4 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- 4 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 4 4 4