. . . I can’t help feeling sympathy for John Paul II, or anyone charged with the top job, whose freedom of action is limited by the almost infinite series of consequences that could flow from every papal move. It’s the Catholic version of chaos theory: if the pope moves his arms in Rome, theoretically a tsunami could bring down the church in China.

As the 20^th Synod of Bishops opens this week, I find myself reflecting on what a difficult task it is to lead this sprawling international conglomerate we call the Catholic Church. Outside the synod hall, there will be loud calls for reform on issues ranging from democracy in the church to the ordination of women. Inside, talk of change will be more muted, more subtle and diplomatic, but the pressure will be there.

The church might well be healthier if it adopted some of these reforms. Yet I can’t help feeling sympathy for John Paul II, or anyone charged with the top job, whose freedom of action is limited by the almost infinite series of consequences that could flow from every papal move. It’s the Catholic version of chaos theory: if the pope moves his arms in Rome, theoretically a tsunami could bring down the church in China.

This thought crystallized as I followed the pope to Armenia last week. As part of that trip, John Paul visited the Tzitzernagaberd Memorial on a hill overlooking Yerevan. This simple, evocative monument, the centerpiece of which is a pit with an eternal flame, recalls the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-16, and again from 1922-23, as the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Young Turks sought to assert control over the region.

Armenians think of what happened as genocide, but the Turks have bitterly resisted the use of the term. They contend the number of victims is inflated, and that there was no campaign to wipe out the Armenians as a people. 

Hence many observers were curious as to what vocabulary John Paul would use. The pope clearly wanted to commemorate Armenian suffering; on Oct. 7 he will beatify one of the victims, a bishop named Ignatius Maloyan, who was killed in 1915 because he refused to become a Muslim.

Yet when the pope visited the memorial Sept. 26, he did not use the word “genocide.” He instead referred in Armenian to the Metz Yeghern , a phrase that means “great killing” or “great genocide” depending on who you ask, but in any event does not have the clarity of the English term. Later John Paul and the head of the Armenian church, Karekin II, put out a joint statement recalling “what is generally referred to as the first genocide of the twentieth century.” (Hence the pope did not take personal responsibility for invoking the vocabulary).

That night I dined with several colleagues who are not full-time Vatican writers, who couldn’t understand why the pope had “danced around” saying “genocide.”

First of all, I tried to explain, the pope wants to improve relations with the Islamic world, especially in this moment of international crisis, and Turkey is one of the moderates in the Islamic block. He doesn’t want to aggravate the Turks if he doesn’t have to. Given that Islam was invoked in some cases to justify the slaughter of Armenians, the pope is especially reluctant to reopen this historical wound.

Second, the pope has to think not just at a broad geo-political level, but also locally. There are some 32,000 Catholics in Turkey who have to live with the Turkish authorities long after the pope leaves the region. He can’t simply set off a rhetorical bomb and go home.

When I finished, a colleague from the Washington Post said, “It’s not easy being pope.” Exactly.

Similarly, as John Paul tooled around Armenia in the loving embrace of Karekin II, even staying overnight in his house (the first time a pope lodged with an Orthodox prelate), most commentators were swept away by the ecumenical spirit. Interestingly, the Armenians who seemed most lukewarm were the local Catholics, who number 147,000 out of a population of 3.3 million.

Why? For one thing, Orthodox authorities had wanted to keep their patriarch, Archbishop Nerses Der Nersessian, out of the lineup for papal events. It required a direct Vatican intervention in the last week to get his name on the list.

For another, local Catholics felt snubbed because the pope celebrated his public Mass in the Latin rite, even though the local church uses the Armenian rite. Also, the pope chose not to beatify Bishop Maloyan in Yerevan, even though he had beatified 27 Ukranian martyrs while he was in that country. Both decisions were attributed to Orthodox influence. Some Catholics also blamed the Orthodox for doing little to turn out crowds at papal events.

In all these cases, local Catholics felt the Orthodox wanted to welcome the pope, because his presence alongside Karekin elevated their public image, but did not want to invite competition on the ground. Hence they pretended that Armenian Catholics, who use the Armenian rite but are in communion with Rome, don’t exist.

Some of the Armenian Catholic priests I interviewed were disappointed John Paul didn’t take a tougher line. They believe their community has suffered for its loyalty to the pope, and felt a bit betrayed that when the pope finally came to visit they were again treated like second-class citizens.

One of those priests, however, acknowledged that John Paul has to balance the needs of local Catholics against ecumenical progress. He grinned, and said: “It’s not easy being pope.” Again, exactly.

Of course, as de Gaulle once said, “to govern is to choose.” The fact that choices are difficult doesn’t excuse leaders from making them, or for being held accountable. John Paul II has made some brilliant choices and some lamentable ones, and all that is fair game for debate.

But we might, as we chew over the latest round of calls for reforms and overhauls and changes in the system, spare a thought for the thousand conflicting forces that hem in a pope on virtually every issue. It’s not easy being pope, and perhaps we can try harder to understand that.

The e-mail address for John L. Allen Jr. is jallen@natcath.org

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