We don't expect the secularists who dominate our intelligentsia ever to understand how a man rooted in orthodox Christianity could ever reconcile himself with modernity, much less establish himself on the vanguard of world history. But many years ago, when the same question was put to France's Cardinal Lustiger by a reporter, he gave the answer. "You're confusing a modern man with an American liberal," the cardinal replied. It was a confusion that Pope John Paul II, may he rest in peace, never made.
YES!
That's it! Something I couldn't formulate in my own mind.
I do wonder though, how so many especially Catholics look at the pope and marvel at his holiness and feel that they can never attain even a measure of it. All they would have to do is to see what he believed in without compromise and find out why. The Truth will set you free.