Just how difficult is it to acquire sainthood these days? To judge by recent events in the Holy City that have resulted in the late Pope John Paul II being fast tracked through the first stage thus arriving at "Beatification" in less than two years perhaps it is far easier than you, dear reader realised.
Time was when the period between death and a declaration of sainthood was measured in centuries. If we are to believe the hierarchy of the Catholic church, Karol Wojtyla is a very special case. Certainly various biographies paint a picture of a flawless child who grew up to be a perfect man then became an infallible Pope.
Some eight years of research have led me to rather different conclusions*, not only from certain biographers but also the Vatican spin doctors.
Less than one hour after Wojtyla's election the fruits of the first Vatican spin on behalf of the new Pope were in the hands of the waiting media and were being wired around the globe. Eager for information concerning the first non Italian Pope for over four hundred years the media gathered in Rome had no time to stop, check and confirm. That they disseminated the information unquestioningly is understandable. That those that came after them were still doing the same many years later is inexplicable.
We were told that as a young man during the Second World War Karol Wojtyla worked under near slave camp conditions but that despite the grave danger involved in such activities he went again and again into the Cracow ghetto and rescued Jews from certain death.
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The truth is that he and the others working with him at the East German Chemical Works merited special privileges from the Third Reich because their work was considered to be vital to the German war effort.
Apart from receiving a salary; access to a subsidised food store and on site medical attention; the future Pope was issued with documentation that gave him immunity from deportation either to Germany or the Eastern Front. As for his courageous journeys to the Cracow ghetto it is yet another of the many myths that abound in the Wojtyla story. In truth he never saved anyone's life.
Much has been written of how Karol Wojtyla continuously battled against the Polish Communist regime during the first three postwar decades. The reality is that the instances where he took a stand are very few and far between.
Indeed he directly owed his most important promotion during those years to that Communist regime. They had insisted that Wojtyla should be promoted to the vacancy of Archbishop of Cracow. So insistent were they that they rejected the first six candidates nominated by the Church. Without that promotion the route to the Papacy would have remained permanently closed to Wojtyla.
Has the process that has led to the fast tracking to sainthood considered the implications of the above facts ? Has it also considered the manner in which the late Pope protected Bishop Paul Marcinkus the chairman of the Vatican Bank? Long after the Banco Ambrosiano crash in June 1982 that resulted in a 1.3. billion dollar loss. Long after Italian courts handed down indictments against Marcinkus and three of his colleagues in the bank charging that all four were guilty of criminal conspiracy, Wojtyla continued to protect these men. It was not until December 1989 that Marcinkus finally left the Bank and as a result of a deal cut between the Italian Government was free to retire to Phoenix, Arizona.
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The Banco Ambrosiano affair is but one example of the sliding moral scale that Wojtyla applied with regard to financial matters, there are others, these include the Pauline Order scandal involving Father Michael Zembruski the Superior of the Order in America and his favourites putting their vows of poverty to one side and living the high life which included getting through the best part of twenty million dollars that had not been raised by the faithful for use on mistresses and Cadillacs. Pope Paul VI after an extensive investigation dismissed Zembruski the ramifications of this scandal were ongoing when Wojtyla became Pope.
Within three weeks he had ensured that Father Zembruski and his cohorts would no longer be troubled by Vatican committees. The "Mother of all bribes" in 1993 involved the Vatican Bank laundering one hundred million dollars, much of the laundered money was then used to corrupt
virtually every Italian political party, and a great many of Italy's leading citizens. Eventually 126 people were convicted of wide range of offenses.
Yet again there was an absence of any Vatican bank prelates from the dock. The Frankel affair began in the late 9Os and continues to the present day with the Vatican Bank currently being sued by the insurance commissioners of Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas the claim is for $600 million.
Have those who are currently fast tracking Wojtyla to sainthood considered these various scandals that all occurred on his watch ?
Above all else and there is a great deal encompassed in the catch-all words "above all else". There is the continuing scandal of clerical sexual abuse particularly of children. Have those who are extolling Wojtyla's "heroic sanctity" reflected on the fact that the late Pope was handed a one
hundred document by his good friend Cardinal Kroll in 1985 that dealt comprehensively with this obscenity The document, compiled by two priests and a lawyer made a host of recommendations. They asked for urgent action to be taken and observed that the actions of the pedophile priests would ultimately cost in excess of one billion dollars. That sum
was passed several years ago.
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The Pope told Kroll that he considered the report "very important" and that its recommendations "should be acted upon immediately". The report was then filed away and Karol Wojtyla personally continued to accord protection to pedophiles including Cardinal Hans Groer of Austria and the founder of the Legionnaires of Christ, Father Marcel Maciel.
In the light of all of the above I would suggest that anyone who harbors ambitions of eventually being declared a saint should take heart.
* The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of John Paul II's Vatican by David Yallop is published by Carroll & Graf.