Doug Marlette's view of John Paul II
We live in an age of shaky values, shifting morality and flabby conviction when nobody stands for anything -- except Pope John Paul II, who looms out of the mists and vapors, the gases and flatulence of our "anything goes" secular culture, like a marble sculpture by Michelangelo. There is a there there.
The tradition of pope-bashing
There is a rich tradition of pope-bashing in American cartooning. Thomas Nast, the father of political cartooning, made his reputation with attacks on Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, but he was a rabid anti-Catholic as well, and his deep suspicion of the Church bordered on bigotry. One of his most famous cartoons, "The American River Ganges," an attack on sectarianism in public schools, showed reptilian Catholic bishops distorted to look like crocodiles. Nast contemporary Joseph Keppler, another pillar of American graphic satire, a birthright Catholic and founder of the satirical weekly magazine Puck, was staunchly pope-a-phobic. His cartoon "Pope Leo XIII, a Physiognomical Study," showed among other grotesque details the Pope's hair drawn as tiny serpents peeking out from beneath a skullcap labeled "propaganda."
Let's face it -- popes are eminently cartoonable, especially this one. I have skewered him for his stand on birth control and women priests, but I have also drawn cartoons supporting him as he stood courageously against the communists in Eastern Europe. He dares you to draw him. Check out the outfit -- the mitre, the staff, the vestments. And how about that deep-set squint, his wide mouth and potato nose and, yes, his hard head -- it's irresistible. The Pope is a fixed point, like the North Star. He helps us navigate. He tells us where we are and where we aren't -- Catholics and pagans alike. If we didn't have a pope, we'd have to make one up.
"If we didn't have a pope... (95K)
In short, he's everything Bill Clinton is not. You know where the Pope stands. You may not like it, but he isn't going to change to please you or anybody else. He doesn't cave in or pander to special interests. Better than most