God's Politician: Pope John Paul II, the Catholic Church, and the New World Order

Although occasionally outdated--for example, the first three chapters, on the U.S.S.R and President Gorbachev, are written in present tense--the thrust of this book, that the Catholic Church under John Paul II is retrogressive, is forcefully realized. Willey, a ``cradle Catholic'' who has covered the Vatican for the BBC since the Pope's first pilgrimage to Poland in l979, acknowledges he is ``simultaneously fascinated and appalled'' by John Paul II's Universal Church. Readers will feel likewise, even if annoyed by the author's demeaning references to the Pope as King Karol or simply as Wojtyla. Reviewing a pontificate in which politics and religion are ``inseparately linked,'' Willey cites the Church's condemnation of birth control, in disregard to the correlation between world poverty and population growth; and its stance on AIDS, making no concession to ``palliatives'' such as the condom. He criticizes the pontiff's imposition of orthodoxy and his ``strong-arm methods'' with such theological dissidents as Swiss Hans Kung. The Pope's foreign travels are covered in detail, Vatican finances somewhat less so. Few will quarrel with Willey's assertions that, concurrent with Islam's threatened ascendancy over Catholicism as the religion with the largest worldwide membership, disaffection among Catholics and decline of vocations in the West are attributable to John Paul II's pontificate. Photos not seen by PW . (Jan.)