[NYer]

Laity's Holiness and John Paul II's Popularity - Interview With Fr Peter Gumpel

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[Loyalist]

If Cardinal Ratzinger is elected, there'll be no end of temper tantrums thrown by the usual suspects. How many of them will actually have the brass to walk, though?

[AnAmericanMother]

Fr. Peter Gumpel was especially appreciative of the work of Ronald Rychlak, Joseph Bottum, David Dalin, and others who have written in First Things in response to the many libelous attacks on Pius XII, such as John Cornwell's vulgar and dishonest book, Hitler's Pope. Gumpel spoke movingly of meetings with John Paul in which the late pope expressed his fervent hope that he would live long enough to beatify his esteemed predecessor. That was not to be, but Fr. Gumpel is confident Pius will be beatified in due course.

The shrill and hysterical vilification of Pius XII was, oddly enough, one of the things that turned me towards the Catholic Church. It became obviously pretty quickly that these folks had an axe to grind -- I was curious as to why, and what they stood to gain. One thing led to another . . .

[Coop]

Wow! This Catholic never had a clue that so many popes had been declared saints.

[SolomoninSouthDakota]

"To which I counter, "Does declaring him a saint mean that other popes were not so saintly?" "

Well, maybe and yeah and I can live with that. What are we supposed to believe now? That all popes are created equal, remain equal, and are equally saintly? Beg to disagree with the distinguished Reverend Neuhaus on this line of argument. That said, John Paul II will be known in the future, by all concerned, as Saint John Paul the Great.

[Romulus]

the "rock star" attraction of John Paul

In a literally fundamental sense, ALL popes are "rock" stars.