THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1978. Pope John Paul II

Press, 18 October 1978, Page 12

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1978. Pope John Paul II

The election of a Polish Cardinal as Pope will surprise as many people outside the Roman Catholic Church as it will please members of the faith. Karo] Wojtyla was born in 1920; his father was a factory worker, and Karol was something of a radical in his youth. He joined an avant-garde theatre group and wrote poetry; he skied, canoed and hitch-hiked. He studied for the priesthood during the Second World War, and rose rapidly in the Church in Poland, a country even more ravaged by war than Germany had been.

The first Cardinal Archbishop of Cracow appointed from outside the Polish aristocracy, Cardinal Wojtyla was, at that time, regarded by communists and churchmen as something of a foil to the conservative Polish Primate, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. His see has concontinued to harbour dissidents, both lay and clerical, against the harsh Communist regime.

Cardinal Wojtyla’s stature within Poland has grown as his elevation in the Church has proceeded. He has been a member of several Vatican congregations and he had been widely tipped as the likely successor to Cardinal Wyszynski.

Although he speaks fluent Italian, Pope John Paul II will need to overcome a certain suspicion among Italians, particularly Romans, he is the first nonItalian Pope for more than 400 years. Some Italian Roman Catholics may resist any innovations proposed by the new Pope as “foreign importations:” Italian Communists, for their part, are deeply distrustful of the role of the Church in Eastern Europe. A period of adjustment and settling down will almost certainly be needed in the Vatican and in Italy. Elsewhere, however, the novelty of the appointment will soon be forgotten; if the new Pope’s

origins count for anything in the rest of the world, they will probably mean that the bonds of the Church across national boundaries will be all the stronger. If emphasis continues to be given to the fact that Pope John Paul II came from Poland, it may be because history and experience has stirred in Polish people a remarkable resilience in the face of oppression, and great powers of resistance to injustices. The Papacy may well reflect these qualities, perhaps in Italy itself where the Church may become more active in reading people who have turned elsewhere, particularly to communism, for an answer to their social problems. Pope John Paul II speaks English well, and has travelled more widely than almost any of his predecessors. He has even visited Australia and New Zealand. In 1973 he was briefly in New Zealand on his way to the Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne. Although he is a conservative theologian, John Paul II is better prepared than most Popes for the diversity of precept and practice of his world-wide flock. If he chooses to travel abroad he will seem accessible to many millions who must have long felt some remoteness from the Papacy solely on the grounds of language and national origin. The appointment of a comparatively young Pope from an East European country which continues to chafe under the Communist yoke may have great significance for the countries behind the Iron Curtain — not to mention relationships between Russia and the Western world. Churchgoers in his native Poland must take great heart from his appointment; so will the Roman Catholics in neighbouring Lithuania. The Cardinals have been bold in their choice and an exceptional choice is likely to create an exceptional reign.