Dear FRONTLINE

Dear Frontline,
As a Jesuit-trained individual and someone who lived in Central American in the 80's, I enjoyed your program about the Holy Father. Ignoring the overriding papal classically Christian message that suffering makes faith stronger, it did strike me as ironic that nowhere was the incongruity of liberation theology civil disobedience & ends justify the means juxtaposed to the absolute obedience commanded by the Holy Father. JPII's finger wagging at the militant Nicaraguan Jesuit Ernesto Cardenal at the Managua airport in 1984 was unforgettable. The Pope was right to angrily maintain that he alone is Pope, and clergy has no right to take matters into their own hands, no matter the injustice.
How is it the Pope could rely on revolutionary priests throwing off the Central American repressive dictators to then trust Marxists Catholics to subjugate themselves to the Church? The Church is not based on liberation, but on devotion. His faith is in God, not humans of political ambition. The Pope knew first-hand Marxism was the substitution of a State Church for Christ's Church. John Paul II's distrust of Marxists, with, or without roman collars, was proved justified.

John Feegel
Loudoun County, Virginia

Dear FRONTLINE

Not to diminsh the good of Pope John II, however, your fluffing over issues regarding the vast enthusiasm shared by the Polish people in killing Jews is unforgivable. View Kaufman's film Shoah. Your further fluff about Pope Pius's concern about Jews being the reason for his silence requires thinking people to suspend reality. If Pope Pius had been so concerned about Jews, as you report, he would have taken action against the head of the Polish Catholic Church that you rported to have sent around the statement balming Jews for the ills of Polish society. BEtter yet, he would have changed the dogma of the Church blaming Jews for the death of Christ. He did nothing and by Catholic dictum, sins of omission, is thoroughly guilty of crimes against humanity. He, alone, had the power to save lives, yet refused to act.
I am thoroughly disappointed in your sloppy reporting which only detracts from the real good Pope John II has brought to the church.

G Lerner

Dear FRONTLINE

While this is my first time to respond to your program, or to any program, for that matter, I felt moved to do so by your once again intelligent reporting. The sheer fineness of your programs, along with the thoughtfulness, and depth that you offer is refreshing and reassuring in a medium choked by commercials and commercialism. You restore my faith in broadcast journalism, and I am glad to help support PBS.

Joseph Corbett
Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Dear FRONTLINE

The highlight of the program was the ex-prison warden speaking on his experience with the death penalty. Euthanasia, abortion, the death penalty - it is too easy sometimes to see these issues from all sides. The Pope's insistence on valuing human life over convenience will be his main legacy.

Michael Colangelo

Dear FRONTLINE

PBS had a chance to show a true and vivid picture of this man and fell miserably short. Professor judt seems to fancy himself a papal psycologist rather than a professor of eastern europe. his observations were rather trendy but quite shallow given the life we've seen led by John Paul. The Church was not established as a democracy by Christ. The Pope's teachings have been consistent with the gospel message and the doctrines of the Church. Catholics are not only called to faith they are called to obedience.With regard to the holocaust, to say the Catholic Church was silent about what was happening to the Jews is to revise history. The reports of the day including the NY times said that the Catholic Church was the only voice speaking out. The Chief Rabbi of Rome was so moved by the actions of Pope Pius to protect the Jews that he converted to Catholicism. You may also want to read statements by Golda Mier and the book on Pius by Jewish author Pinchus Lapide. Was enough done? certainly not! But when the Dutch bishops spoke out again hundreds were killed the next day.

Mike McGuire
Burke, Virginia

Dear FRONTLINE

I only got to see the last hour of the special on JPII, but I am immensely grateful that it was produced and put on. I cannot judge the way the film handled conflicts within the Roman Church, since I am an Anglican; but as a presentation of a man of deep faith in the God of Life in the midst of a culture of death, this film was magnificent. I was surprised that no one interviewd Michael O'Brien, author of Father Elijah and other Children of the Last Days novels, who dealt with many of the themes Pope John Paul II has confronted throughout his life.

As for the part about women's ordination, I wish people would understand what the Pope means when he says that the priesthood is a sacred gift from Christ, no one has a right to it, and the Church does not have the authority to change the priesthood. You may not agree with this, but I hope people will try to understand. We in the Episcopal Church have women priests, and most of them may well be devoted servants of our Lord. But how do we know we are right about this? I appreciate the Pope's humility on this issue--the humility to recognize the limits of human authority, even in the church which claims the highest degree of authority for the Church.

Fr. Joseph Davis
Memphis, TN.

Dear FRONTLINE

Except for brief portions of the last two segments the show was a deplorable hatchet job. You paraded a group of writers and intellectuals who attempted to dismiss the Pope as a man whose views are the result of a torturous and pessimistic early life. Perhaps their rejection of him is a result of their torturous and pessimistic current life?

Of course skewering him with amateur psychoanalysis makes the depth of his and Catholic teaching much easier to dismiss. The unremitting parade of persons who deplored his i.e. Catholic teaching could have easily been balanced by segments from the many of us -- including prominent theologians and intellectuals -- who agree with him. You did a great disservice to your viewers in all but the last two segments. I do not expect you to tell only "his" side of the story. I do expect the intellectual rigor of his achievements and the depth of support he evokes to ACTUALLY be part of the story. You would never know he was an accomplished philosopher in his own right from watching your show.

Tieing the church's teaching on artificial contraception to a memory of his Mother-as-Virgin-Mary was particularly insulting and dismissive. It might give you a different perspective to look at very successful methods of natural family planning such as the Sympto-Thermal method as well as his book "Love and Responsibility"

The biased heart of the program was only partially redeemed by Suro's? doubt that JPII may be a prophet and the modern world misguided.

BY the way...you need to get a better research staff. Check out the full speech of the pre-war Polish Cardinal you quoted and you will realize it has the exact opposite of the meaning you gave it.

Rod Coffey
Leavenworth, KS

Dear FRONTLINE

In the part "Jews" there was not understanding of the situation of the Polish people in regards of the Jewish neighbors. In Poland occupied by Germans there was a death penalty for helping Jews. And still many Polish people helped Jewish people. Proof of that are the trees of the righteous in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. To say that the writings of Saint Maximilian Kolbe stopped Polish people from helping Jews was more than offensive. How many people in America would venture to help somebody under the penalty of death? I now, that my grandmother helped a Jewish family to hide in her home for few days and this family survived the war. But to accuse Karol Wojtyla of not helping Jewish people was the other strange point of the programm. For all Poles and Jews it was a question of survival Jews and Poles were send to Auschwitz and help was shown on the crossroads, not in the charitable action of the Red Cross.

Tadeusz Trela
Jersey City, NJ

Dear FRONTLINE

I think the program was superb. My only problem with it, as a new convert to Catholisism is that the people who are talking against it, don't have a clue. I feel like I am a very modern woman, but I have no problem with there being no women priests. The reason - because the Catholic Church goes back to Christ -- not some breakaway religion that is only a few hundred years old. We are talking 2000 years here. Sure it's hard to be a Catholic. Do I agree with everything - no, but this is a religion that Christ set up - whether it was 2000 years ago or what. He set it up and he set it up the way He wanted it. Not the way some man or woman wanted it. And God told him how it was to be done. That's a powerful thing. It's the only religion that was created by Christ. The others are just imitators. Being a Catholic is very difficult, but religion, like every thing else in life shouldn't be easy. You should have to work for it or at it.

I also agree with the Pope that this is the worst century. There is a reason there is crime all around and violence. The morals have gone to Hell. No one cares about anything any more. We are still in the "if it feels good, do it" attitude of the 60s. Very selfish. Don't care about your fellow man or woman. We have truly reaped what we have sown. And until we get back to faith, it will not stop.

Anne Davis
Atlanta, Georgia

Dear FRONTLINE

The statement made during this program stating that Pope Pius the 12th did nothing to save the Jews is in error! I suggest you contact EWTN Television to learn the truth!!

In one incident,Pope Pius had the Bishops of Amsterdam condem the actions of the Nazi's and this condemnation led directly to the Nazis rounding up all Jews even those who were converted Christians such as Edith Stein who was a Catholic Nun and a converted Jew, and being sent to their deaths in the camps. The pope then, wisely, I think, decided to help in other ways. Thousands of Jews were saved by the monks, sisters, brothers and lay persons of the Catholic church even hiding some in St. Peter's Bacilica itself!

Do you realy think that a mad man like Hitler and his ilk would stop the murders because the Pope said, "No you shouldn't do that"?

I really doubt it!!

Gerald Boone

Dear FRONTLINE

I thought it was very interesting listening to the interviews with the people who were clearly upset with the Pope and the Church and then to listen to the discussion on the "Culture of Death" and his Faith and Legacy and how these topics and especially the words spoken by Msgr Albacate transcended all that these people had said. The Pope is not just about saying "No" to birth control, abortion, and female priests. He is about helping us to live as we are meant to live- in communion with Christ and with each other. He carries around a Crucifix as a testament to what he stands for- and that which goes beyond allof these other things.

Garrick Vouk
Woodbury, MN

Dear FRONTLINE

The show was on the whole good but rather one-sided on some issues. There was not enough commentary from people who support the Church's teaching on women's ordination and the situation in Central America was dealt with in a
superficial way. Not enough was said about the Pope's protests against the violation of human rights by right wing governments.

Martha Moyers

Dear FRONTLINE

I was interviwed for this documentary for over six hours, and thought at the time that the women producing this were ferociously intelligent. They had every possible resource available to do a responsible treatment of the problems JPII has caused for women, for our own theologians, etc, but for some inexpliciable reason they chose to crate a paen to JPII instead. A nice safe little program that didn't even touch the real church. I was truly disgusted with it.

Catharine Henningsen

Dear FRONTLINE

I think the program was great. I find it important to air this type of in depth discussin of the pope because of his influence both religously and politically, all stemming from faith. This is especially important living in a state that says one of its principles the separation of church and state.

M Alvarez
New York, NY

Dear FRONTLINE

Good in parts, bad in parts. Too simplified, even puny, a presentation of a very complex man in a hugely complex situation. This stuff is too deep for the usual TV journalist treatment, even one of as much quality as yours. The best part was the testimonies of faith in the latter part of the show. There you began to touch on some of the reality of the depth of John Paul II. To those without it, there is no explanation for him. To those with it, no explanation is necessary.

Margaret Duffy