The Pope’s Commitment

John Paul II took many messages to the people of Latin America on his sixth trip to the continent, his 25th journey abroad in the six years during which he has ruled the Roman Catholic Church.

To the faithful of his church he sounded a stern call to the disciplined respect of hierarchical authority. That was an important issue for him. Half his flock inhabits Latin America.

He preached a strong sermon to the people of the four nations that he visited, and through them to all people. “The cruel logic of violence leads nowhere,” he warned, cautioning against class warfare, “the beguiling attraction of materialism and consumerism” and “false ideologies.”

Some people might have been disappointed that he did not launch, from the soil of those Latin American nations, some new peace initiative for the warring countries of Central America. “It is not necessary to introduce the Pope when the bishops are sufficient,” he told reporters when they pressed him about dialogue in El Salvador.

His denunciation of violence was a peace appeal clearly addressed to all--to Sendero Luminoso irregulars in Peru as well as to the CIA in Washington, to death squads and repressive troops as well as guerrillas and contras.

But even as he made clear the things that he is against, he emphasized at every turn the priority among the things that he is for: the poor, so terribly prevalent along the path that he walked. And mixed with his words of comfort for the miserable were stern lectures to the governments and the elites, calling them to action against the “unacceptable poverty” of the place.

That identification with the impoverished masses, that commitment to justice for them, was central to his mission of peace, for in the inequity and neglect are the roots of the continent’s disorder. Perhaps there was no stronger stand for peace that he could have taken.