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Opinon
Page 8 Tuesday, May 19, 1981 The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 10-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Anti-idealists
AST WEEK'S WHITE House visit by the
foreign minister of South Africa is
deceptively innocuous at first glance.
Such courtesy calls are nothing new; former
president Carter periodically entertained South
African dignitaries, as did previous ad-
ministrations.
Yet the pointed atmosphere of conciliation
surrounding the discussions betrays a clear
shift in Washington's attitude; it reflects a let-
bygones-be-bygones attitude quite in keeping
with the Reagan administration's international
lurch to the Right.
The White House professes continued support
for the 1978 United .Nations plan calling for
South African withdrawal from Namibia-a
territory some 90 percent black in
population-to be followed by free, inter-
nationally-supervised elections. In late 1978,
South Africa announced its reluctant
acquiescence to the UN plan-largely due to
pressure exerted on them by President Carter.-
Since then, the South Africans have
deliberately stalled on carrying out their
promise; last week's talks here made it obvious
President Reagan has no inclination to prod
them into action. He reportedly assured his
visitor that "there are no deadlines" for. im-
plementation of the UN program, and that the
United States appreciates South Africa's dif-
ficulties in carrying out such a transition.
The affable rhetoric doesn't wash. One
needn't discount the necessity for pragmatism
in foreign policy to still be appalled by the bald
cynicism eminating from both White House and
State Department. We are suddenly cozying up
to a nation whose sanctioned racial policies are
repugnant to the entire world; we wine and dine
members of a government whose park benches
and drinking fountains are forbidden to most of
its people.
There is no moral or strategic reason to cater
to such a country other than that of economic
self-interest. South Africa hates the Russians
and loves Exxon-let's make a deal and human
rights be damned. Such deliberate Washington
myopia extends to both hemispheres-as wit-
ness Alexander Haig's recent assertion that we
should support Argentina's murderous, anti-
Semitic regime because they are anti-com-
munist and "believe in God."
Out administration seems embarked on an
anti-idealist crusade-a corporate view of
foreign policy which all the State Department
double-talk about "friendly" dictatorships,
"authoritarian" vs. "totalitarian" regim'es,
and "quiet diplomacy" fails to conceal. To the
countless victims of tyranny, the rifle butt and
the torture- rack wear' no -political-shadiing:°
A progressive pope?
By Franz Schurmann
The dark suspicion concerning
John Paul II's attacker - that
he was an instrument of sinister
foreign efforts to undermine
Islam - reflects one of the great
changes that has occured in the
Roman Catholic Church. It has
evolved from a Latin European to
a global church.
That change did not come
about gradually. It came through
the work of three popes: John
XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II.
Pope John XXIII started the
process with Vatican II, the great
"updating" of the church. The
theme of that conclave was: the
church must find its role in the
world as it is, and not as it wants
to be. One of the first great
results: the abandonment of
Latin forhvernaculars in the
mass. The significance -was
pastoral: the church and the'
community must come cloer
together.
The austere Pope Paul VI con-
trasted with the kindly John
XXIII. For him, the updating led
in a different direction. Paul VI
became the first pope to travel
extensively, and no travel was
more important than his visit to
Bogota, Cob hnia, where, in 1968,
he called for the church to sup
port the struggle of the poor and
oppressed.
When the pope speaks in St.
Peter's square, he intones "urbi
et orbi" - to the city and the
world. Those words signify the
dual role of the church, as pastor
to communities and as
missionary to the world. John
XXIII chose the pastoral role.
Paul VI chose the role of global
missionary.
John Paul has already traveled
widely. But he has also become
embroiled in some of the most
divisive pastoral issues to have
arisen in the church in recent
years. Unlike John XXIII, who
opened doors to new moral direc-
tions under his own charisma of
compassion for people, John Paul
II has taken a strong
traditionalist stance on morality.
He has hardened the church's op-
position to abortion, to sacramen-
tal roles for women, to priests
leaving the priesthood.
He has not made any clarion
call comparable to that of Paul
VI in Bogota for the rights of the
poor. Yet in Mexico, Brazil, and
in the Philippines he has made
clear his support of the role of the
Church on the side of the poor.
Liberals and conservatives
among Catholics interpret his
words differently, and perhaps
the vagueness is deliberate,
given the deep split between
these two philosophical wings in
the church.
But more significant than the
political slant of his words is his,
recognition that the Catholic
Church is no longer a European
church. The majority of Catholics
are non-European. The fastest
growing Catholic populations are
all in the Third World. In Africa
the Pope is hailed by enormous
crowds.
If John Paul II's pastoral
message is clearly conservative,
his global message is radical. He
has radicalized the break with
the old European world of the
church that began with John
XXIII and Paul VI. It was
of Marxism's ability to explain
world trends, that seems ex-
tremely unlikely.
John Paul II's very travels in-
dicate a pope in quest of a world
view, one on which his mind has
not yet settled. He has said that
the next place he wanted to visit
was the Soviet Union. He already
has been to one of the super-
powers, the United States. He
sees his travels to these countries
as a quest for world peace.
If the church finally does agree
on a new world view, one charac-
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A passionate globetrotter, John Paul II celebrates a nighttime Mass
before a large throng in West Germany last year.
precisely this break with the
European character of the chur-
ch that prompted the angry
revolt of the traditionalist French
Archbishop Lefebvre, who con-
tinues to say mass in Latin and
has become a focal point for
ultra-right Europeanists. John
Paul II has made no concessions
to the traditionalists on their
demands for a return to the older
world view of the church.
Demographics alone show that
the Catholic Church will be over-
whelmingly a Third World chur-
ch in a few generations.
European birth rates are down,
and there is little likelihood that
church fulminations against birth
control will raise them. But in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America
populations are soaring.
And yet the ambiguity of the
Pope's messages to the world, in
such contrast with his pastoral
certainties, raises the question of
what kind of new world view is
emerging in the church. Some
liberation theologians have
looked to Marxism as a guide to
understanding the real world,
and liberal Brazilian bishop
Helder Camara once suggested
Marxism might be incorporated
into church doctrine as
Aristolianism once was. But
given the precipitous-breakdown.
teristic is certain - it will be
practical as well as spiritual. It
will be based on a conception of
what the real world is like and
what the church's role and
mission is in that world.
What also is becoming clear is
that Rome, only a few decades
ago still the "Pope's prison," is
again to become one of the city-
capitals of the world.
Franz Schurmann teaches
history and sociology at the
University of California,
Berkeley, and is also an
associate editor for Pacific
News Service.
JTustie
for all
To the Daily:
Sisters and brothers (near
Tibet): Only one goal is worthy
for America over the next 20
years - rid the world of disease,
poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and
war!
-Henry Ratliff
April 17
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