A Papal Surprise

George H. Williams, Hollis Professor of Divinity, was probably the only person in the country who wasn't surprised last week when the Sacred College of Cardinals announced the results of its latest conclave. A month earlier, Williams was possibly the only Vatican observer in the world who predicted the election of Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow, Poland, as the 264th Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

Williams, who made his prediction in an interview with the Crimson following the death of Pope John Paul I, is a personal acquaintance and correspondent of the new pope. He said this week that he believed the cardinals would choose Wojtyla--the first non-Italian elected pope in 455 years--because of a desire to do something "genuinely spectacular" following the death of John Paul I.

With remarkable hindsight, other Vatican observers were quick to find reasons why Wojtyla's election made sense.

At only 58 years of age, they argued the new pontiff will probably enjoy a long reign, which would keep the Church from facing the instability of a papal death in the near future. Furthermore, they said, the election of a non-Italian--especially a cardinal from Eastern Europe--might well free Italy's Christian Democratic party from the almost incestuous ties with the Vatican that many experts believe have limited its political freedom in recent year.

Williams believes the new pope--who named himself John Paul II, as a tribute to his predecessor--may be a powerful force for change within the Church. He said Wojtyla's academic background in ethics--especially marital ethics--could well lead John Paul II to reform the Church's stand against artificial contraception, an issue that has divided many Catholics in the past decade.

Pope John Paul II does not seem likely to ease the Church's traditional opposition to communism, however. Although as a cardinal in Poland the pontiff adopted a policy of practical co-existence with Communist authorities in that country, he has found plenty of ground to criticize the theoretical basis of Marxism.

In a lecture delivered at the Harvard Summer School in July 1976 then-Cardinal Wojtyla forcefully attacked the Marxist theory of economic determinism.

"Revolutionary transformations of society can bring about new forms of alienation," he warned at the time. Most experts agree that he has not changed his line since then.