Posted on 04/05/2005 7:44:40 AM PDT by Thorin
But What Made Him Great?
Even the secular world against which he stood so defiantly recognized his greatness. But what was it that was so special about John Paul II, the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church? What set him apart and above all the secular leaders of his time?
At 84, he was old, stooped, suffered from Parkinson’s and slurred his speech. He was decried by our media and cultural elites as a moral reactionary who had failed to bring his church into the 21st century.
Yet, even as the editorial writers fulminated and the dissident clergy fumed, the Holy Father drew the young in the tens of millions. The great politicians of his time came and went, most of them long forgotten, save Ronald Reagan, who was very much like this pope in his humor, serenity and core convictions. And yet, this pope endured into his ninth decade as the most revered and beloved figure on earth. The world’s reaction to his death testifies to it.
But wherein did his greatness lie?
What set John Paul II apart from the other leaders of his time was his goodness, his holiness, his sanctity, his moral courage in defending the truths of the church and his uncompromising refusal to alter moral truth to accommodate the spirit of an immoral age. His charisma, like that of Mother Teresa, came of the fact that he was a Man of God, not a man of this world. He became popular by testifying to the unpopular truths of Jesus Christ.
What those most disappointed with John Paul’s failure to conform church teaching to trendy views on contraception, abortion, stem cell research and homosexuality fail to understand is that it was because the pope defied the spirit of the age that he was great. He believed in moral absolutes in a world of moral relativism. He was a beacon of light in a darkening age, a beacon of truth in a moral wilderness.
He died in the 40th year following the close of Vatican II, the church council called by a predecessor, John XXIII. And by the time John Paul II died, all the fashionable and trendy clerics of that time, from Hans Kung to the “Are-You-Running-With-Me-Jesus?” clergy were gone and forgotten
“How many divisions does the Pope have?” Stalin cynically asked. But it was this Polish pope with no army who would inspire Solidarity to stand up to Stalin’s empire and help bring it down peacefully in 1989.
“We’re more popular than Jesus now!” John Lennon exclaimed back then. Where are the Beatles now? “Is God Dead?” Time famously asked in the 1960s. Now people ask, “Is AOLTimeWarner dead?”
But if John Paul II achieved greatness as a man, a leader, a pope, the same cannot be said of the church he led.
Here in America, there has been a dramatic contraction in the numbers of nuns, priests, churches and parish schools since Vatican II. The church in America has been horribly scarred by the ugliest scandal in its history, the abuse of thousands of altar boys and Catholic children by pedophile and homosexual priests, who crept into the seminaries and were not purged when their predations were discovered.
Moreover, there has been a widespread loss of faith and belief in traditional teachings. On birth control, divorce, sexual morality, abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia, millions of Catholics now embrace Hollywood values and the culture of death. Indeed, it was because John Paul II would not yield on any issue that the “Cafeteria Catholics” still cannot concede his greatness.
Today, we are told a new pope must reconcile Catholic teaching to the views of American Catholics. But the proposition is demonstrably absurd.
All the churches that have drunk the Kool-Aid of modernity are dying. Beginning with the Lambeth Conference in 1931, which approved of artificial contraception, the Episcopal Church acceded to the spirit of the age. Today, that church has women priests and homosexual bishops living with male lovers. Meanwhile, many of its most devout priests are defecting to the Rome of John Paul II, while its devoted faithful are splitting away.
While the mainstream Protestant churches shrink, the more orthodox and militant churches that make demands upon their flocks to live by Christian truths are attracting converts.
It was the philosophy of John Paul II that he would do all he could to defend and advance the truths Christ came to earth and died to teach the world. After that, it was up to the Holy Ghost. Now that God has called his good and faithful servant home after a long lifetime of labor, it is up to the Holy Ghost.
It has always been up to the Holy Ghost, Mr. Buchanan...living and working in the hearts of believers--NOT just in the life of the Pope. Since the day of pentecost, the Holy Spirit has worked through each and every person who has put his/her faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and who allows Him supreme lordship over their lives. Oh what a privilege...what a glorious honor to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to allow Him to reign in our hearts.
It remains to be seen just who the Catholic Church will choose as Pope for the future. Will their choice follow the resolute stature and honesty of John Paul? Will the American Catholic Church clean up its act and turn around?? Church attendance in America on all levels is way down. The road America follows depends on what happens to our national value system.
"While the mainstream Protestant churches shrink, the more orthodox and militant churches that make demands upon their flocks to live by Christian truths are attracting converts."
Praise the Lord I see a showdown between traditional Christianity and both militant Islam and liberal christianity; if liberal christians had to face down islam we would all be reading the Koran
Good article.
John Paul II, the rock on which the Church is built.
A very good article by Buchanan.
`
Agree!!
Trouble is, i think the Koran might have been Michael Schiavo's strongest argument for pulling the plug on his woman
ping
Buchanan strangely has been ignorant of this Pope's rampant Liberalism for years.
The plain statement to be made is: He was not great.
He presided over and encouraged the destruction of the Church he was appointed to defend.
Oh brother!
It's unfortunately true. JPII turned his back on many of the dogmas and hard truths of Catholicism. His actions promoted scandal and Indifferentism. He allowed rampant abuse, liturgical abuse, sexual abuse, theological error and numerous sins against God to be performed around the world and in the Vatican itself with Cameras for all the world to see.
OH! Gee whiz!
For a moment there I thought you were serious!
You should really put "/sarcasm" or people will think you are serious!!
Church attendance is down in all the major, affluent countries. Where secularism reigns, there is no need for God until ... disaster, or worse, strikes!
During John Paul II's pontificate,the number of catholics grew from 750 million to 1.1 billion, predominantly in those areas of the world that suffer from oppression.
I am completely serious. The problem with the mass hypnosis going on about the Pope is that there is no actual measuring stick among the sycophants that are praising him.
I've been watching Mitch Pacwa on EWTN spin like James Carville this week.
The whole point of the media talking about how "conservative" and "rigid" JPII was is for the effort to basically trash all of his predecessors then, to include him with his predecessors. Now we need a "less rigid" Pope.
We just had the most liberal Pope in the history of the Church and the results are disastrous.
Now they think the liberal Pope is conservative and we now need a liberal Pope?
C'mon. I can't believe so many people are falling for this.
Pope St. Pius X spelled this all out: "Hence, by those who study more closely the ideas of the Modernists, evolution is described as a resultant from the conflict of two forces, one of them tending towards progress, the other towards conservation. The conserving force exists in the Church and is found in tradition; tradition is represented by religious authority, and this both by right and in fact. By right, for it is in the very nature of authority to protect tradition: and in fact, since authority, raised as it is above the contingencies of life, feels hardly, or not at all, the spurs of progress. The progressive force, on the contrary, which responds to the inner needs, lies in the individual consciences and works in them—especially in such of them as are in more close and intimate contact with life. Already we observe, Venerable Brethren, the introduction of that most pernicious doctrine which would make of the laity the factor of progress in the Church. Now it is by a species of covenant and compromise between these two forces of conservation and progress, that is to say between authority and individual consciences, that changes and advances take place. The individual consciences, or some of them, act on the collective conscience, which brings pressure to bear on the depositories of authority to make terms and to keep to them." (encyclical Pascendi Domini Gregis)
This week's frenzy is papalotry on steroids. Soon someone will declare JPII was Christ himself. It is out of control.
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