Newly elected Pope John Paul ll uplifting his “pilgrims” in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican

Karol Wojtyla, later  John Paul ll, was passionate about religion. He maintained a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, choosing as his personal motto Totus tuus  which is Latin for “All yours”, (Mary) .   To my mind, this left him with a distorted and unrealistic view of women.  (see my post Catholic Dichotomy of Females). To his detractors, he was a reactionary trying to turn back the clock on modern reality. Some harshly criticized his ultra-conservative theology, which prohibited female ordination, birth control and abortion. He branded the notion of global overpopulation a myth and said the use of condoms as a precaution against AIDS only encouraged the behaviour that led to the spread of the disease. Yet companies associated with the Vatican earn millions from the manufacture of contraceptives.

In a 1993 letter to his bishops, John Paul said both sex before marriage and contraception were intrinsically evil. He also broadened the definition of mortal sins to include abortion, euthanasia, drug dealing and drug taking. No mention here of the abuse of innocent children by Catholic priests being a mortal sin. During his time as Pope and head of the Catholic Church, John Paul worked closely with Joseph Ratzinger (the present Pope Benedict), at the Congregation For The Doctrine of Faith,  to cover up widespread paedophilia within the Catholic clergy and arranged  offending priests to be sent  from one parish to another without warning parishioners of the dangers these evil men posed.  During this time, no priestly child abusers were reported to police and the vast majority have never paid for their crimes.  But of course, the Vatican paid out millions in cash to those victims who wouldn’t shut up!

Many liberal Catholics believed John Paul centralized power during his reign and blocked the democratization of the church. (see my blog  ‘Are We But A Flock Of Sheep?)

In April 2002, John  Paul  called 12 U.S. cardinals to the Vatican for an extraordinary two-day session to discuss the growing scandal of priestly sexual abuse of children in America. The Pope told the visiting cardinals that sexual abuse of children by priests and religious is “rightly considered a crime” and is “an appalling sin in the eyes of God.”   All talk!  Paedophile priests are still protected by the Church.  I wonder how many of those same cardinals had themselves sexually abused children in the past.

The most fabulous smoke screen of all time is being puffed out right now!   John Paul has been canonised a saint, ie: a first miracle has been credited to him.  As usual, it is a woman (nun) who has been cured of some fatal illness.  Now we await his second miracle so that this ex pope can be beatified and so entitled to have the word ‘saint’ installed in front of his name.  Meanwhile, unwanted children continue to be born. Men, women and children die of AIDS in their millions.   The trail of sexual abuse victims left behind is truly gigantic.  This abuse can affect families for generations to come and I write about these consequences in my book ‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar?’