Feast of the Faith

3rd Semester '10-'11 Issue 2

Pope John Paul II has achieved one big step towards sainthood as his beatification commenced in the Holy City on May 1. The crowd in St. Peter’s Square was the largest since his death in 2005, manifesting that the support for the pope has not waned in the past six years. Blessed John Paul II was known for being the most travelled pope and for his efforts to purify the history of the Roman Catholic Church when he asked for forgiveness for its errors in over 2000 years of existence.

Pope Benedict claimed that Blessed John Paul was an inspiring example of prayer and cheerfulness throughout his 27 years as the head of the Catholic Church.

As a pope, John Paul II broke the tradition of pomp, finding ways to make himself and the Catholic Church accessible and visible internationally. He travelled to 129 countries, talking of peace and denouncing human rights violations and is notable for his efforts to establish peaceful relations among the religions in the world. He was the first pope to pray in a synagogue, to enter a mosque in Syria, and to meet with different religious leaders in 1986. He is also claimed to have thawed the Communist presence in Central and Eastern Europe.

However, in light of the scandal of pedophile priests that tainted JPII’s pontificate, many criticized Pope Benedict’s decision to speed up the path for his sainthood. Pope Benedict permitted the traditionally decade-long process to start only weeks after Blessed John Paul’s death.

He will be most remembered by Filipinos who took part in the World Youth Day held in the Philippines in 1995 which mobilized 5 million people from all over the world. But he will also be remembered for his moral campaigns on family values, extramarital sex, homosexuality, birth control, euthanasia, and abortion.

Ironically, at this moment, the battle waged over the Reproductive Health Bill in the country is escalating. The Church however is at a standstill with critics and the faithful alike, waiting whether it will stand for the traditional tenets of the faith or heed the call of many social groups that argue for the bill’s passage.

Behind the festivities of what Pope Benedict claimed to be a “feast of the faith,” is the inevitable struggle that the Church constantly faces in the modern age: while it aims to preserve its teachings and the traditions that have kept it strong in over 2000 years, it also needs to remain relevant and responsive to the social realities of the day.

This call for a more relevant and responsive institution begs the question of whether such a challenge only facilitates the further politicization of the Church. In the country, the reality is that Church-State relations are essentially blurred. The political role of the Catholic Church is significant, but more importantly, it is rooted historically. Because of the Catholic Church’s hand in mobilizing the People Power, it has long been given a favored position in Philippines politics particularly in selected administrations. This has allowed the Church to deviate from its traditional role of simply serving as moral guidance for the people.

The challenge for the Roman Catholic Church here is to strike a balance. The Church’s strength lies in its unswerving adherence to tradition and to dogmatic teachings that have stood the test of time. However, its potency as an institution depends also on its ability to be an instrument of social change without necessarily intervening in the political sphere and its ability to be responsive to the context within which it is situated.

John Paul II’s beatification represents the persistence of millennium-long Catholic traditions. It manifests the Church’s recognition of his extraordinary devotion to prayer and to his many efforts for peace and religious tolerance; but it also indirectly represents an affirmation of the Church’s longstanding position on many issues concerning society today.

Pola Lia Celina Lamarca, 2009A