"We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think the wide circle of the American society or the wide circles of the christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the Anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence; it is a trial which the whole Church, and the Polish Church in particular, must take up.
It is a trial not only of our nation and the Church, but in a sense it is a test of 2000 years of culture and Christian civilization with all its consequences for human dignity, individual rights and the rights of nations."
I wonder what happened to him after 1976 - and I'm not being sarcastic. While JPII occasionally issues a plaintive statement regretting the course of things, mostly in Europe, he has never really come out fighting very agressively.
We (my family and I) were very happy when he was elected, because he seemed to be heading in the right direction, following the course of JPI.
Perhaps it was the assassination attempt, but he never really carried through on things that many of us thought he was going to do. Aside from his inability/unwillingness to govern, he hasn't even been that forthright in confronting the horribly anti-Catholic European governments, or at any rate, not until very recently.
Pope JPII can sound so pious and in tune with the crisis going on in our Church, but at the same time you must shake your head and wonder why he's never done anything about it. Many of his statements and stated desires for the Church would make a man like Pope St. Pius X cringe. In fact, the Cardinal who founded this great pope's namesake society was excommunicated by JPII. The stated cause for his excommunication was 'disobedience', while the actual cause was his bold attempt at propagating the classical, traditional Catholic faith.