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Yeah, it's been clear for a while that Ratty is way to the right of Wojtyla. At least as conservative on the sexual stuff, and far more so on everything else.  In Poland he's been systematically appointing bishops from the hard right wing of the church, while JPII tended to take them from the middle and liberal wings. The two exceptions over the past few years, ironically to the two top posts weren't really his choice. He appointed JP's old top adviser to the archdiocese of Krakow (similar to JPII's appointment of the right wing Glemp to the Warsaw post), and in Warsaw he appointed a moderate in a last minute scramble after it turned out that his preferred extreme right wing choice had worked as an informer for the secret police.
by MarekNYC on Fri Jan 23rd, 2009 at 09:23:58 AM EST
Ratzinger was Wojtila's Chief Inquisitor so it is not exactly a surprise that he's more of a hardliner. After all, Ratzinger is a theologian where Wojtila was a communicator.

Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Jan 25th, 2009 at 09:50:07 AM EST
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I always had the impression that JP2 and the Rattafarian were playing good cop - bad cop, but you seem to imply otherwise.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Jan 26th, 2009 at 02:40:41 PM EST
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On the gender/sexual stuff I think you're right. On the rest - no. JPII had a genuine commitment to religious tolerance, democracy, and reaching out to people of different views (as long as they weren't part of the Catholic hierarchy broadly understood - no place for democracy there). He began reaching out to secular leftists disenchanted with communism early on in his period as archbishop, on the grounds that regardless of their theological differences, they shared many broader social and political values. This was a rather controversial policy within the Polish Church whose conservative wing doesn't really see any difference between a liberal (neo or not), social democrat, or communist - all heirs to the French Revolution and proponents of modernity.

I also think he was more left wing in his socio-economic views, though that's harder to be certain of. The Church offers a dual critique of capitalism - one has to do with the evils of individualism and liberalism, the other with economic inequality. Both Popes speak of both aspects, but JPII tended to place more emphasis on the latter than Benedict, particularly post '89.

by MarekNYC on Mon Jan 26th, 2009 at 03:06:26 PM EST
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