John Paul II & the Opus Dei connection
April 2005

John Paul uttered platitudes in plenty on poverty but had no concrete programme for its eradication or for advancing social justice. He never named or denounced the makers of poverty. He was hostile to liberation theology. On the other hand, he endorsed capitalism in his encyclical Centesimus Annus (1991). His focus stayed on conservative issues like women priests, celibacy, birth control, homosexuality.

So how to explain the Pope's consistent reactionary stand? Vicente Navarro attributes it to his close ties with the Opus Dei, the secret rightwing organisation founded by Escriva de Balaguer, formerly confessor to fascist General Franco. (Navarro is Professor of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University, USA and Pompeu Fabra University, Spain.)

1. JPII was groomed for the Papacy by the Opus Dei, long before he was elected Pope. He was chosen as the candidate for Pope very early in his career, when he was Bishop of Krakow, because of his conservative and anti-communist views.

2. John Paul travelled extensively at that time on trips organized and funded by Opus Dei, developing a very close working relationship with the sect. It was Opus Dei that developed the strategy to make him the Pope, assisted by the Bishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger; U.S. cardinals close to Opus Dei, Joseph Krol (Polish) and Patrick Cody; and Cardinal Franz König from Vienna (who later distanced himself from Opus Dei and from the Pope). The centre of operations for this campaign was Villa Tevere, the Opus Dei headquarters in Rome.

3. Immediately after his election, Pope John Paul showed his appreciation by designating Opus Dei as a special order - a 'personal prelature' - a diocese without borders and outside the control of the bishops. He surrounded himself with members of the order, including Navarro-Valls, an Opus Dei journalist who selected friendly journalists to cover the Pope's international visits.

4. The Pope later named another Opus Dei member, Angelo Sodano, as Secretary of State of the Vatican. Sodano had been the Vatican's nuncio in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, becoming a close friend and advisor to the
dictator.  During the visit to Chile (1987), the Pope never publicly called for democracy there. On the other hand, he criticised Castro's regime when he visited Cuba. Later, when Pinochet was detained in London (awaiting extradition to Spain), the Vatican, under Sodano's influence, asked the British Government to let Pinochet return to Chile. This same Sodano had referred to liberation theologian Leonardo Boff highly acclaimed by the people as "a traitor to the Church, the Judas of Christ."

5. Opus Dei and its Pope were profoundly hostile to liberation theology which sought to empower the poor.  John Paul was also displeased with the Jesuits who criticised the strong oligarchic regimes of Latin America. He received regular reports about the Jesuits from the CIA Director William Casey, a Catholic. So JPII simply changed the Jesuit leadership by appointing conservative priests at the top. Bishop Oscar Romero was rebuked for being critical of the Salvadorian dictatorship, which John Paul recognised as the legitimate government of El Salvador.

6. John Paul's speeches on the poor never touched on the political causes of poverty. He marginalized and ostracized the mass religious movements in Latin America that called for major social reforms in favor of the poor. Rather than pushing for social change worldwide, Pope John Paul II became a major obstacle to a social agenda by bringing conservative issues (anti-abortion, anti-contraception, etc) to the center of political debate.
Bishop Romero once said, "When I called for the role of the Church to be with the poor, I am called a saint; when I'm asked to do something about the causes of poverty, I am called a communist."

7. JPII rewarded his sposors, the Opus Dei, by canonising their founder, Escriva de Balaguer, in record time - a mere 27 years after his death in 1975. [In contrast, Bishop Oscar Romero of Salvador who was murdered at Mass in March 1980 has been ignored. Likewise, the Indian missionary, Fr Joseph Vaz who toiled in Sri Lanka and died there in 1711, was made 'blessed' as late as 1995 but is not deemed worthy to be saint yet.]

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The New Statesman (11 April 2005) gave its verdict on JPII:
"He has the blood of innocents on his hands. He did more to spread AIDS across Africa than the trucking industry and prostitution combined... He publicly humiliated Latin American priests for expressing a 'preferential option' for the poor."

Reference
Vicente Navarro, CounterPunch, 04 April 2005