Paul VI: The First Modern Pope. - book reviews

Christian Century, April 14, 1993 by Jeffrey Gros

AS THE TITLE indicates, this book is much more than a biography. It is about what it is to be considered "modern" in the development of Western Christianity. The life of Giovanni Battista Montini (1897-1978) cuts across mid-century Christianity and Roman Catholic reform in a unique and penetrating way. In Paul VI's life and work, the debates about peace, global economy, sexuality, ecclesiology, art, modern culture and ecumenism find a focus. Indeed, he was an actor in all the transitions that shaped the terms of the debate in the Roman Catholic context.

Peter Hebblethwaite has followed this history, especially the past three decades, as a journalist with an interest in issues of social justice, human sexuality and lay participation. His perspective is, therefore, rooted in affirmation the Catholic contribution to the world, his European culture and a concern for Christianity's modernization and renewal. Other viewpoints would be less receptive to the modernization potential or priority in Roman Catholicism.

For those interested in contemporary Eastern Europe and Latin America, or in the Vietnam and World War II eras, this volume is an essential resource. It is a gold mine for those with an ecumenical or theological interest. And the sociologist or historian will find here a story of incomparable importance.

Hebblethwaite's concern with the modernization of the Roman Catholic Church and the development of a liberal fidelity to the Christian witness and mission makes the volume both selective and critical, not only of the church but also of Montini. It is of necessity selective, given the volume of material and the interests of the author. While Hebblethwaite affirms the impulses for renewal represented by Montini, he is quick to point out where he thinks errors were made, as in the gradualist approach to the reform of the central government, the Roman Curia, and in the rejection of the commission report on birth control. However, as the title suggests, first" and "modern" reflect both on the prehistory of Montini and his colleagues and on present events and personalities.

Montini came from a family that was involved in politics in Italy even when this was discouraged by official Catholicism. He was part of a student movement that was suppressed by fascists in the 1920s, and he obtained an education that was unorthodox - and for that reason creative. He was formed by reading authors from France, England and Germany that were looked upon with suspicion by his colleagues in the Vatican, some of whom were to become his subordinates when he became pope. According to Hebblethwaite, it was Montini's openness to democratic political forms, his concern for the culturally and economically marginalized, and his realization of the complexity of both theological and geopolitical relationships that made him seem to be a vacillator - too rigid for the liberals and too accommodating for the conservatives. The world received the image of a Hamlet figure, unwilling to exert forceful and personal leadership.

Montini's formation in a student movement that was to be the nucleus of antifascism and of postwar political leadership, and his experience in a key position near Pius XII during the Nazi-fascist period gave him a critical edge in the social sphere. This led him to untiring efforts to support Latin American reform in church and society and to find peace in Southeast Asia. His early ecumenical contacts, his proximity to Allied diplomatic personnel during the war, his urban engagement as archbishop of Milan, and his readings in history and in the liturgical movement prepared him to be an agent of change on the floor of the Second Vatican Council and a firm proponent of its reforms when he became the church's chief executive officer during the council's midcourse.

It was also his sense of history, his political realism and his recognition of the ambiguity of the human predicament that led him to retain the central administration which he inherited and to maintain the church's ban on artificial birth control, which has caused such concern in places like the U.S. Only in retrospect can his role in promoting local autonomy, restricting Roman criticism of theologians and encouraging those movements that have emerged as liberation theologies be recognized.

The church of Jesus Christ - and Roman Catholicism as an element in its expression - cannot be evaluated by the ministry of one person or by a period or movement designated as "modern." However, a narrative such as this, deeply grounded in the sociopolitical reality and in the history of institutional fidelity to the Christian tradition, can help us discern how the Spirit o God remains active, and is at some points obscured, in the community of believers. A pope is merely one minister among many in the church. However, in the changes this office has undergone - changes possibly more radical during Montini's lifetime than any other time since the Middle Ages - we can see the development of a community of believers and its self-understanding.