God rest his soul.
In my view, he was one of the greatest men of the last century.
John Paul II was lover of freedom. Readers of ths blog may be interested in this quote from him: “Where self-interest is suppressed, it is replaced by a burdensome system of bureaucratic control that dries up the wellspring of initiative and creativity.” He had lived under communism. He knew the score.
He devoted his life to the service of God, as he saw it, through all hardships, and in the face of all opposition.
He was a deep thinker and a prolific writer. It will take decades for the Church, and the world, to digest and fully understand what he wrote and his vision for the Church going forward.
We will not see anything like him again.
May God have mercy on his successor, and grant him courage. He’ll need it.
Oremus pro beatissimo Papa nostro Joanni Paulo.
That was beautiful, Lex, a fine tribute to a great man.
Yes, a sad week for Christiandom. God rest his soul.
Wasn’t he also the Pope who said there was nothing incompatible about Christianity and evolution? Have to look in to it, but I believe he was…..
…..yep, sure was-
http://www.cin.org/jp2evolu.html
“In October of 1996, Pope John Paul II issued a message to the Pontifical Academy of Science reaffirming the Roman Catholic Church’s long-standing position on evolution: that it does not necessarily conflict with Christianity. “
Iman –Yes. Too many Catholics think they have a dog in the fight against evolution. We don’t. The fossil record is what it is. Scientists make sense of it the best they can. That is what they are supposed to do. Truth is seamless.
Check out C-SPAN to hear Pope bashing, it is hysterical, you can’t write this stuff. Forget about evolution. Were you aware that the Vatican is a shell for the Rothschild’s one world order? There was even a caller that complained that the Church didn’t get involved enough in preventing the war in Iraq, yet holds to the separation of Church & State doctrine.
MSM tend to filter out the nuts, bigots, conspiracy theorists and other outliers from its feedback systems. In doing so the MSM also filter out thoughtful people who don’t fit the conventional left/right paradigm, particularly libertarians. C-SPAN, to its great credit, sets the filters much looser, so viewers get to listen to the libertarians but also to the nuts and bigots. I think it’s an acceptable tradeoff, and there’s a lot to be said for listening to all opinions, even those one abhors. But it does grate sometimes.
As miraculous as the liberation of Eastern Europe without a shot being fired, was that John Paul reversed the decline of the Church, which as result of Vatican II had become demoralized and rudderless, indifferent to its own teachings, culture, and traditions. Truly this was the vicar of Christ.