Saint John Paul II: 1.700 professors respond to 'wave of accusations' against the Polish pope

Hundreds of professors have signed an appeal in defense of St. John Paul II following the criticisms of the Polish pope in the wake of the McCarrick Report.

The "unprecedented" appeal was signed by 1.700 professors from Polish universities and research institutes. Signatories include Hanna Suchocka, Poland's first female premier, former foreign minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld, physicists Andrzej Staruszkiewicz and Krzysztof Meissner, and director Krzysztof Zanussi.

"A long impressive list of John Paul II's merits and achievements is today being questioned and canceled," the professors said in the appeal.

"For young people born after his death, the deformed, false and belittled image of the pope could become the only one they will know."

“We appeal to all people of good will to come to their senses. John Paul II, like any other person, deserves to be spoken honestly. By defaming and rejecting John Paul II, we do great harm to ourselves, not to him “.

The professors said they were responding to accusations made against John Paul II, pope from 1978 to 2005, following the publication last month of a Vatican report on the disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The Polish pope appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington in 2000 and made him cardinal a year later.

The professors said: “In recent days we have seen a wave of accusations leveled against John Paul II. He is accused of covering up acts of pedophilia among Catholic priests and there are requests for the removal of his public memorials. These acts are intended to transform the image of a person worthy of the highest esteem into one who has been complicit in repugnant crimes “.

“A pretext for making radical requests was the publication by the Holy See of the 'Report on the institutional knowledge and decision-making process of the Holy See relating to the former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick'. However, a careful analysis of the report does not indicate any fact that could constitute a basis for leveling the above-mentioned accusations against John Paul II “.

The professors continued: "There is a huge gap between promoting one of the most serious crimes and making bad decisions on staff due to inadequate knowledge or completely false information."

"The saying Theodore McCarrick was trusted by many eminent people, including the presidents of the United States, while he was able to deeply hide the dark criminal side of his life."

"All this leads us to suppose that the slanders and attacks without source against the memory of John Paul II are motivated by a preconceived theory that saddens us and deeply worries us".

Professors recognized the importance of carefully investigating the lives of significant historical figures. But they asked for "balanced reflection and honest analysis" rather than "emotional" or "ideologically motivated" criticism.

They stressed that St. John Paul II had "a positive influence on the history of the world". They cited his role in the collapse of the Communist bloc, his defense of the sanctity of life and his "revolutionary acts" such as his 1986 visit to a synagogue in Rome, his interreligious summit in Assisi in the same year, and his appeal , in the year 2000, for the forgiveness of sins committed in the name of the Church.

“Another great gesture, particularly important for us, was the rehabilitation of Galileo, which the pope had already anticipated in 1979 during a solemn commemoration of Albert Einstein on the centenary of his birth,” they wrote.

"This rehabilitation, carried out at the request of John Paul II by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences 13 years later, was a symbolic recognition of the autonomy and importance of scientific research".

The professors 'appeal follows a speech earlier this week by Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, president of the Polish Bishops' Conference. In a December 7 statement, Gądecki deplored what he called "unprecedented attacks" against St. John Paul II. He insisted that the pope's "top priority" was to fight clerical abuse and protect young people.

Last month, the college of the rector of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin also said that the criticisms had no factual basis, complaining about "the fallacious accusations, slander and slander leveled recently against our patron saint."

The rector and vice-chancellors of the university in eastern Poland commented: “The subjective theses expressed by some circles are not at all supported by objective facts and evidence - for example, presented in the report of the Holy See's Secretariat of State on Teodoro McCarrick. "

In their appeal, the 1.700 professors argued that, had the denigration of John Paul II not been contested, a "fundamentally false" image of Polish history would have been established in the minds of young Poles.

They said the most serious consequence of this would be "the belief of the next generation that there is no reason to support a community with such a past."

The organizers of the initiative described the appeal as "an unprecedented event, which brought the academic communities together and exceeded our wildest expectations".