JOHN PAUL'S RELATIONSHIP - SEXUAL OR NOT ?
TODAY the world is talking about Pope John Paul's thirty year "intense" relationship with his married friend Anna Teresa Tymieniecka.
Naturally people are asking whether or not that intense relationship was, at any time, physical and sexual.
Of course the Vatican wants us to believe that the relationship was perfectly "chaste". In fact the Vatican are playing the relationship down completely and saying that this friendship was only one of many chaste friendships John Paul had with women.
They would - wouldn't they?
But the evidence suggests otherwise.
John Paul and Anna Teresa corresponded with each other intensely for over thirty years.
John Paul and Anna Teresa went camping together.
John Paul and Anna Teresa went skiing together.
John Paul and Anna Teresa wrote a book together.
John Paul stayed in Anna Teresa's house in the USA.
I do not believe that he had such an intense relationship during his life with any other woman or man.
John Paul, unlike other popes, was obviously a heterosexual. Did he have what it takes to sleep in a tent out in the woods with a woman he obviously loved and avoid intimacy? He could have done. And if he did that would make him an exceptionally strong (or foolish) man.
I'm reminded of the story of Saint Philip Neri who at an advanced age was asked to hear a woman'c confession in a room. He left the door open and insisted on putting a table between him and the woman. When he was asked about it he replied: "I might be in my 80's but I still have blood in my veins".
The reason that this story is important is this:
If John Paul only had a chaste relationship with Anna Teresa then he was quite within his rights to preach about sexual morality.
If not - then he was a hypocrite!
Naturally people are asking whether or not that intense relationship was, at any time, physical and sexual.
Of course the Vatican wants us to believe that the relationship was perfectly "chaste". In fact the Vatican are playing the relationship down completely and saying that this friendship was only one of many chaste friendships John Paul had with women.
They would - wouldn't they?
But the evidence suggests otherwise.
John Paul and Anna Teresa corresponded with each other intensely for over thirty years.
John Paul and Anna Teresa went camping together.
John Paul and Anna Teresa went skiing together.
John Paul and Anna Teresa wrote a book together.
John Paul stayed in Anna Teresa's house in the USA.
I do not believe that he had such an intense relationship during his life with any other woman or man.
John Paul, unlike other popes, was obviously a heterosexual. Did he have what it takes to sleep in a tent out in the woods with a woman he obviously loved and avoid intimacy? He could have done. And if he did that would make him an exceptionally strong (or foolish) man.
I'm reminded of the story of Saint Philip Neri who at an advanced age was asked to hear a woman'c confession in a room. He left the door open and insisted on putting a table between him and the woman. When he was asked about it he replied: "I might be in my 80's but I still have blood in my veins".
The main thing that
throws suspicion on John Paul and Anna Teresa’ relationship is the attitude of
both the Vatican and the Polish museum where their letters between the two are
housed in secrecy.
If the relationship was
completely “innocent” why did the Vatican go to every length to airbrush Anna
Teresa from John Paul’s life? And why did the Vatican go to every length to
keep her away from his funeral?
If everything was
“kosher” then surely the Vatican should have used the relationship as an
example to all its celibate priests and bishops as to how to have “chaste”
relationships with men and women. They could have made John Paul the Patron
Saint of Chaste Friendships.
If there is nothing
“revealing” in the letters between John Paul and Anna Teresa then why has the
Polish museum kept them closed to the public, to scholars and to the media?
And why did the Polish
museum only give John Paul’s letters to the BBC for its Panorama programme and
REFUSDE to let them see Anna Teresa’ letters?
It is the so called “protectors”
of John Paul and his reputation that are causing speculation, rumour and doubt
about the nature of the relationship.
As it stands there is
doubt and speculation over everything.
But we all know the
truth will one day come out.
It always does!
All it will take will
be the election of a Polish government that is not as Pro Catholic as the
present one.
The reason that this story is important is this:
If John Paul only had a chaste relationship with Anna Teresa then he was quite within his rights to preach about sexual morality.
If not - then he was a hypocrite!
I agree with your blog.
ReplyDeleteI watched the documentary last night, and it changed my mind about the canonized
pontiff. Even if currently there is no available evidence of sexual impropriety, the
relationship (perhaps 'affair' is a more accurate word) was inappropriate because the
woman became emotionally more attached to Karol W. than to her husband. On this
level, the relationship was a form of adultery. Anna was clearly in love with Karol W.
and made this plain to him...at which point he should have ended the relationship. But
he didn't.
No wonder the Church wanted Anna silent. And no wonder it tried to airbrush her out
of John Paul's history.
This is a story that won't go away in a hurry.
I agree that this story will not go away.
DeleteI think that the letters should have been available to the commission that fast tracked JP to sainthood with indecent haste.
Your point about "emotional adultery" is perfectly valid.
The whole "Sainthood Industry" is a scandal. It is akin to Martin Luther's indulgences scandal.
"But I tell you. He who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her" (Matthew: 5:38)
DeleteAnon @ 16:48, ......On basis of that quote I s'pose I'm well damned!
DeleteBut could my 'salvation' be another quote, you know, the one about "the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak", , ....'cos I am well into my '70's!
MMM
How can an atheist be damned? :-)
DeleteDon't you mean "the flesh is willing and the spirit is weak?" Saint Philip Neri was notorious for his sense of humour. Pretending at 80 that women were still a danger to him. They probably never were. Boys more likely.
DeleteHis followers - THE ORATORIANS - certainly generally prefer boys
DeleteDamned if I do, or damned if I don't.
DeleteWill it make me 'believe'? 'fraid that it won't.
So to Anon, at 15 past 5,
I'll stay non believer so long as alive.
And quoting Matthew was quite tongue in cheek,
more 'in my dreams', for the flesh IS quite weak!
But if perchance, you have me believe,
I'll welcome such proof that I can perceive
objective reality, not religion's minion.
So far what's shown is wishful opinion.
MMM
PS. Matthew 26:41 btw.
I was at Pope John Paul's gathering for young people in Galway in 1979 - in fact you brought us there Fr Pat in 4 buses from St Peters.
ReplyDeleteThe two warm up clerics for John Paul were:
1. Bishop Eamon Casey who whacked it into Annie Murphy and produced a son.
2. Father Michael Cleary who whacked it into Phylis Hamilton and had at least two children with her.
And now it looks as if the MAIN ACT that day was whacking it into Anna Teresa in a tent in the woods!
What fools us Catholic have been.
Gerry. Andersonstown.
Indeed Gerry. "Do what I say but do not do what I do".
DeleteAt least you've seen the light now.
I think many people reject even the possibility that this relationship might have had a sexual component, because they just don't want to believe that their beloved JP11 was capable of such a betrayal, not only of Anna-
DeleteTeresa'a poor husband, but of his own beliefs and the Church.
These people remind me of those who, for a long time, flatly rejected the
accusations that priests had raped children, until the evidence for them became overwhelming.
"In turning over in my mind the contents of your last letters, I have put myself into great agony, not knowing how to interpret them, whether to my disadvantage, as you show in some places, or to my advantage, as I understand them in some others, beseeching you earnestly to let me know expressly your whole mind as to as to the love between us two."
ReplyDeleteSound familiar? The opening lines of the first of 17 love letters from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn held by the Vatican library. We must assume that they were stolen from her. It cannot be that she sold them to the Vatican for a seven-figure sum before she lost her head.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431359/pope-john-paul-ii-letters-women-celibacy
ReplyDeleteYou have such an interesting blog. Thanks for sharing. I'm a self-help blog author and reading blogs is my hobby and I randomly found your blog. I enjoyed reading your posts. All the best for your future blogging endeavors. Please keep in touch with me in Twitter, @selfhelpnemonik and Google+, +sridharchandrasekaran
ReplyDeleteIt is in the nature of these close chaste relationships to be misunderstood by those who are less virtuous, or who are not living up to the demands of chastity themselves. Many of the saints of history have, like Saint John Paul, had their close friendships with women and men misconstrued, often by those who wish to attack the Church. Think of St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila and St Francis and St Clare. Pope John Paul II had an exquisite gift for friendship and for making those close to him think that they were the centre of his world. As his life long friend and confident Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz said last week: 'Those who are looking for bad things in the heart of this man will keep looking and never find anything bad because his heart was full of goodness.'
ReplyDelete