Papal Diplomacy: John Paul II and the Culture of Peace (review)

This is not an easy book to review. In the first place, it does not fit neatly into an obvious category of published works. It looks like a monograph but is in fact a collection of extracts from the late pope's speeches edited by Fr O'Connor, with a minimal apparatus of introduction and contextualization. It is, therefore, essentially a kind of reader, which accords with his original use of the extracts in a seminar at Ave Maria College, Ypsilanti, Michigan. It is also unfortunate that the cover blurb makes a totally ludicrous claim for the work, proclaiming it to be "The only(sic) book on John Paul II as a political actor." This is nonsense. There is already in existence a very substantial monograph literature, in English and other languages, on the political/diplomatic influence exerted by the Polish pope during the course of his pontificate.

Fr O'Connor has selected extracts from the main sources of John Paul's utterances—addresses to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, others to the diplomatic corps of countries that he visited in the course of his extraordinary series of travel, the pope's replies to the speeches of ambassadors to the Holy See presenting their credentials, and addresses to the United Nations General Assembly and related bodies—to illustrate the consistent reiteration by the Vatican of the need for a "culture of peace." John Paul must have made several hundred of the first three categories of speech, so it would have been helpful if Fr O'Connor had explained the criteria he used in selecting the examples presented. It is also puzzling that there is neither an extract from the pope's reply to nor an extract from the speech of an ambassador of a Middle Eastern country, such as Iraq, Iran, or Israel, in other words from a region where "the culture of peace" is most desperately needed.

In a book about diplomacy, accurate terminology is absolutely crucial, so referring to Elizabeth II as "Queen of England" in the index will not do. I appreciate that most Americans and Canadians refer to Great Britain colloquially as "England," but the use of this term entirely fails to convey the ethnic and constitutional complexities of the United Kingdom, particularly when the book includes a speech from Ambassador Pellew for 1998 remarking on the progress of peacemaking efforts in Northern Ireland. It also, justifiably, irritates the Scots and Welsh! Again, there is a speech included from the Ambassador of the "Republic of China." Fr O'Connor needs to explain that this state is, effectively speaking, only the island of Taiwan and that the Holy See is one of only a handful of powers in the world which do not have diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, which rules the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.

Each chapter of the book is introduced by a section that identifies what Fr O'Connor regards as the primary elements in "the culture of peace" propounded by the late pope, such as "natural courtesy," "an irrepressible search for freedom," "the rule of law," "structures and mechanisms to ensure dialogue," and "benefit afforded by religion." In addition, in his introduction to Chapter II, Fr O'Connor draws attention to the particular situation of the country represented by each ambassador included, to which the pope usually makes reference in his reply, even in the case of the presentation of the credentials of the ambassador of the dreaded Haitian president, Jean-Claude Duvalier. Here the pope alluded elliptically but tellingly to the appalling human rights record of that regime by mentioning the new country's new constitution in his own speech.

Fr O'Connor has put together a useful and illuminating collection of extracts to illustrate John Paul's constant commitment to "the culture of peace." But this book would benefit enormously from more contextualization and introduction at the beginning. In this regard...