The past few weeks have seen Pope John Paul II as a regular feature on the evening news and in the daily papers. It all started with his historic and supremely mystifying apology for many of the 'sins' committed by Catholics in the name of God and Church, and then moved onto his equally historic and mystifying journey to the Middle East in order to trace the life of Jesus of Nazareth and embark on a path to reconciliation with Jews and Arabs alike.

I am inclined to say that it has been a courageous and monumental couple of weeks for the Roman Catholic Church. However, I am not inclined to say this with much conviction, for in truth, I don't know how to take all of it.

I keep thinking about George Carlin playing Cardinal Glick in Kevin Smith's latest film Dogma. In the film, Carlin's character attempts to replace the traditional crucifix icon with the much tamer "Buddy Jesus" in order to change the image of the church, making it more friendly and acceptable to a '90's world.' (It is obviously not the 90's any longer, but for all intents and purposes, the trends born and raised in that decade are only now coming to adulthood, therefore this is still very much a 90's world.)

We have witnessed over the course of the last decade a host of apologies from various institutions, public and private, for their wrongdoings in the past. Here in Canada, hardly a week goes by without the government making some type of formal apology for what it did or didn't do, and throwing money at various special interest groups in order to try and make up for it. It's all part of the 90's trend in showing the understanding, sensitive, progressive side, and that's just it -- it is a trend.

In the social and political climate of the world we live in, it is death not to be seen as progressive and understanding. And anyone who has had even small dealings with churches of any kind will know that they are the most political of worldly institutions. I watch the Pope on the news and I think that he is doing great things taking the Roman Catholic Church into new and exciting arenas. Yet I can't help but think that the Roman Catholic Church has been weaving the sheer fabric of public relations veils for centuries longer than R.J. Reynolds CEO's have been denying they knew about the addictiveness of nicotine. The cross is as much a brand logo as the Nike 'swoosh,' and the Church is as concerned with their spiritual consumer appeal as any company is with the products they sell.

Is this new path to reconciliation anything more than a desperate ploy to improve their image, to bring the Church 'into the new millennium' with all of its feel-good, wishy-washy nonsense? Is it anything more than a slightly subtler version of Dogma's "Buddy Jesus"? In a world where religious traditions are being tossed aside in ever increasing numbers and the Church's power and influence are threatened, can this interpretation of recent events be ignored?

To these questions (and many more) I do not know the answer. In fact, in many ways I do not even want to know the answer, because I am very excited about what Pope John Paul II is doing. I think it is timely, valuable and important. A friend of mine said very recently regarding the Papal apology, "This is almost as big as the second coming of Christ," -- and he was very right. These are weighty issues we are witnessing, and the future of the Roman Catholic Church and thus all of Christendom is being shaped before our eyes.

Copyright © 2000 Darren Anderson All Rights Reserved

Darren C. Anderson is descended from wealthy aristocratic Norwegian landowners, but bears no resemblance to them in form or deed.