[Servant of the Cross]

Yea, it's Peggy. But she knows JPII. This is a history lesson, not Peggy's politics.

Nine Days That Changed The World [Yea, it's Newt's documentary, but again a history lesson, not politics.]

Pope John Paul II (the Great)

[Servant of the Cross]

ping

[fwdude]

It’s really irritating to go the the website referenced from the except only to find that you must sign up or subscribe to the service to read the full article. I’d guess that most people won’t do this. Fewer hurdles, please.

[Rumplemeyer]

save

[RoadTest]

“Make Him A Saint”

It isn’t up to us.

[sigzero]

You cannot “make” someone a saint. The Apostles couldn’t even do that. A “saint” is simply a follower of Christ and the Bible makes that infinitely clear.

[kosciusko51]

According to Paul of Tarsus, all believers in Christ, living or dead, are saints.

"Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you.", Philippians 4:21 (King James Version).

In the Greek, ἅγιον , meaning "most holy thing, a saint".

[Romulus]

"Habemus papem"—"We have a pope."

And a typo.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Here’s the full article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704463804576291513299466454.html

[Atlas Sneezed]

But it was what happened a week later, at the Blonie field outside Krakow, that led directly to 1989, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. That was the event that made political history.

It was June 10, near the end of the trip. Everyone was tired. There was to be a last outdoor mass. The government had not allowed it to be publicized. But words spread, and two million people came, maybe three million. It was the biggest gathering in Polish history. Here John Paul took on communism more directly. He exhorted the crowd to receive the Holy Spirit. “I speak . . . for St. Paul: Do not quench the Spirit. . . . I speak again for St. Paul: Do not grieve the Spirit of God!”

“You must be strong, my brothers and sisters. You must be strong with the strength that faith gives. . . . You need this strength today more than any other period in our history. . . . You must be strong with love, which is stronger than death. . . . Never lose your spiritual freedom.”

The mass was stirring, with crowds saying, again, “We want God!” But here is the thing. Everyone at that mass went home and put on state-controlled television to see the coverage of the great event. They knew millions had been there, they knew what was said, they knew everyone there was part of a spiritual uprising. But state-run TV had nothing. State-run TV had a few people in the mud and a picture of the pope.

Everyone looked at the propaganda of the state, at its lack of truthfulness and its disrespect for reality, and they thought: It’s all lies. Everything the government says is a lie. The government itself is a lie.

[Atlas Sneezed]

In Peggy’s defense, the title is not quite her admonition, but a translation of the crowds’ cry at JPII’s funeral:

And when he died, there was the miracle of the crowds. John Paul had been old and dying for a long time, and the Vatican knew he’d been forgotten. They didn’t plan for crowds.

But when he died, people came running. They dropped what they were doing and filled the streets of Rome, they got on trains and plans and Rome was engulfed.

Four million people came.

They travelled from every country in Europe and beyond, they had nowhere to sleep, they filled the streets carrying candles.

There had never been anything like it. Old Rome had seen its popes come and go, but the crowds came and wouldn’t leave until he was buried. And when his coffin was carried out and shown to them, they roared.

“Santo Subito!” they said. Make him a saint.

And now this weekend he will be beatified, a step toward sainthood. He will become Blessed John Paul the Second, and nobody will misunderstand his name.