Philippine E-Journals

JOHN PAUL II’S LEGACY AS A RESOURCE FOR FIGHTING TOTALITARIANISM: SLOVAK EXPERIENCE

Michal Valco | Peter Sturak | Martina Pavlíková | Gabriel Paľa

 

Abstract:

The monolithic vision of the cultural and civic life of communist totalitarianism is one of several actual strands of totalitarianism that the world has had to face in the past one hundred years. Central and Eastern Europe in general (along with many other countries around the globe) and Czechoslovakia, in particular, experienced the struggle with the Marxist totalitarian atheism and its consequences in the political, social, and moral (individual) lives of its citizens for four decades following WWII. This paper identifies and analyzes John Paul II’s most important efforts to fight totalitarianism from his early years to his ministry as Roman Pontiff, shows ways in which his thoughts and actions inspired resistance in Czechoslovakia (e.g., the Charter 77 dissident movement or the Candle Demonstration of 1988), and suggests how his legacy may serve us today as we are confronted with old and new versions of totalitarianism, such as fascism, communism, hedonistic consumerism, nihilistic voluntarism, postmodern intellectual relativism (the ruling ideology in most Western academia), or religious fundamentalism. Instead of a violent revolution, whether political or religious, the late Pope seems to leave us with a message of courage to engage in a moral revolution while guarding the freedom of conscience as humankind’s inalienable right.