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Again and again he preached against materialism, exhorting the rich to share their wealth with the poor, nationally and internationally, while reminding the poor that God loves the rich too. New York Times Columnist James Reston noted that, with the possible exception of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, John Paul "condemned the moral anarchy, sexual license and material consumerism in this country more than any social critic. Yet somehow, despite his condemnation of our spiritual bewilderment, he has been received here with more applause than any religious or secular leader in the world."
Part of the explanation, surely, was the fact that John Paul did not speak in tones of condemnation; nor did he threaten God's vengeance. Rather, he appealed to his audiences to be true to nobler qualities in themselves, telling them in effect you can do better than that, and you know it.
A great deal of the Pope's message was not specifically Catholic; large chunks of what he said could have been uttered by other Christian leaders. And the Pope appealed quite specifically, and effectively, to members of other faiths; at Battery Park on the lower tip of Manhattan, he addressed the nation's Jews, saying, "Shalom—peace be with you." Perhaps partly to aid this ecumenical appeal, he constantly emphasized a humble manner. The contrast with Paul VI, the only other Pope to visit the U.S. (for only 14 hours in 1965, primarily to make a U.N. address), was striking. Paul frequently used the papal "we." John Paul clearly preferred "I," and once made "we" sound not imperial but conspiratorial. When those cheering youths delayed his speech in Madison Square Garden, he told them gleefully: "We shall destroy the schedule."
All this reflects conscious decision and a major development: John Paul, who is perfectly aware of his charisma, is quite deliberately converting the papacy into a personal office, seeking to lead not by the weight of his authority but by the force of personal example of humanity and faith. It is a strategy as radical in its way as some of the Pope's doctrinal views are conservative, but well adapted to John Paul's personality and the world's eagerness for leadership.
As he toured America, the Pope artfully carried out a strategy that he had planned well in advance of leaving the Vatican. Says Jerzy Turowicz, editor in chief of Cracow's respected Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny and a man who has known Karol Wojtyla for more than 30 years: "He looks at the American church and sees groups talking to each other using different 'languages.' They cannot understand each other. He would like to reunite the church. He is for pluralism, but with some limits, so that it does not verge on anarchy. He would like to restore church discipline and obedience and reverence for the institution. Perhaps what he faces is a problem of language, how to express his vision without seeming to take the part of a rigid conservative."
John Paul certainly made a skillful and impressive try to solve that problem. Said the Rev. Avery Dulles, son of John Foster Dulles and a theologian at Catholic University: "There is no lack