 1870, the cult of celebrity first knocked on the door of the Vatican in the person of John Paul II.
John Paul II: A Light for the World, a new coffee-table book by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, presents the most recognized man on the planet as— |
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FLORENCE, ITALY, 1986
A Pope John Paul II carpet hanging in a bazaar.
PHOTO BY FERDINANDO SCIANNA |
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no surprise—a religious figure: pastor, pilgrim, and prophet. Yet this loving tribute, lavishly illustrated with official Vatican photographs, seems to gravitate, against its own wishes, toward a vision of John Paul II as a man principally famous for his fame.
Here the pope appears, as did the original “Light of the World,” in intimate settings: signing the antiabortion encyclical Evangelium Vitae; embracing the unnamed poor of Angola; shaking the hand of Mehmet Ali Agca (who, by attempting to assassinate John Paul II in 1981 instead catapulted him onto the global stage). But more often he’s shown standing before vast crowds of adoring adolescents, numbering (according to the book) 1,000,000 in Chicago’s Grant Park, 300,000 in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, and 88,000 in the New Orleans Superdome. It is these throngs (along with photos of our hero with Clint Eastwood, Yasser Arafat, the Reagans) |
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SÃO PAULO STATE, BRAZIL, 1996
Man poses next to
Pope John Paul II cut-out.
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PHOTO BY ABBAS |
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LIMA, PERU, 1986
Boy holds portrait of Pope John Paul II.
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PHOTO BY FERDINANDO SCIANNA |
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that make the book a tribute not so much to the pope’s life as to his celebrity.
It is now commonplace to draw on religious rhetoric to describe the mysterious power that pulses between pop stars and their adoring fans. Elvis Presley is an “icon,” Tupac Shakur a “Christ figure,” Clay Aiken an “idol.” But where does this conflation of fame and faith leave the real saints?
When the College of Cardinals gathers in the Sistine Chapel to elect popes now, who will not consider how well each candidate smiles for the camera or fills out the “Popemobile”? Who among these candidates will not be lusting in his heart for the glare of the spotlight and the roar of the crowd? Will any yearn for the insularity of Pope Pius IX, whose “Syllabus of Errors” (1864) declared the Vatican a pristine island in a sea of corrupt modernity? |
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| WHERE DOES THIS CONFLATION OF FAME AND FAITH LEAVE THE REAL SAINTS? |
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Today the Vatican bobs with the rest of us on a sea of celebrity in which mere mortals are routinely transformed into divinities, and then devils. To his credit, John Paul II has managed to steer clear of the scandals that have brought lesser clerics to shame. Perhaps because he recognized that faith and fame worship different gods, he was extraordinarily effectual, opening up dialogue with non-Christian religions, helping to bring down communism, and preserving an all-male and supposedly celibate priesthood.
Still it is hard to believe that the 265th pope will be remembered for any of these feats. He will be remembered instead for marrying the papacy to the cult of celebrity, for getting into bed (for good or for ill) with its gods.
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HAVANA, CUBA, 1998
Poster of the pope
affixed to a rickshaw. |
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PHOTO BY DAVID ALAN HARVEY |
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