Holy See–Soviet Union relations

John Paul II has long been credited with being instrumental in bringing down communism in Catholic Eastern Europe by being the spiritual inspiration behind its downfall and a catalyst for peaceful revolution in Poland. In February 2004, the Pope was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize to honor his life's work in opposing communism and in helping to reshape the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, there has been much debate among historians on the realistic significance of John Paul II's opposition to communism in the Soviet regime's eventual fall. While most scholars agree that his intervention was influential in ending the Polish Communist Party's rule, there is much disagreement in his role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Historians differ also on their opinions on the significance of the influence of John Paul II, as opposed to that of other economic and political factors. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the relative importance of John Paul II's role in the collapse of Eastern European communism by analyzing the historical events from his election to the papacy in 1978 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

On October 16, 1978, Karol Wojtyla was elected to the papacy. As the first-ever Polish pope and the first non-Italian to be elected to the papacy in over four centuries, his election came as somewhat of a surprise to many Catholic scholars worldwide. Wojtyla chose to take the name John Paul II, after his predecessor, John Paul I, who was pope for barely a month before his death on September 29, 1978. Religious and political leaders alike wondered what it would mean for a citizen of a communist country to become pope. Poles, on the other hand, rejoiced at the news.[7]

Having lived under both the Nazi and the Soviet regimes, the new pope was unwavering in his opposition to both fascism and communism. While the Vatican had always officially opposed communism because of its atheism, Pope John Paul II lost no time in making his theological opposition into an active policy of confrontation. In his first encyclical, he pinpointed religious freedom as the paramount human right and argued that it was the duty of the Church to protect that right. Simultaneously, he rejected the general Cold War diplomacy of appeasement by removing or demoting Church leaders who had enacted the policy of Ostpolitik, or quiet negotiation with communist leaders.[8] Pope John Paul II spoke out publicly against communism.

Despite warnings from Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, not to interfere in Poland, the new pope visited his homeland within the first year of his papacy. On June 2, 1979, John Paul II made his first papal visit to Poland, and three million people came to the capital to greet him.[9] The pope held Mass publicly in the Victory Square, Warsaw, which was usually reserved for state-sponsored events. In the Lenin Shipyard, John Paul II held Mass in memory of the Polish workers who had been killed in a 1970 strike and carried a large wooden cross which some took to symbolize the burden of communism on the Polish people.[10] The historian John Lewis Gaddis identified the 1979 papal visit as the "trigger that led to communism's collapse worldwide" because of its profound effect on the morale of the Polish people.[11]

The trade Union Solidarity emerged in Poland in 1980 under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. The emergence of the Catholic anticommunist movement has been causally linked by many historians, to Pope John Paul II's first papal visit to Poland in 1979. Indeed, John Paul II publicly defended the strikers and ordered the Polish Church to aid them in a message to Stefan Wyszyński, the archbishop of Warsaw and Gniezno.[12] Most previous Polish revolutionary movements had been secular in nature, but Solidarity centred on the religious symbols of the cross, the rosary, and the Madonna.[13]

In January 1981, Walesa visited Rome, met with the pope for the first time and received his official recognition and support.[14]

On May 13, 1981 in St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II was shot four times, hitting him in the abdomen and his left hand, by would-be-assassin Mehmet Ali Agca. Many scholars have claimed that the assassination attempt was part of a conspiracy by the Soviet Union, but that theory has never been proved. If true, the assassination attempt would reveal Soviet fears of the Pope's influence in the Eastern Bloc and his assistance in the Polish Solidarity movement. However, the pope survived.[15]

Initially, the Polish communists resisted the Solidarity rebels and imprisoned many of the movement's leaders between 1981 and 1983, but over the course of the 1980s, the movement gained more power and thus more legitimacy. Consequently, in 1989, round-table talks were held between the leaders of Solidarity, the Soviet Communists and the Catholic Church. In 1990, Walesa was elected president of Poland and began large-scale market reforms. By 1992, Soviet troops had begun to leave Poland.[16] That trend was paralleled by demonstrations and revolts in several other Soviet-controlled states.

There has been much speculation by historians about the relationship between Pope John Paul II and US President Ronald Reagan.[17] Both leaders kept up a regular letter correspondence and met in Rome in June 1982 and in June 1987. That interaction has caused many historians to believe that both leaders' co-operation strengthened the anticommunist cause.[18] However, other historians, like George Weigel, have argued that both men were able to make their own individual political achievements. According to that view, the United States, under the leadership of Reagan, presented an economic challenge to the Soviet Union, which was entirely independent of Vatican influence.[19] Therefore, Reagan's role in the collapse of the Soviet economy may have been more influential than that of Pope John Paul II.

On December 1, 1989, the pope met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was the first time that a Catholic pope had met with a Soviet leader. Both leaders agreed to establish diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the Soviet Union. Gorbachev also pledged to allow greater religious freedom within the Soviet Union. Many saw the meeting as a symbolic end to the philosophical conflict between the Soviet Union and the Vatican.[20] It certainly showed a growing willingness on both sides to co-operate.

Even though the pope was primarily a religious leader, his leadership also had significant political consequences.[21] John Paul II clearly used his Polish identity and connections to bring about the collapse of the nation's communist regime.[22] While the intervention of Pope John Paul II was undoubtedly an essential factor in the ending of communism in Poland, how significant the pope's leadership was in the rest of Eastern Europe and within the Soviet Union itself is less clear.[11] The efforts of anti-communist leaders, such as Pope John Paul II and US President Ronald Reagan did not make the fall of the Soviet Union inevitable. However, both leaders hastened the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism, particularly in Eastern Europe.[23]

• Michel d'Herbigny S.J.
• Religion in the Soviet Union
• Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
• Persecution of Christians in Warsaw Pact countries

Notes