Last month saw many Americans – Republicans mostly – quick to seize on the perceived similarities between Pope John Paul II and former President Ronald Reagan.
True, both men played all-important roles in helping bring about the fall of communism and the demise of the Soviet empire and playing important roles in shaping the 20th century and getting rid of oppression; one as president of a thriving democracy, and the other as the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. Their alliance against communism seemed natural after all, but the similarities do not stop there.
Both Reagan and the pope were the targets of assassination attempts in the same year. The pope’s would be assassin, a Turk by the name of Mehmet Ali Agca, was reportedly working for the Bulgarian intelligence services who, in turn, could have been acting for the benefit of the Soviet KGB. The Soviets – or at least a certain hierarchy within the Kremlin – understood the danger a Polish pope represented.
Reagan on the other hand was shot by John Hinckley, Jr., an unstable young man, obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster and her role in, Taxi Driver, a movie that allegedly made a deep impression on him. Now you know why they give films “R” ratings.
In fact both men started out as actors; the pope playing a few minor roles on the stage in his native Krakow, where he founded an underground theatre company, writing and acting in plays that dealt with oppression. Reagan had a longer career in acting, appearing in 57 films, once with a chimpanzee.
They also loved the outdoors; as a younger the man the pope skied and was a something of a soccer player, while Regan was a high school footballer and accomplished horseman, never happier than on his California ranch.
Nancy Reagan, the former president’s widow was quoted as saying of the two men, “they were very much alike, both “Great Communicators.” In one of his more memorable speeches, Reagan, facing the Berlin Wall said in typical Hollywood fashion, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” while on his first visit to his native Poland as pontiff, Pope John Paul II defied the communist authorities telling his fellow Poles, “Do not be afraid.” This was later seen as the landmark speech that led to the snowball effect that eventually brought the Eastern Bloc out of communism.
Similarly, both men suffered political setbacks, but managed to remain relatively unaffected, their popularity intact. Indeed, Reagan was often referred to as “the Teflon” president, emerging relatively intact from the debacle that was the Iran-Contras weapons deal, in which the Reagan administration was found to be selling arms to Iran, then engaged in a war with Iraq, to fund the Nicaraguan Contra rebels fighting the Leftist Sandinistas. Additionally, the bombing of the U.S. Marines headquarters in Beirut, in which 241 American servicemen died, happened on Reagan’s watch. In both cases the president avoided blame.
The pope, likewise, lived through one of the worst reported crisis in the history of the Catholic Church when the scandal of sexual abuse of children by priests came to light. Hundreds of priests, primarily in the United States, were accused of sexually abusing children, with some cases dating back decades. The Catholic Church was blamed for not acting, instead, at times, covering up the actions of the delinquent priests.
Never since its founding has the shortage of priests been so acute as on John Paul II’s reign. Many analysts blame this on the pope’s insistence on maintaining celibacy in the priesthood, keeping an all-male priesthood and demanding condom free sex in an Africa riddled with Aids. For his part Regan is also accused of ignoring the real dangers of AIDS, although this is easier to say with the benefit of hindsight.
Later in life, both men were struck by terrible debilitating diseases; the pope by Parkinson’s and Reagan with Alzheimer.
Similarities followed the two men in death as well; both received grandiose funerals. In Washington, National Airport was renamed Ronald Reagan Airport, and one of the largest buildings in the city was named the Ronald Reagan Building. A nuclear aircraft carrier was named after him.
“Their legacies are tainted by the same thing that made them strong leaders: their unbending beliefs that both believed came from a higher source,” wrote Larry Mendte, an anchor with CBS. Since the pope’s death, many Catholics have demanded that John Paul II be made a saint. Maybe this is where the similarities should end.
