"The Beautification of John Paul II and His Islamic-Vatican Performance Scorecard" Jeong Chun Phuoc, Competitive Legal Analyst, 1st May 2011

Jeong Chun phuoc, Competitive Legal Analyst, 1st May 2011

A Prologue

Pope Benedict XVI took the honour to beatify Pope John Paul II before 1.5 million faithful in St. Peter's Square-one step short of sainthood- Catholic Church's highest honors [1] . But why not a straight move to sainthood [2] ?

Islamic-Vatican Performance Scorecard of John Paul II

Under John Paul's 27-year administration, he had achieved many difficult tasks-where Bush failed-and revived the true meaning of democracy scarred by America's unilateral double standard foreign affairs towards communism and the Muslim/Arab World.

Syariah Competitive Analysis

Syariah Competitive Analysis I

The fall of communism was bad for the communist world: bad for Russia, Vietnam and China. But it was also bad for the Muslims/Arab Nations.

America now hold almost all bragging rights as the world most arrogant superpower where it gets to dictate the shape of the rule of law; Russia and China had to resort to economic measures to contain America's double treatment.

This is not to say that John Paul's period was without any major hiccups. John Paul II struggled to "...restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope," as quoted by Benedict in his homily when referring to John Paul II.

The needless restoration work was not only unnecessary, but it was not what John Paul II had anticipated when the scandal of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado's child abuse, drugs, and financial mismanagement, etc nearly blew his papacy to pieces. Father Marcial Maciel Degollado was instrumental in the formation of the Legion of Christ movement and the organisation Regnum Christi. John Paul Father Marcial Maciel Degollado did not put him in good light. Albino Luciani's sympathetic position towards the "pill" method as a "natural" method of regulating births did not go well within the Vatican community [3] .

His failure to correct the wrongs of John Paul I(Albino Luciani), unresolved accusation of Albino Luciani's religious indifferentism and false ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council [4] ,etc further cast doubt on John Paul II's actual performance as an enlightened Pope.

His Islamic Scorecard Performance vis-avis the muslims/Arab Nations was not that rosy either. His failure to tackle Israel's manifest abuse of human rights-against numerous UN's Resolutions and utter incapacity to rein in America's Guantanamo violations of international human rights protocols almost invalid any proposal of beautification.

Syariah Competitive Analysis II

Islamic-Vatican Performance Scorecard of Pope Benedict XVI

However, Pope Benedict had to do something when he took over John Paul II. He could not criticise John Paul II simply because of the legacy left behind by John Paul II. John Paul II's aura super-ceded the new Pope Benedict XVI in many departments at home and abroad. Muslims and Arab nations around the world still cherish John Paul II's over the new kid on the block ie Pope Benedict XVI and doing the beautification task was in fact Pope Benedict XVI's saving moment!

Without real world track record to rely upon, Pope Benefit in fact find out the hard way that if he had been hard upon John Paul II, he might further damage the 'good restoration' work performed by John Paul II. After all, Pope Benedict does not any meaningful Vatican-Islam-Jewish performance record that could compete with John Paul II under the circumstances from a Competitive Legal Analysis(CLA)perspective!

Pope Benefict XVI's Vatican guest list for John Paul II mass immediately stirred up a hornet's nest: controversial Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Hungary's right-wing prime minister Vicktor Orban, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,etc and that inculdes EU leaders who knew of the list but took part as well [5] .

Executive Conclusion

Pope Benefict XVI's Sunday's engagement of the beautification process was a good PR move to elevate him to the next step of his yet unceremonious process-to proclaim to the world that he alone seems to possess the power to grant sainthood to John Paul II. Already under severe criticisms, Pope Benedict must strive to not only rectify his apparently bad PR moves, but he must also reformulate a more holistic Vatican policy in preserving the sanctity of Christianity and Christianity's sincerity in returning the favour to the muslim/Arab worlds since the Era of the Crusaders(1095-1291) from the First Crusade(1096-1099) initiated by Alexus Comnenus to the Eighth Crusade(1270). During these periods, muslim soldiers had to grant protection to innocent Christians commoners and oppressed Jewish communities [6] against misguided Crusaders.

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Jeong Chun Phuoc
Expert Consultant and a pioneer advocate in Competitive Legal Intelligence(CLI)
and a Reader in Competitive Syariah Intelligence(CSI)
He can be reached at Jeongphu@yahoo.com
**The above professional analysis is the writer's personal view and in no way represent the view/position of the research institutes/thinktanks/organisations to which he is currently attached to.

[1] "Pope beatifies John Paul II before 1.5M faithful", Nicole Winfield And Vanessa Gera, Associated Press, 1 May 2011.

[2] "An unseemly, unwise haste to canonise John Paul II", Catherine Pepinster, guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 January 2011.

[3] "In God's Name-An investigation into the Murder of John Paul I,David Yallop, Bantam Books, 1984, at page 32.

[4] "As John Paul II Moves Closer to Sainthood, Some Question His Role In Sex Scandals", Andria Borba, FOX40, 30 April 2011.

[5] "Vatican guest list for John Paul II mass stirs controversy", Agence France-Presse May 1, 2011.

[6] "Dictionary of the Middle Ages", Ed. Joseph R. Srayer (Charles Scribner's Sons,New York, 1984, Vol. 4 and "The New Encyclopedia Britannica",Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.,Chicago, 1992, Vol. 3.