Karol Wojtyla, 1920 - 2005

As reported everywhere, Pope John Paul II died at the age of 84 on Saturday.

In the days leading up to the inevitable, I noticed a significant volume of polemic directed at the Pope at discussion boards that I frequent regularly. While I've never agreed with the Catholic Church's position with...well, anything, quite a few people vented their spleens about what a distant octogenarian thought of abortion and same sex marriage. Having grew up with both the Nazi occupation and Poland's Communist dictatorship, I would like to think Karol highly valued the right of individuals to make their own moral choices. He chose the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, and the worst he could have done to anyone who disagreed with him was not let them be Catholic anymore.

The terms of debate in Western Society have shifted since Cardinal Wojtyla was elected in 1978. At that point in time, the debate was about which economic and political systems should prevail. When Pope John Paul II reached out to Catholics behind the Iron Curtain, he emphasized religion as an instrument of freedom, which inevitably led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire. In 2004, Conservative Catholics joined with Evangelical Christians last year to re-elect George W. Bush, who diminishes foreign policy to notions of "good" and "evil" and flexes political muscle to enforce "freedom" through such measures as the PATRIOT Act. The powers of the Bush Administration extend far beyond simple excommunication. There is no real no choice in the American Empire beyond the embrace of corporate globalization, and it appears that the only debate allowed is over issues which should be left at the church door.

There is one issue where Pope John Paul II and President Bush had a strong difference of opinion, which at the least points out the hypocrisy from the White House in looking to establish a "culture of life".