Pope John Paul II was apparently a devotee of the practice of ‘penitence’ and ‘mortification of the body’ during his tenure as pontiff. According to a new account of his papacy, he spent  long nights lying on the floor and practiced flagellating himself as an instrument of ’self-perfection.’

“When it wasn’t some infirmity that made him experience pain, he himself would inflict discomfort and mortification on his body,” stated Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who recently wrote a book detailing the last pope’s claim to sainthood. Furthermore:

Karol Wojtyla flagellated himself both in Poland and in the Vatican,” Msgr. Oder wrote. “In his closet, among the cassocks, there was a hook holding a particular belt for slacks, which he used as a whip and which he also always brought to Castel Gandolfo,” and Pope John Paul used self-mortification “both to affirm the primacy of God and as an instrument for perfecting himself.”

What is mortification about, anyway? This Catholic doctrine dates back to the time of St. Paul, the noted homophobe, misogynist and erotophobe Christian convert. He wrote approvingly of the denial of engagement in sexual pleasure, food and drink.  However, it isn’t just frugality and restraint that his philosophical descendants advocated. In its more problematic forms, it may actively encourage self-harm and eating disorders. According to one Opus Dei Catholic apologist, Rev. Michael Geisler, it is about endurance and ‘hardening up.” However, there are dividends, as mortification can result in experiences of ecstacy due to the release of endorphins from the peak experience in question. This may derive from self-starvation, joyful acceptance of torture and use of scourges for self-penitence.

I must admit, this does sound worrying. There appear to be abundant instances of ‘commended’ Catholic saints who condone self-mutilation, anorexia and bulimia as acts of ’sacrificial’ mortification before Christ. Conservative Calvinists also condone the utility of suffering and physical pain, but they call it ’santification.’ One can see this play out in terms of fundamentalist enthusiasm for corporal punishment, capital punishment, the permissibility of torture and opposition to decriminalisation of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. One of the most horrifying books about medieval Christianity and gender that I’ve ever read, Caroline Walker Bynum’s Holy Fast, cited instances of women ‘miraculously subsisting’ on the eucharist. It would be intriguing to see if these discourses provoked contemporary anorexia and bulimia amongst Catholic laywomen of that period…or susceptible women today, for that matter.

Granted, LGBT leather communities also practice the infliction and receipt of pain, but BDSM occurs within a carefully regulated context, in which safe, sane and consensual sexual encounters are encouraged and limitations and accountability are emphasised. On the other hand, Catholicism’s institutional history doesn’t exactly fill one with confidence that there are equivalent safeguards against the problematic, active pursuit of the infliction of pain and insistence on involuntary suffering and endurance as personal goods.

Tell me why this shouldn’t be regarded as primary evidence for somatophobia, the hatred of the body as a conduit for human behaviour and experience.  If he really hated his body that much, it may explain much about his papacy…

Recommended:

Cindy Wooden: “Pope John Paul II practiced self-mortification” NCR Online: 26.01.10: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1000347.htm