Jesus told us, popes have told us, parents have told us to seek the truth, and the truth shall make us free. Well, yes, of course. Truth may make us free, but it comes at a cost, and we, too often, shrink from paying the bill. Next year. Or the one after that. Not now. Inconvenient, now. Too painful, now. But if not now, when?

If we take a look at a collection of essays by Thomas Merton, presented after his death in a book called Echoing Silence, on the Vocation of Writing, edited by Robert Inchausti, on p. 76, Merton offers a solid foundation for communication, without which we seek in vain for truth.

He says we must seek communication at the deepest level, which includes “communion” shared at the “preverbal” and “postverbal” levels. Translated, he means that before coming together to exchange ideas,.we must do our homework, learn about the people with whom we will be speaking, and after our meeting, follow up with more communication, lest the good will evaporates too suddenly to be effective, much like marbles glancing off one another.

Back on p. 54, the writer speaks of what society can expect of the artist in its effort to arrive at truth, and I am going on the assumption that every human being has a touch of the artist within him or her, whether for painting, sculpting, writing, building homes, erecting bridges, healing the sick, whether people or nations, etc. Merton explains:

Society benefits when the artist liberates himself from its concrete or seductive pressures. Only when he is obligated to his fellow man in the concrete, rather than society in the abstract, can the artist have anything to say that will be of value to others. His art then becomes accidentally a work of love and justice.

A doctor will observe a patient, study x-rays, blood tests, and make a diagnosis before suggesting a remedy for an illness. But, what happens if the x-ray machine is broken, or the blood tests compromised? There is no underlying truth upon which to base a diagnosis; truth will not be served to either the physician or the patient.

So is it within the Church. Countless Catholics have been at a loss to understand Pope John Paul II’s antipathy toward the United States, and to figure out if this is Pope Benedict’s XVI’s hidden feeling, as well. For me, the first question was answered by the writer, David Yallop, in his book, The Power and the Glory.

He relates this experience: In July, Karol Wojtyla went on a second visit to the United States to attend the International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia. While there, Dr. Anna Teresa Tymienicka, Wojtyla’s co-author on the English version of his philosophical work, The Acting Person, took it upon herself to help his career.

In Poland, Yallop tells us, the book had been largely dismissed by Catholic philosophers, but after Dr. Anna Teresa had helped him with the English version, he was able to express himself in such a way as to be better received.

Dr. Anna Teresa was determined he would be well accepted in the United States, and arranged for him to speak at Harvard, where he was introduced as “the next pope”. There would be a White House meeting with President Ford, and an extensive PR campaign to the media.

Anna-Teresa considered Wojtyla to be “Christ-like” and full of wisdom. However, she was concerned over his ignorance of Western democracy and its force for power against Communism, convinced as he was that Communist rule in Eastern Europe could not be defeated, and that the United States was devoid of morality.

If Wojtyla’s attitude became public knowledge, Anna-Teresa feared it would cost him the papacy. She was highly successful in containing the facts, but when he returned home, he freely criticized American culture and what he perceived as its shallowness, expressed in this interview with “Tygodnik Powszechny”

The question of belonging to a nation of fathers and forefathers reaches deep into the conscience of man, requiring truth about himself. Not accepting this truth, man suffers a basic need and is condemned to some kind of conformism....This is a real problem in the structure of the American society. The extent of the problem is demonstrated today by the so-called “Black Question.” I have not noticed any average American even of the WASP type express the words “American nation” with the same conviction that an average Pole in Poland speaks of the Polish nation.

Yallop commented that at the time these remarks were made, Cardinal Wojtyla had not met a single “average” American, nor did he express any desire to do so.

After his election to the papacy, the Vatican Press released the story of Pope John Paul’s wartime assistance to Jews, which simply wasn’t true. Yallop asserts that had the lies contained in the release been exposed, the Communists would have had a field day, and it would have taken years for the Church to have overcome the damage.

Yallop tells us that the Pope had never once lifted a hand to save a single life or assist any of a race marked for mass extermination. Work at the East German Chemical Works merited him the special protection of the Third Reich because it was deemed vital to the war effort.

While the Pope never instigated the untruths heralding his personal contributions to the Jews, neither did he deny them.

He was busy placing his signature upon his reign as pope, contrary to much Pope John Paul I had at least been studying. The new pope would embrace the law of celibacy for priests, and demand that priests, nuns and other religious be in uniform at all times. Post-Vatican Two collegiality would remain an allusion.

Luciani, Yallop tells us, had believed strongly that a form of artificial contraception should be available to the Roman Catholic faithful. Wojtyla told his Secretary of State not to arrange another meeting with the Committee on the subject ..not this year, next year, not ever.

Cardinal Cody was to have been relieved of his duties in Chicago. He remained in power, to the despair of millions in the diocese.

Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was to have been dismissed as the head of the Vatican Bank. He was kept on and, also, acted as the pope’s body-guard on trips abroad. Eventually, he was relieved of his duties at the Bank and retired to Cicero, Illinois, where he died.

It is amazing to ordinary Catholics how easily truth has been put aside in the interest of expediency within the Church, and how painful is that realization for those who have loved and trusted her throughout their lifetimes.

Lord, help us, in the midst of discouragement, to look at our saints of yesterday and today, members of both the clergy and laity, and find in their generosity and loving service inspiration to rise from our knees and begin again to follow You, the Truth and Love of our lives. Amen.

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