Editing Pope John Paul II (section)

== Other criticism and controversy ==
{{Main|1=Criticism of Pope John Paul II|2=Criticism of the Catholic Church}}
John Paul II was widely criticised for a variety of his views. He was a target of criticism from progressives for his opposition to the [[ordination of women]] and use of [[contraception]],<ref name="A&E" /><ref name="Condom" /> and from [[traditional Catholics]] for his support for the Second Vatican Council and its reform of the [[Mass (liturgy)|liturgy]]. John Paul II's response to [[child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church]] has also come under heavy censure.

=== Opus Dei controversies ===
{{Main|Controversies about Opus Dei}}
John Paul II was criticised for his support of the [[Opus Dei]] prelature and the 2002 canonisation of its founder, [[Josemaría Escrivá]], whom he called "the saint of ordinary life".<ref name="Opus2" /><ref name="Saints2" /> Other movements and religious organisations of the church went decidedly under his wing [[Legion of Christ]], the [[Neocatechumenal Way]], [[Schoenstatt]], the [[Charismatic Movement]], etc. And he was accused repeatedly of taking a soft hand with them, especially in the case of [[Marcial Maciel]], founder of the [[Legionaries of Christ]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pepe-rodriguez.com/Sexo_clero/Casos/Sexo_clero_M_Maciel_Leg_pedof_denuncia_Papa.htm |title=Text of the accusation letter directed to John Paul II |language=es |publisher=Pepe-rodriguez.com |access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref>

In 1984 John Paul&nbsp;II appointed Joaquín Navarro-Valls, a member of Opus Dei, as Director of the [[Vatican Press Office]]. An Opus Dei spokesman said that "the influence of Opus Dei in the Vatican has been exaggerated".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4249444.stm |work=BBC News |title=Decoding secret world of Opus Dei |date=16 September 2005 |access-date=30 April 2010}}</ref> Of the nearly 200 cardinals in the Catholic Church, only two are known to be members of Opus Dei.<ref>Associated Press, "Opus Dei backs new pope", CNN, 19 April 2005.</ref>

=== Banco Ambrosiano scandal ===
{{Main|Banco Ambrosiano}}
John Paul II was alleged to have links with [[Banco Ambrosiano]], an Italian bank that collapsed in 1982.<ref name="NYTimes" /> At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, [[Roberto Calvi]], and his membership in the illegal [[Masonic Lodge]] [[Propaganda Due]] (aka P2). The [[Vatican Bank]] was Banco Ambrosiano's main shareholder, and the death of [[John Paul I]] in 1978 is rumoured to be linked to the Ambrosiano scandal.<ref name="Salinger2005" />

Calvi, often referred to as "God's Banker", was also involved with the Vatican Bank, and was close to Bishop [[Paul Marcinkus]], the bank's chairman. Ambrosiano also provided funds for political parties in Italy, and for both the [[Somoza]] dictatorship in Nicaragua and its [[Sandinista]] opposition. It has been widely alleged that the Vatican Bank provided money for [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] in Poland.<ref name="NYTimes" /><ref name="Salinger2005" />

Calvi used his complex network of overseas banks and companies to move money out of Italy, to inflate share prices, and to arrange massive unsecured loans. In 1978, the [[Bank of Italy]] produced a report on Ambrosiano that predicted future disaster.<ref name="Salinger2005" /> On 5 June 1982, two weeks before the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, Calvi had written a letter of warning to John Paul II, stating that such a forthcoming event would "provoke a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions in which the Church will suffer the gravest damage".<ref name="TimesOnline" /> On 18 June 1982 Calvi's body was found hanging from scaffolding beneath [[Blackfriars Bridge]] in the financial district of London. Calvi's clothing was stuffed with bricks, and contained cash valued at US$14,000, in three different currencies.<ref name="GodsBanker" />

=== Problems with traditionalists ===
John Paul II was criticised by some [[traditionalist Catholics]], in addition to those demanding modernisation. Points of contention with traditionalists included demanding a return to the [[Tridentine Mass]],<ref name="HughHewitt" /> as well as the repudiation of reforms instituted after the Second Vatican Council, such as the use of the vernacular language in the formerly Latin-language [[Roman Rite]], [[ecumenism]], and the principle of [[religious liberty]].<ref>e.g. Marcel Lefebvre, ''An Open Letter to Confused Catholics'' (Herefordshire: Gracewing Publishing, 1986). {{ISBN|9780852440476}}.</ref> In 1988, the controversial traditionalist Archbishop [[Marcel Lefebvre]], founder of the [[Society of Saint Pius X]] (1970), was [[excommunicated]] under John Paul II because of the unapproved ordination of four bishops, which Cardinal Ratzinger called a "schismatic act".<ref>A discussion of the crucial work of Ratzinger (later pope) to attempt reconciliation between Lefebvre and the Holy See, ''vide'' John Thavis, ''The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities, and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church'' (London: Penguin, 2014), 147–49. {{ISBN|9780143124535}}</ref>

The [[World Day of Prayer for Peace]],<ref name="Assisi4" /> with a meeting in Assisi, Italy, in 1986, in which the pope prayed only with the Christians,<ref name="SanRufino" /> was criticised for giving the impression that [[syncretism]] and [[indifferentism]]<!--Don't change it back to "syncretism and/or indifferentism" as "and" gives the same ambiguity, e.g., that the event embraced or syncretism or indifferentism or both; see [[MOS#And/or]]--> were openly embraced by the Papal [[Magisterium]]. When a second Day of Prayer for Peace in the World was held in 2002,<ref name="DayOfPrayer" /> it was condemned as confusing the laity and compromising to false religions. Likewise criticised was his kissing of the Qur'an in Damascus, Syria, on one of his travels on 6 May 2001.<ref name="Qu'ran" />{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2022}} His call for religious freedom was not always supported; bishops like [[Antônio de Castro Mayer]] promoted [[religious tolerance]] but at the same time rejected the Vatican II principle of religious liberty as being liberalist and already condemned by [[Pope Pius IX]] in his ''[[Syllabus errorum]]'' (1864) and at the [[First Vatican Council]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu8E8GNnTIc |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/vu8E8GNnTIc| archive-date=11 December 2021 |url-status=live|title=Jan Paweł II Live at Vatican 1999 |publisher=YouTube |date=28 August 2011 |access-date=17 February 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Religion and AIDS ===
{{Main|Catholic Church and HIV/AIDS}}
John Paul II continued the tradition of advocating for the [[culture of life]]. In solidarity with [[Pope Paul VI]]'s ''[[Humanae vitae]]'', he rejected artificial birth control, even in the use of condoms to prevent the spread of [[AIDS]].<ref name="Condom" /> Critics have said that large families are caused by lack of contraception and exacerbate [[Third World]] poverty and problems, such as street children in South America. John Paul II argued that the proper way to prevent the spread of AIDS was not condoms but rather "correct practice of sexuality, which presupposes chastity and fidelity".<ref name="Condom" /> The focus of John Paul II's point is that the need for artificial birth control is itself artificial, and that principle of respecting the sacredness of life ought not be rent asunder to achieve the good of preventing AIDS.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

=== Social programmes ===
There was strong criticism of the pope for the controversy surrounding the alleged use of charitable social programmes as a means of converting people in the Third World to Catholicism.<ref name="AsiaNews2" /><ref name="IndiaStar" /> The pope created an uproar in the [[Indian subcontinent]] when he suggested that a great harvest of faith would be witnessed on the subcontinent in the third Christian millennium.<ref name="NCR2" />

=== Argentine military regime ===
John Paul II endorsed Cardinal [[Pio Laghi]], who critics say supported the [[Dirty War]] in Argentina and was on friendly terms with the Argentine generals of the [[National Reorganization Process|military dictatorship]], playing regular tennis matches with the Navy's representative in the junta, Admiral [[Emilio Eduardo Massera]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Argentine military dictator confirms Catholic Church hierarchy was well aware of the 'disappeared' |url=https://en.mercopress.com/2012/07/24/argentine-military-dictator-confirms-catholic-church-hierarchy-was-well-aware-of-the-disappeared |work=MercoPress |date=24 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Vatican says its ex-envoy is innocent |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/05/23/vatican-says-its-ex-envoy-is-innocent/dfe0ea8f-ee44-4999-85d2-e96e0aa9c694/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=23 May 1997}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Former Argentinian dictator says he told Catholic Church of disappeared |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/former-argentinian-dictator-says-he-told-catholic-church-of-disappeared-1.542154 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=24 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Pio Laghi, Papal Envoy, Dies at 86 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/world/europe/13laghi.html |work=The New York Times |date=13 January 2009}}</ref>

=== Ian Paisley ===
In 1988, when John Paul II was delivering a speech to the [[European Parliament]], [[Ian Paisley]], the leader of the [[Democratic Unionist Party]] and [[Moderator of the General Assembly]] of the [[Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster]], shouted "I denounce you as the [[Antichrist]]!"<ref name="Paisley makes point">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-29179048 |title=Ian Paisley dies: How Paisley made his point |location=Belfast |publisher=[[BBC Northern Ireland]] |date=1988 |access-date=12 September 2014 }}</ref><ref name=LATimes>{{cite news |title=Ian Paisley and politics of peace|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-mar-24-la-ed-paisley24-2010mar24-story.html |access-date=16 February 2012 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=24 March 2010}} from 1:45&nbsp;m into video</ref> He held up a red banner reading "Pope John Paul II ANTICHRIST". [[Otto von Habsburg]] (the last [[Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary]]), a [[Member of the European Parliament]] (MEP) for Germany, snatched Paisley's banner, tore it up, and along with other MEPs helped eject him from the chamber.<ref name="Paisley makes point" /><ref name="BBCIreland" /><ref name="Paisley" /><ref name="NYT5" /><ref name="Cloud" /> The pope continued with his address after Paisley had been ejected.<ref name="BBCIreland" /><ref name="MacDonald" /><ref name="Angelique" />

=== Međugorje apparitions ===
{{see also|Our Lady of Međugorje}}
A number of quotes about the [[Catholic Church response to the Medjugorje apparitions|apparitions of Međugorje]], in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], have been attributed to John Paul II.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.medjugorje.org/pope.htm |title=Quotes From Pope John Paul II On Međugorje |publisher=Medjugorje.org |access-date=4 August 2012}}</ref> In 1998, when a certain German gathered various statements that were supposedly made by the pope and Cardinal Ratzinger, and then forwarded them to the Vatican in the form of a memorandum, Ratzinger responded in writing on 22 July 1998: "The only thing I can say regarding statements on [[Međugorje]] ascribed to the Holy Father and myself is that they are [''frei erfunden''] complete invention".{{sfn|Kutleša|2001|p=283}} Similar claims were also rebuked by the Vatican's Secretariate of State.{{sfn|Kutleša|2001|p=256}}

=== Beatification controversy ===
Some Catholic theologians disagreed with the call for the beatification of John Paul&nbsp;II. Eleven dissident theologians, including [[Jesuit]] professor José María Castillo and Italian theologian [[Giovanni Franzoni]], said that his stance against contraception and the ordination of women as well as the church scandals during his pontificate presented "facts which according to their consciences and convictions should be an obstacle to beatification".<ref>{{cite web |title=Dissident theologians participate in the canonization process of Pope John Paul II |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/5583/dissident-theologians-participate-in-the-canonization-process-of-pope-john-paul-ii |website=[[Catholic News Agency]] |publisher=CNA |access-date=4 March 2020}}</ref> Some traditionalist Catholics opposed his beatification and canonisation for his views on liturgy and participation in prayer with enemies of the church, heretics and non-Christians.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Statement of Reservations Concerning the Impending Beatification of Pope John Paul II |date=21 March 2011 |author=Michael J. Matt |newspaper=[[The Remnant (newspaper)|The Remnant]] |access-date=2 May 2011|url=http://www.remnantnewspaper.com/2011-0331-statement-of-reservations-beatification.htm}}</ref>

After the 2020 report about the handling of the sexual misconduct complaints against [[Theodore McCarrick]], some called for John Paul II's sainthood to be revoked.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/11/12/pope-francis-theodore-mccarrick-clergy-sex-abuse-eileen-mcnamara| title = 'The Halo Is Hopelessly Tarnished': Why The Sainthood Of John Paul II Should Be Rescinded| date = 12 November 2020}}</ref>