Posted on 04/05/2005 10:01:41 AM PDT by Pendragon_6
Scholars and historians will debate for years to come the precise causes and historical forces that produced the sudden collapse of communism at the end of the 1980s. One matter not in dispute, however, will be the earth-shattering role played in the process by Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope.
From the moment of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla's election to the papacy in October 1978, he began to shake the very foundations of communism. His first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979 helped undermine government censorship as the Polish people heard the pope talk about human dignity and pray, "Spirit, come and renew the face of the Earth." As young Poles gathered in throngs to hear the pope preach, they saw masses and felt the press of individuals just like themselves and knew they were not alone in wanting freedom and human dignity.
It was no accident that the Polish church became a primary force behind the resistance against communism, uniting both Catholics and non-Catholic Poles in solidarity against communism. The pope was without a doubt the major source of hope and encouragement to his fellow countryman Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity workers' union and future president of Poland post-communism.
After the fall of communism, Pope John Paul II released a papal encyclical titled "Centesimus Annus" (1991), which explained within a Christian framework why communism had failed and from that failure drew lessons about social, political and economic organization. In the process, the papal encyclical explained how people must organize themselves secularly, not to establish "heaven on Earth" but to maintain human dignity and social conditions conducive to each individual's having an opportunity to seek and achieve salvation of his soul. In other words, the pope placed individual freedom squarely within the core of Christian theology.
Communism was a secular failure
Continued
one of the things i admired about this pope was his independence from politics. both parties in this country will argue about who really won the cold war, but the reality was that communism fell from its own ridiculous weight, and the determination of the people - not politically inspired, but spiritually inspired, to be rid of oppression.
he also warned the "western" "capitalist" world that a soulless materialism was as spiritually bankrupt as the "religion" of stalin, and called upon all (catholics and non-catholics even non-christians) to draw their strength from faith.
i didn't always agree with him on every issue, as i suspect is the case with many of his admirers, but that just demonstrates how hungry we all are for leadership from a genuine spiritual source, and how that need trumps leanings that are merely political.
China has a large and swiftly growing Christian population. I've read estimates anywhere from 20 million to 100 million.
I agree with your analysis of Reagan and JP2's roles in the fall of Soviet communism. I've come to the conclusion that each complemented the other and one of them alone could not have done the job without the other.
As for China and North Korea, I'd like to see the same thing. But with Bush preoccupied by Islamofascism, and no "native" pro-freedom leader with the same charisma as JP2, I'm not hopeful of the near term prospects.
John Paul II was more than just a spritiual force in the overthrow of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, in fact he was a major element in the tactics that brought that tyranny to it's knees.
John Paul II was a moral giant on this planet. His equal may never be seen again.
bump for later....
Argue about who really WON the cold war? I KNOW who won, but please Mr. Lefty, enlighten us heathens.
And how was it that communnism didn't fall "from its own ridiculous weight" prior to the Reagan, Thatcher, papal attack on it? Just a coincidence I guess?
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