2005 Year in Review

Pope John Paul II and President Bush

Despite the fact that 2/3 of American Catholics think that Pope John Paul II will go down as one of the greatest Popes in history, paradoxically they would like the Church to change many of the conservative causes he championed. 59% would like the next Pope to be just like the last Pope and 71% think he will be made a saint.

Nevertheless, 78% of American Catholics think the next Pope should allow them to use contraceptives. 63% think that priests should be able to marry, while 59% think the Church should rethink its position against stem cell research. Most American Catholics, however, support his stand against abortion.

Conservatives have linked themselves to the popular Pope because of his conservative stand on these social issues and his role in helping free Poland from repressive Communist rule. They choose to ignore that the Pope also condemned the Iraqi war, the death penalty and was often very critical of capitalism. On his concern about the Iraqi conflict John Nichols writes:

John Paul II was an early, consistent, passionate and always outspoken critic of the president's scheming to invade Iraq. The Pope went so far as to meet with world leaders who were close to Bush, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in a high-profile attempt to prevent the war. Finally, the Pope sent a special envoy to Washington -- Cardinal Pio Laghi, who has long been close to the Bush family -- to try and derail the administration's rush to war.

When the war began, aides said that the Pope was "very disappointed and very sad" that Bush had ignored appeals to give peace a chance.

President Bush was reelected in November, but now his popularity is at its lowest point of his Presidency. This is rather unusual. Usually Presidents have high popularity after their re-election, but Bush's popularity is now around 44-45%. His polling numbers at this point are far below previous Presidents. President Reagan was the closest at 56%, for instance.

A big factor in his low popularity is the handling of the Iraqi war, but much of it is taking stands on issues that are at odds with American public opinion. 82% of the public disapproves of his interference of the Terry Schiavo tragedy, many feeling the government interfered in what was a family matter, and a majority of Americans disapprove of his proposed changes to social security. A majority of Americans also now think that the war in Iraq was a mistake.

Pope John Paul II gained popularity around the world by seeming to be consistent on issues of life and support of the poor. Even if people disagreed with him on policy issues, he seemed to care about them. President Bush could learn something from the Pope's empathy and humility.

by John Legler, Guest Columnist
April 8, 2005