Such information—that John Paul II knew about pedophilia among Catholic priests—is a shock and a deep wound for many Polish women and men. People want to preserve an unstained fragment of goodness within themselves, to believe that something exists beyond evil, that perfect holiness exists. John Paul II played that role for them. The Polish Church built this image over many years.
People carry within themselves and protect the image of this man, who looks out from photographs, paintings and publication covers with the gentle gaze of a parent who loves unconditionally. Almost like God. And how are these same people now supposed to deal with the information coming from the Vatican and the media? No one prepared you, dear Reader, for this. And no one will offer you a helping hand. You already feel that you have to take one side or the other of the barricade. You can choose hatred and condemnation, or denial and fierce defense of Karol Wojtyła.
No one sits beside you with compassion and asks what was done to you, how you feel about it, what it stirred in you, or what hurt you the most. Instead, it is straight into the assault—go after Józio (Karol)—or beat up the leftists and antichrists. Or perhaps you want to quietly cry over what you are now losing: your faith in the holiness idealized for years?
I remember an initiative by young women from one of the secondary schools in Bolesławiec. They wrote quotations expressing sympathy and love for John Paul II and published photos of themselves with those quotations on social media. What are those girls thinking and going through now? Is anyone asking them? I still hear the words of an acquaintance who wrote that she continues to hope it is a mistake, that someone will say John Paul II knew nothing about the crimes and sexual offenders in the Church.
In October of that year, several dozen people danced and sang for John Paul II to mark the 100th anniversary of the Pope’s birth. They paid tribute to him. These people will not stop loving Karol Wojtyła overnight. Will anyone take care of them? Of them and their now-confused feelings. Will the Church once again use them as cannon fodder in the fight against “leftism”?
For people who have approached the Pope with distance and caution for years, things are now much easier. For those who did not cry when he died, but listened critically to what he instructed the faithful to do. It is easier for such people to face the cruel information coming from the Vatican.
However, I am asking about you, dear Reader, and about you all who love John Paul II. How do you feel? I am sorry; I am not happy about this at all. I would have preferred him to have been a good person. Exactly as good as you saw him. Then there would have been no victims.