I have gathered the argument that John Paul II's Polish heritage is to be considered in regard to his theology and actions, but is it not possible for cultures have certain ideas and customs in error?
It is indeed. American culture is so shot through with error, that IMHO, to be a true Catholic in this country, you have to start "from the bottom up" and realize that just about everything you think you know is wrong. The very foundations of this country, the founding docuмents, are riddled with errors. It could be brought into line with Catholic truth, but some major re-jacking would have to take place.
Just from my dealings with people in Poland (most of all being with a Polish wife for 14 years), I've observed that they have an excessive fascination with the outside world, and are fairly uncritical of it. It is as though they are rebelling against decades of isolation, and their tragic history --- being situated between Russia and Germany was a problem, to say the least --- has led them to go buck-a** wild and slurp up anything that the secular "West" has to offer. I would contrast this with someplace such as Hungary, which is a little more prickly and selective in keeping liberal ideas at bay.
This may just be a personality quirk of my wife, but she always bristled against the idea that an actual human being, in concrete circuмstances, could ever do anything wrong, or worse yet, be called a "bad person". I asked her if this came from her upbringing and education under communism, if their concept of the collective and the equality of all persons made her defend anything that anyone might do, and she denied this, but then again, when you're educated and raised a certain way, you're very often not even
aware of your biases and preconceptions. When she was learning to drive, I tried to convey to her the concept of "defensive driving", and that you have to assume that the other guy is an idiot. She didn't like that
at all.I strongly suspect that JP the Deuce's "dignity of the human person" concept was at least partially informed by this mindset. My son thinks I am a jerk for having a less-than-totally-sanguine view of the human condition and the modern world, so it might even be genetic. Hard to say.