Friday, March 29, AD 2024 5:10am

Saint of the Day Quote: Saint John Paul II

The cemetery of the victims of human cruelty in our century is extended to include yet another vast cemetery, that of the unborn.

Saint John Paul II

 

“My Communist colleagues decided that the Bishops ahead of Karol Wojtyla on the list of candidates were not good for the state, so they pushed Karol Wojtyla. The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways.”

General Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski, last ruler of Communist Poland

 

 

 

In the era of Pope Francis, it is easy to become dispirited as the Church is misled by a man who often gives new depth to the words incoherent, wrongheaded and heterodox .  However, I firmly believe that Pope Francis and all his works are a mere blip in the history of the Church.  Future historians will recognize that the most important pope of this era was Saint Pope John Paul II.

When we badly needed a great Pope, God granted us one.  Was he perfect?  No.  I regard his effort to do away with the death penalty as wrong-headed.  He was much too friendly with Islam.  His flirting with pacifism in the latter portion of his papacy was a great mistake.  However, he was the greatest Pope of my lifetime, a charismatic and strong champion of Christ.

 

Here is a list of just a few of his accomplishments, although it will take centuries for historians to fully assess his almost 27 year-long papacy, but here are some of the events that I think they will note.

1.  He largely stopped the post Vatican II chaos-After Vatican II the impulse to transform the Church into an institution fully reflecting the current views of cultural elites in the West wreaked much havoc.  Paul VI, a good and holy man, drew a line in the sand with Humanae Vitae, but he lacked the stomach and the will to fight it out with those who would have transformed the Catholic Church into what the Anglican Church is now:  a dying institution, adrift from any allegiance to traditional Christianity, and fully in accord with the mores and beliefs of the secular elite of the West.  Many were rubbing their hands with glee after the death of Pope Paul, in confident assurance that a new liberal pope would complete the transformation of the Church into something akin to Unitarianism with fancy dress.  Instead they got John Paul II, a Polish fighter who had stood toe to toe with the atheist rulers of Poland and was not the least frightened or impressed by the forces that sought to neuter Christ’s Church.  The chaos and low morale of the Church could not be completely reversed in one papacy, but John Paul II began the process and made a huge amount of progress.  It is no accident that Pope Francis constantly disparages younger, orthodox priests, perhaps the truest tribute currently to the legacy of John Paul II.

2.  Presiding at the Funeral of Communism-During World War II, both the Nazis and the Communists slaughtered a huge number of Polish priests, viewing them as deadly enemies.  How very right they were!  The Polish Church, in the midst of one of the worst persecutions sustained by the Catholic Church in the last century, never lost faith that the Church and Poland would both ultimately outlast the totalitarian regimes and emerge triumphant.  John Paul II was the embodiment of this robust confidence that Communism, like Nazism, was merely a brief historical aberration that could and would be defeated.  The rise of Solidarity was completely predictable to him, and his embrace of it made a crackdown by the Polish Communist regime, and its Kremlin puppet masters, impossible.  John Paul II and Ronald Reagan in the Eighties brought about the largely peaceful collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and laid the groundwork for its collapse in the former Soviet Union.  The heirs of Joseph Stalin learned to their sorrow that the type of power wielded by a skillful and determined pope cannot be counted in divisions but rather in human hearts.

3.  Culture of Life-In the teeth of an overwhelming movement among Western elites to jettison the belief that human life is sacred, John Paul II rededicated the Church to that proposition and waged a long uphill struggle throughout his papacy against abortion and euthanasia.  Like Moses, John Paul II did not live to see the victory in this fight, but ultimately we will win, and his brave stand at a crucial moment in history will be one of the reasons why.

4.  Pope of the people-With modern means of transportation, a vigorous Pope can treat the whole world as his diocese by globe-trotting and that is precisely what John Paul II did.  In the Nineteenth Century, modern means of communication, the telegraph, photography and newspapers, were skillfully used by Pius IX to forge a personal contact between the Pope and average Catholics.  Pope John Paul II took this a step farther by bringing the Pope to the average Catholic.  A masterful stroke and superbly executed.

5.  Vocations-Pope John Paul II began the process by which the hemorrhaging of priests was stanched and laid the groundwork for the rebound we are now seeing in vocations to the priesthood in most of the Church outside of Europe.  Much needs to be done still, but without the efforts of John Paul II the situation now would be of truly crisis proportions.

6.  Theology of the Body-One of the crises of our time is the alienation between some men and women caused by rapidly changing relationships between the sexes brought on by modern life.  John Paul II addressed this in his Theology of the Body.  Go here for a good overview.  The exalted view of John Paul Ii of the love between man and woman in marriage of course ties in perfectly with his defense of the sanctity of life.  In many ways love was the central theme of the papacy of John Paul II.

7.  Centesimus Annus-With the collapse of Communism, in 1991 John Paul II released Centesimus annus, an overview of the mistakes of Marxism and the challenges that remained in a world where Capitalism now seemed supreme.  Go here to read it.  The most significant two paragraphs:

42. Returning now to the initial question: can it perhaps be said that, after the failure of Communism, capitalism is the victorious social system, and that capitalism should be the goal of the countries now making efforts to rebuild their economy and society? Is this the model which ought to be proposed to the countries of the Third World which are searching for the path to true economic and civil progress?

The answer is obviously complex. If by “capitalism” is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a “business economy”, “market economy” or simply “free economy”. But if by “capitalism” is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative.

8.  Liberation Theology Rejected-In the Sixties and the Seventies of the last century, elements within the Church engaged in a strong flirtation with Marxism and the idea that the Kingdom of God could be brought about by class struggle and rebellion.  The idea was completely hare-brained, but it attracted quite a following.  John Paul II explained that the liberation that Christianity brought had nothing in common with the power grab the Marxists were seeking.  Go here for resources regarding the statements of John Paul II on Liberation Theology.  Pope Francis of course has a great fondness for Liberation Theology, as he has a great fondness for much that is directly contrary to the teachings of his great predecessor.

This list only touches some of the main features of the papacy of John Paul II, a papacy that will be discussed endlessly as the centuries pass.

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Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Tuesday, October 22, AD 2019 6:09am

Pray for us Saint Pope John Paul II.

One of his quotes;
A democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.

Please help us return to values that are genuine and in union with our Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Tuesday, October 22, AD 2019 8:49am

Of course, no papacy is perfect, especially one that lasts 26 years and then some. Given that the Catholic Left and the RadTrads disliked him intensely, he had to do something right.
After he became Pope, the Polish joke disappeared from American pop culture. How much of an impact he had on the American Church hierarchy – I would say not a lot. He was popular but often ignored.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Tuesday, October 22, AD 2019 10:23am

Penguins Fan said; “After he became Pope, the Polish joke disappeared from American pop culture.”
Amen!

The future of Catholicism is in the hearts of the children. His greatest gift [is] his outreach to the children. World youth Conferences are still having a resounding impact on the world, the culture. I hear from those children who are having children themselves and are nurturing our future priesthood. They were deeply affected by their participation in world youth days and the Holy Spirit rekindled into flame many a smothering flickering ember.
Yes. Love wins.

Yes.
God gets the last laugh which is always the best laugh. Did you hear the one about the Polish priest who sent the communist party packing from a large portion of the European block?
No?
He was Karol Wojtyla.
Fearless. Courageous and Faithful unto his last breath. I loved the man. I know he played a big part in my reversion. My parents bugged him every night with their prayers united to his for the conversion of sinners.

Nope. No more Polish jokes.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Tuesday, October 22, AD 2019 1:19pm

I think it is appropriate to comment briefly on the Church in Poland as it stands now, from what I have learned.
Two years ago, the Church proclaimed Christ as King of Poland. Last year on October 7, there was a Rosary crusade all along the borders of Poland.. Now, for the not so good news. There were over 300 reported cases of clerical sexual abuse going back I don’t know how many years. Religious observance in cities, notably Warsaw and Gdansk, has fallen off somewhat. There is a generation of young Poles who knew not Communism and very little or no firsthand memory of JPII. In Poland, the media, except for TVP, the state owned network, is largely owned by foreign interests hostile to traditional Polish values. There have been gay pride marches – I suspect Fu fed by Soros backed groups with rent a mob types doing the marching. Some of these activists, so to speak, defaced a church and attacked a priest. Make no mistake, Soros and his bunch want to turn Poland into Ireland. I think they will fail but not without a fight. Thing is nobody fights like those with Polish blood.

Bruno
Bruno
Tuesday, October 22, AD 2019 1:32pm

I’d say that three of his most important achievements were the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Veritatis Splendor and Dominus Iesus.
I don’t think that it is a coincidence that those three documents are under the most fierce attack these days, specially, it seems, by many bishops and by the actions of his successor.

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