The 'media' Pope

The past week has seen the world mesmerised by the agony, death and funeral of Pope John II. There is no doubt that John Paul II was respected by all, both believers and non-believers, but there is no doubt either that the unprecedented world reaction at his death that the world has just witnessed, would not have been possible were it not for the influence of the media.

The last time a Pope died, almost 27 years ago, we watched some of the proceedings on our black and white television screens. We did not have CNN and Sky News broadcasting live from the Vatican all the stages of the Pope's final hours or the preparations for the funeral; the never-ending mourners passing by his body as a show of respect; and the enormous crowds attempting to attend the funeral to bid him their last farewell.

Pope John Paul II was a great man and the media responded to his last hours before his death and the events of the subsequent days in a manner that was in proportion to his greatness. This, in turn, continued to whip up people's emotions about his passing away.

The media frenzy and people's emotions were on a high. Preliminary estimates of two million pilgrims going to Rome for his funeral proved to be quite short of the mark. The actual figure was over four million.

Ironically, one could even see in the most visible of manners the answer to Stalin's notorious sarcastic remark asking: "How many divisions does the Pope have?" The fact that this was the Pope who contributed in a big way to bring about the collapse of Communism - practically without bloodshed - is history's ultimate reply to Stalin's stupid question.

How much of this hype is the effect of the media and how much is due to the charisma of John Paul II himself is impossible to discern. Karol Wojtyla was an intuitive media man with some experience in acting when he was a young man. He knew how to handle crowds and had a natural knack how to use his body language to communicate with the crowds to his advantage.

He travelled all over the world in his bid to make the Church relevant to all men. He had the courage to be the first Pope to enter a synagogue and a mosque. Not only did he publicly forgive his would-be assassin and expressed his love for him but he also publicly asked forgiveness for the folly of the Church in the past - Galilei Galilei; its posture towards slavery; the persecution of Protestants; the persecution of Jews; and the persecution of Moslems.

John Paul abhorred violence and spoke out firmly against it wherever he was, in the face of its most notorious perpetrators, whether it was in Sicily or in Ireland. He spoke against war on all occasions, against all wars, wherever they were. He was the most consistent and frequent promoter of peace and human rights for the last two decades, even going so far as describing the 2003 US-Iraqi war as a defeat for humanity which could not be morally or legally justified; stressing that "violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man".

One can say he was just preaching and putting in practice what he believed - but all these stances were inherently also big media events on a global scale.

His attraction to all men and women of all ages, race, colour or creed was certainly beyond comprehension. A young man I know, who disagreed completely with Pope John Paul's stand against condoms as a means to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids and with his position on women's role in the Church, surprised me when he openly expressed his sorrow at the Pope's passing away. People who strongly disagreed with some of his conservative views were prepared to 'forget their differences' and let their admiration for him outshine their disappointment at his intransigence on certain issues! Surely this was not just the result of media hype. There was more, much more, than that to the man.

I was very much impressed by a comment made on a BBC documentary about John Paul II to the effect that this Pope had made Catholics 'proud' to be so: an observation that could only have been made by a non-Catholic living in a country where Catholics are a minority and where, historically, too many people spoke of the Pope - whoever it was - in derogatory terms.

It certainly was not just the media taking over the trappings of the Papacy. Yet there was a natural symbiotic relationship between John Paul II and the media that must have been a vital ingredient of his immense popularity. Nothing is perhaps more indicative of his relationship with the media than the fact that on his death, John Paul II appeared on the cover of Time magazine for the 16th time - an unparallelled record for any religious leader.

I am sure that when the Cardinals elected Karol Wojtyla as Pope in October 1978, his now evident natural relationship with the media that enabled him to reach everybody was not considered one of the reasons that mattered. But then, more often than not, the Cardinals in a conclave tend to choose the right man for the wrong reasons.

For such are the ways of the Lord.

micfal@maltanet.net