Pope

The Pope
By Daniel G. Jennings
The death of Pope John Paul II and the media frenzy surrounding it expose and underscore a fascinating phenomenon the development of an ancient and utterly archaic institution into one of the most influential forces in the world.
John Paul II is the most popular and influential pope of all time and possibility the most popular and influential religious leader and individual in human history because of the modern media and its cult of celebrity. The Pope and the Vatican media machine around him astutely manipulated the media to vastly increase their influence. They did this by making the Pope into a sort of rock star putting him on TV, having him fly around the world and tour like a rock star and holding mass rallies that made the faithful feel like they were part of the event. A technique used to great effect by Hitler and Mao as well.
The Pope did this at the right time, as political leaders around the world were falling. Politicians and kings were getting smaller and weaker and more human because of media and television. Television in particular destroys the cult of leadership by bringing the leader right into the homes of the governed and showing him or her to be just another person. Especially in real time, we got to see how nasty and petty Richard Nixon was, observe Gerald Ford’s clumsiness first hand and watch Jimmy Carter’s mumbling and bungling. When Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein appear on TV they look and act like comic opera buffoons rather than fearsome dictators. Television destroyed both Nikita Khrushchev and Boris Yeltsin by exposing them as drunken clowns.
John Paul II was about the only leader of modern times who figured out how to use television to make himself appear larger than life. He looked and acted exactly as a Pope should. It is no coincidence that John Paul like another man with whom he shared the world stage, Ronald Reagan, was a former actor. He acted the part and acted it well.
The Vatican also figured out how to preserve the mystery of the faith by not showing too much of the Pope. His appearances were selective and carefully choreographed. He moved slowly and methodically instead of frantically running around like most modern politicians. When he appeared the effect was dramatic and startling rather than hurried and confused.
The Vatican has increased its influence in the world through a brilliant two fold strategy of astutely manipulating the media and sticking fast to Catholic morality and dogma. Since the church is not afraid to talk to the media and work closely with reporters its always assured of an audience. And since the church means what it says even people who don’t agree with it or even like much of its teachings will listen because they actually respect the church and its leadership.
The old mainline Protestant denominations in the United States and the state Protestant churches in Europe lost their influence because they compromised too much. Instead of acting as moral authorities criticizing society and holding fast to Christian doctrine they adopted to society and became about as morally influential as department stores.
This of course is an odd development because the Catholic Church is faced with declining physical influence in some parts of the world particularly Europe and the US. There’s the shortage of priests and the falling attendance at Mass particularly in Europe. The church has also failed to influence governments to implement its policies, the death penalty is still practiced in America and abortion is legal virtually everywhere.
The Catholic Church has an almost instinctive ability to discern the spirit of the age and adapt to it. Today, the Pope and his minions are highly visible filling our TV screens on an almost daily basis and flooding the media with press releases and sound bites. Yet, just fifty or sixty years ago the Vatican kept an extremely low profile. Largely because the Popes of that time knew taking a high profile stand would put them in danger from the Nazis and the Communists. The Vatican only survived Hitler and Stalin because it didn’t get in their way and give them a pretext to destroy it. No institution then is a better judge of the times than the papacy.
There of course are troubling aspects to the vast influence of the Pope. Unlike traditional political figures and leaders, the Pope appears to be accountable only to God. The Pope is the most influential man in the world yet he is accountable to no temporal authority, the college of Cardinals has only one major purpose to elect a new Pope. Since it’s members are appointed by the Pope it rarely challenges the Pope’s authority.
The Vatican and the Catholic Church in general get little scrutiny from the media. Generally, the media fawns over the Pope, priests and bishops. Secular reporters seem to have an almost worshipful respect of the Catholic clergy that the church uses to great effect. Rarely does a representative of the church get challenged on anything in the media even when the church is doing wrong. Critics of the church are dismissed and legitimate criticism of its influence are rarely heard.
This gives the Pope almost unlimited media influence, fortunately John Paul II was a great and good man, a true servant of God but I worry about that much influence in the hands of any person. Its as close to absolute power as a person can weld these days and we should remember what Lord Acton wrote back in the 19th Century, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We should well remember that Lord Acton was writing about the papacy when he invented that cliché and hope and pray that the next Pope is as good a man as John Paul II.