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It has been awhile since I read Pope John Paul II's encyclical on the relationship between faith and reason, Fides et Ratio (1998). Praying my way through it again, I came across a series of passages sprinkled with pithy observations that I wanted to share. While discussing each man's journey in search of the truth, the Pope writes that "all human beings desire to know, and truth is the proper object of this desire." (FR, 25) We reject falsity to the extent that we identify it, and feel rewarded when we discover truth. "It is this that St. Augustine teaches...

ROME, FEB. 18, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Pope John Paul II will be beatified May 1 in part because his intercession brought the healing of a French nun from Parkinson's Disease. But the Polish Pontiff has brought about many more miracles -- living miracles, according to Legionary of Christ Brother Randall Meissen. Brother Meissen has written a book called "Living Miracles: The Spiritual Sons of John Paul the Great" about priests who trace their vocation back to the influence of this Pope. The book explains what these "JP2 revolution" priests have in common and how God chose to plant and nourish the...

A politcal scientist and the Blessed John Paul II's biographer George Weigel suggests that the Catholic Church should look forward instead of constantly remembering history. His article is addressed to the Polish Catholic friends but the same message can be also directed to the Catholic Church in the West. I think that this is a key paragraph to this article. Polish Catholicism should adopt this future-oriented stance. Remembering the John Paul II years should now be a remembering in service to the future. The 21st century Church in Poland must take up John Paul’s challenge in the 1991 encyclical Redemptoris...

Pope John Paul II -- one of history's very most memorable -- took a great leap toward sainthood today when he was beatified by close associate and successor Benedict XVI in a huge, powerful, emotional ceremony attended by hundreds of thousands -- not as many as the three million who attended his funeral, but one of the largest beatifications in history. With the faithful cheering wildly, Benedict declared the Polish pope "blessed" -- the fastest beatification on record, beating out even the rapid pace of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (by several days).

1. Has the beatification of John Paul II been a rush job, as some have charged? No one said that the beatification of Mother Teresa was rushed, despite the calumnies against her work and reputation promoted by Christopher Hitchens. This process hasn’t been “rushed” either. The only procedural exception Pope Benedict XVI made was the same exception John Paul II made for Mother Teresa: He allowed the investigation to begin without the normal five-year waiting period. The investigative process produced a massive, four-volume study that offers far more detail into the life and accomplishments of Karol Wojtyła, Pope John Paul...

The Catholic Church has never been immune to political correctness, and there are many "sacred cows" in the Church today that one must never criticize: women, victims of sexual abuse, unionized Catholic school teachers, etc. One group we rarely think of, however, is recent popes. It seems that every pope we can remember in our life-times has to be the best pope ever! Even Pope Benedict—who comes closest my own idea of "the best pope ever"—is just a little too found of referring to his immediate predecessor as "The Great," an ancient title with a particular meaning, which usually takes...

Modern life is noisy... All too easily, gizmos and gadgets make themselves the masters of our daily routine. I-phones, i-pods, i-pads, and I-don’t-know-what-else are multiplying like rabbits. The consequences are strikingly visible among young people. During my time working in youth ministry, I have seen a generation of kids who are allergic to silence. They pop ear buds into their heads and zone out into their own world of customized ruckus. Others are addicted to different types of psychological noise, and like a nervous tick, show withdrawal symptoms when forbidden to send text messages on school property. John Paul II...

John Paul II had ups and downs to his pontificate. However, I do admire the fact that he had a sense of fun. I read that when he came to England in the 80s he was travelling along in the Popemobile. At the side of the road were some Paisley supporters holding banners saying "Everyone blessed by the Pope is condemned to hell." John Paul, seeing their banner, began to bless them as he went by.

An Opportunity for the JPII Generation to Say “Thank You” Knights of Columbus to deliver letters in gratitude for Pope John Paul II at May 1 beatification With the beatification of John Paul II scheduled for May 1, HeadlineBistro.com is inviting the young people who grew up with him as pope – the members of the “JPII Generation” – to say “thank you” to the late Holy Father. From now until April 27, Headline Bistro, a popular news website for Catholics – and an initiative of the Knights of Columbus – is collecting written submissions from Catholic young adults who...

The beatification of John Paul II, which Pope Benedict XVI will preside over on May 1, will mark the first time in 1,000 years a Pontiff has beatified his immediate predecessor. The director of the L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, said a Jan. 16 article, “One has to return to the heart of the Middle Ages to find a similar situation.” However, he continued, “even in that context it doesn’t compare with the decision of Benedict XVI: in the last 10 centuries no Pope has raised his immediate predecessor to the altars.” “Pietro del Morrone (Celestine V) was canonized in...

<p>“At present there is no cure for Parkinson’s Disease,” says the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.</p> <p>A French nun named Sister Marie Simon-Pierre knows what it’s like to read those words, as she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when she was just 40.</p>

The John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct 26, 2010 / 02:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- To accommodate their rapidly growing community, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist announced today that they will purchase the financially beleaguered John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. near the Catholic University of America.The center, which was the brainchild of the now retired Archbishop of Detroit, Cardinal Adam Maida, has been beset by numerous financial difficulties over the years. Intended to be a museum and Catholic intellectual hub, the center borrowed heavily from the Archdiocese...

On June 2, 1979, the Pope arrived in Poland. What followed will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. He knelt and kissed the ground, the dull gray tarmac of the airport outside Warsaw. The silent churches of Poland at that moment began to ring their bells. The pope traveled by motorcade from the airport to the Old City of Warsaw. The government had feared hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands would line the streets and highways. By the end of the day, with the people lining the streets and highways plus the people massed outside Warsaw...

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger tried to persuade Pope John Paul II to mount a full investigation into a cardinal who abused boys and young monks, one of the Church’s most senior figures revealed yesterday. But Ratzinger’s opponents in the Vatican managed to block the inquiry. As the future Benedict XVI put it: “The other side won.” The pervert cardinal was the late Hans Hermann Groer, removed as Archbishop of Vienna in 1995 following sex allegations. The source for the story is Groer’s successor in Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, an intellectual whom some commentators have tipped as a possible future Pope.The source...

Libertarians have many good things going for them. They oppose massive federal spending and the growth of the welfare state in America. They support liberty for all Americans. They believe in curbing federal power over the economy by getting rid of the Fed and promoting sound money at home. All essentially good ideas. Though, as the old saying goes, no one is perfect.

The late Pope John Paul II, who has been put on the fast track to sainthood by the Vatican, regularly whipped himself as an act of penance to feel closer to God, and signed a secret document saying that he would step down as pontiff if he became incurably ill, according to a new book. "Why a Saint?" by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican "postulator" in charge of the canonization process, says the Polish-born Pope performed self flagellation as a bishop in Krakow and continued to do so in the Vatican after being elected Pope in 1978. "In his wardrobe,...

Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator for the sainthood cause of Pope John Paul II, presents his new book on the late pope in Rome Jan. 26. (CNS/Paul Haring) VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II always took penitence seriously, spending entire nights lying with his arms outstretched on the bare floor, fasting before ordaining priests or bishops and flagellating himself, said the promoter of his sainthood cause. Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator of the late pope's cause, said Pope John Paul used self-mortification "both to affirm the primacy of God and as an instrument for perfecting himself." The monsignor spoke...

January 18, 2010 Gunman Mehmet Ali Agca may reveal KGB plot to kill Pope John Paul II Richard Owen The Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II nearly 30 years ago is to be released from prison today Monday and has raised hopes that he will finally shed light on whether the assassination attempt was a KGB plot. Mehmet Ali Agca, 52, said last week that he would “answer all questions” about the murder attempt after his release. When he was arrested minutes after the attack on St Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, he claimed that...

A Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981 has said he will deliver a true account of his assassination attempt after he is released from jail, his lawyers said. Mehmet Ali Agca, 52, will be set free on January 18 after spending over 28 years in Italian and Turkish prisons. "I will answer to all of these questions [about the assassination attempt] in the next weeks," Agca said in a letter released by his lawyers earlier this week. He also said that he wanted to visit Rome, meet with Pope Benedict XVI, and pray to...

Sister Sobodka said: "Several times he (Pope John Paul) would put himself through bodily penance. "We would hear it – we were in the next room at Castel Gandolfo. You could hear the sound of the blows when he flagellate himself. He did it when he was still capable of moving on his own." The flagellation is also confirmed by another bishop who has given testimony. Emery Kabongo was a secretary for Pope John Paul. "He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests," he said. "I never actually saw it myself but several people...

Once again, the Catholic world has been rocked by yet more allegations of sexual impropriety by Legionnaires of Christ founder, the late Fr. Marcial Maciel. It seems the now-disgraced founder-cum-pervert fathered more children than previously suspected; the latest claimants to his paternity purport to have evidence that the late Pope John Paul II knew of Maciel's sexual dilettantes, and turned a blind eye to them. (If true, it would confirm the prior journalistic scholarship of author Jason Berry.) The allegations highlight what for all too many Catholics is the elephant-in-the-room when discussing the ills which beset the modern Church: the...

The cause for beatification of Pope John Paul II has moved a step forward, according to a report by Andrea Tornielli of the Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale. Tornielli-- who has accurately predicted several recent developments inside the Vatican-- says that theological consultors working with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints have delivered a positive verdict on the positio, the full case in favor of a pronouncement that the life of John Paul II was marked by "heroic virtue." The positio will now be forwarded to the full Congregation for the Causes of Saints for a vote later this...

O Mary Bright Dawn of the New World O Mary! Bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our...

Sex Sermonist's Heroes: Pope John Paul II and Hugh Hefner Devout Catholic Christopher West Lays Out Unexpected Vision of What Sex Can Mean for Christians Christopher West is not your average sex therapist. He's a devout Catholic who believes one of the most important ways we can get closer to God is through great sex.   "As Christians, we are desperately in need of a renewed vision of our sexuality," West has sermonized. "The union of man and woman itself is meant to be here on planet Earth an image, a foretaste, a little glimmer of the eternal ecstasy that...

  Shortly after World War II was over, a young Polish priest who was studying in Rome, Fr. Karol Wojtyla, visited Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo. This encounter took place around 1947 or 1948. At that time in post-war Italy, it was possible to have access to Padre Pio, since travel was difficult and great crowds were not besieging the Friary. The young priest spent almost a week in San Giovanni Rotondo during his visit, and was able to attend Padre Pio’s Mass and make his confession to the saint.   Apparently, this was not just a casual...

As a young boy in Poland before World War II, Karol Jozef Wojtyla possessed an uncommon warmth for an often reviled group of outsiders – Jews.  Like most others in his hometown, Wojtyla was Catholic. But he counted Jewish children among his friends – attending school with them, even playing goalie on their soccer team.  Wojtyla was speechless when one of them, a fellow actor in drama club, informed him that she was leaving to escape looming anti-Semitism.  Decades later, those early experiences and friendships would have a dramatic influence on Wojtyla – the future Pope John Paul II.The Jewish threads of John...

Russian Orthodox-Vatican Thaw May Depend On Vote The late Pope John Paul used to read the Bible in Russian, preparing for a trip he never got to take. Hopes of a further thaw between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox church may depend on the choice of a successor to the late Patriarch Alexiy II in an uncertain procedure that could leave the outcome ultimately to chance. The world's largest church and the biggest of the Orthodox churches have stepped up contacts in recent years and inched towards holding the first summit of their leaders in history. The late Pope...

But Reagan and the Pope spent only a few minutes reviewing events in the Middle East. Instead they remained focused on a subject much closer to their heart: Poland and the Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe. In that meeting, Reagan and the Pope agreed to undertake a clandestine campaign to hasten the dissolution of the communist empire...

When Pope John Paul II proposed a new set of mysteries of the Rosary in 2002, he wished to make the Rosary even more into a compendium of the Gospel. The Pope pointed out that the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries, while commemorating signal events in salvation history, tended to ignore Our Lord’s public ministry. Yet it was through His public ministry that Christ primarily revealed both His own identity and His invitation to enter the Kingdom of God. In this sense, Our Lord’s public ministry is truly luminous. The Other Mysteries The Joyful Mysteries, for example, cover the...

The weekly Wprost, (..), shows a politburo document, signed by Mikhail Gorbachev, which appears to warrant a KGB contract killing on John Paul II. So claims Polish journalist John O. Kohler in a book, also released tomorrow, Chodzi o papie¿a. Szpiedzy w watykanie - (About the Pope: Spies in the Vatican). The politburo document says: "Use all available possibilities to prevent a new political trend, initiated by the Polish pope." The document, which dates back to November 1979, - one year after Karol Wojtyla became pope - is signed by eight top Party officials including Konstantin Rusakov, who coordinated action...

Gorbachev signed JP II KGB death warrant Created: 27.04.2008 15:50 The weekly Wprost, out tomorrow, shows a politburo document, signed by Mikhail Gorbachev, which appears to warrant a KGB contract killing on John Paul II. So claims Polish journalist David Dastych in a book, also released tomorrow, Chodzi o papieża szpiedzy w watykanie - (About the Pope: Spies in the Vatican). The politburo document says: "Use all available possibilities to prevent a new political trend, initiated by the Polish pope…" The document, which dates back to November 1979, - one year after Karol Wojtyla became pope - is signed by...

The Third Anniversary of the passing to the Father of the Servant of God John Paul II draws near and the sense of the faithful grows even stronger.

A well-known art group has ruffled the Catholic Church’s feathers by portraying John Paul II as a paedophile. Artist group Surrend has again achieved its goal of provoking the establishment through two displays on a Polish website depicting the late Pope John Paul II as a paedophile, reported public broadcaster DR last week. The webpage, placed on the vaticansex.pl website, shows an image of the late pontiff lifting the gowns of two alter boys while saying: ‘I’m against homosexuality, but all for paedophilia.’ The second image is of the former pope burning in the flames of hell. The webpage was...

Cardinals at the Vatican have chosen the first non-Italian Pope for more than 400 years. Catholics around the world have been astonished by the choice of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the Archbishop of Krakow. Few people had suggested him as a possible successor to John Paul I, who died last month after just 33 days in office. He is barely known outside his native Poland. After two days and eight votes, the result of the final, conclusive vote giving a two-thirds majority plus one to the Polish bishop was signalled with a plume of white smoke above the roof of the...

When you add it all up, I’ve spent more than a year and a half of my life in Poland. My Polish adventures began sixteen years ago, when I went to Warsaw, Cracow, and Gdansk in June 1991 to learn how the Church and John Paul II had helped accelerate the demise of European communism. (That first trip taught me an important lesson, occurring as it did during a papal pilgrimage to Poland: Polish cities are dry when the Pope is in town. My pleas to a bartender — “Look, the Pope is my friend; he wants me to have...

"Was John Paul II Euthanized?" - TIME Distorts Catholic Teaching to Give Credence to Outlandish Accusations Story broke a week after Pope declared "food and fluids" morally obligatory to PVS patients like Terri Schiavo By Peter J. Smith ROME, September 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "Was John Paul II Euthanized?" The sensationalist story peddled by TIME magazine has grabbed the world's attention with the thought that the great champion of human life, the author of "Evangelium Vitae," and steadfast opponent of abortion and euthanasia, may have rejected his Church's teachings to end his life. However TIME's story warps Catholic teachings in...

Final Prayer Was Lesson for Attending PhysicianVATICAN CITY, SEPT. 20, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The final voiced prayer of Pope John Paul II was an act of profound asceticism, said his personal physician. Dr. Renato Buzzonetti said the Pope's last words were "the prayer of a saint that loved life until the good Lord called him to himself," reported an article Sunday in Italy's La Republica newspaper. The doctor continued: "Pope John Paul II was cared for until the last moment of his life, when at 9:37 p.m. on April 2, 2005, he breathed his last. "It is true that he had...

Vatican City - Doctors assisting Pope John Paul II in his final days never suspended medical treatment and the pontiff did not ask them to do so, his personal physician said. Pro-euthanasia activists in Italy have said the pope refused medical treatment such as artificial respiration and feeding because he wanted to be allowed to die. The Catholic Church forbids euthanasia, which has been at the centre of a heated debate in Italy in recent months. However, the church's Catechism says medical procedures that are "burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary or disproportionate to the expected outcome" can be discontinued with the permission...

Former Head of UN Population Fund Reveals Longstanding Alliance with Catholics for a Free Choice Says Catholic Church Prior to John Paul II was Easier to Work With - "With the passing of Pope Paul VI, everything became much harder" By John-Henry Westen NEW YORK, August 31, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - During her 14 years at the helm of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Nafis Sadik always denied the organization's abortion advocacy even in the face of overwhelming evidence.  She did not directly name her pro-life enemies nor did she reveal her allies in the battle to establish a global...

German newspaper mocks John Paul II, beatification process Apr. 4, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A caustic article about the beatification process for Pope John Paul II (bio - news), published in the German newspaper Die Welt, has drawn a protest from the Polish ambassador to Germany. Die Welt referred to the late Pontiff as "an unsympathetic old man," and included a series of tasteless jokes about the Pope and the cause for his beatification. The newspaper crudely suggested that the late Pope, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, might have won a medal at the Para-Olympics. It joked that he should have...

Poles commemorate death of Pope John Paul II 02/04/2007 - 15:24:17 Poles planned vigils and concerts today to mark the second anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. They also prayed for a speedy sainthood for the revered Pontiff. Vigils on the exact hour of John Paul's death, 8.37pm, were planned in the southern town of Wadowice, where the Pope was born Karol Wojtyla in 1920. They were to be held also in Krakow, where he served as priest and bishop for almost 40 years, in Warsaw and in other cities. Special concerts were planned in Warsaw, Krakow...

Close friend of Pope John Paul II a communist spy? 14.02.2007 Fr. Mieczysław Maliński, a well-known priest from Kraków and a close friend of John Paul II from the times before Karol Wojtyła became Pope, was registered as a collaborator of the communist secret services, reveals a book based on the communist archives investigated by the Polish Roman Catholic Church historical commission. Report by Joanna Najfeld According to the documents, Fr. Maliński was to start cooperation with the communist intelligence back in 1960s when he was in Rome. There, he was to provide information on Polish priests taking part in...

  SIMEON IS OPEN TO THE LORD’S ACTION Pope John Paul II He invites us to look at the merciful action of God who pours out the Spirit on his faithful in order to bring his mysterious plan of love to fufilment"In the episode of the Presentation we can glimpse the meeting of Israel's hope with the Messiah. We can also see in it a prophetic sign of man's encounter with Christ", the Holy Father said at the General Audience of Wednesday, 11 December, while reflecting on the mystery of Jesus' Presentation in the temple and the significance of...

Exclusive from Poland: Who Was Spying on Karol Wojtyla By Gigi Riva, Thursday, January 25, 2007 Names, reports, and documents from the network of informants who kept watch over the life of the great churchman, before and after his election as pope. From "L'espresso" no. 3, January 19-25, 2007 "Wojdyla" that's how it's written. In 1949, the future pope was a misspelled name in the reports sent to the secret police by a turncoat priest in the Krakow curia. But they would get to know him very well -- and how to spell his name -- over the next forty...

In this defeatist climate, it's a shock to remember three who changed the world "It feels like August," wrote the National Review's editor, Rich Lowry, about eight months after 9/11. August 2001, that is: he meant America's war on terror seemed to have lost its urgency and the "sleeping giant" appeared to be resuming his slumbers. Five years on, it's worse than that: it feels like the seventies. Now as then, America seems less a sleeping giant than a helpless one, ensnared by Lilliputians and longing for release. Some Republicans distance themselves from the President's "surge" in Iraq, others dutifully...

BOOK REVIEW Faith and risk in the Cold War The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister by John O'Sullivan Reviewed by Spengler John O'Sullivan's account of the Western victory over communism should have a place in the medicine cabinet of every literate family, as an antidote to the stultifying academic drivel and the self-serving bureaucratic memoirs that may cause choking. O'Sullivan's Cold War, spent in part advising British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (now Baroness Thatcher), was strange, even miraculous. Who could have predicted that a broken-down movie star, a grocer's daughter from the English provinces and a Polish priest...

Soviet Union behind John Paul shooting: papal aide By Philip Pullella Reuters Monday, January 22, 2007; 8:55 AM ROME (Reuters) - The late Pope John Paul's closest aide is convinced the former Soviet Union was behind the assassination attempt on the pontiff in 1981 because he was a threat to its power, according to the aide's memoirs. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's private secretary for nearly four decades, writes of his life with the former Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in a book called "A Life with Karol" to be released by Italy's Rizzoli publishers on Wednesday. Dziwisz, now the archbishop of...

Is there a JPII generation in Poland? 29.12.2006 - Michal Kubicki As millions of Catholics around the world commemorated the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death earlier this month, in his native Poland the atmosphere was very reminiscent of what the country witnessed a year ago, before and after the Pope's death. But is there anything beyond these manifestations of religious fervour? All analysts of the pontificate of John Paul II agree that he was able to establish a special rapport with young people. After the Pope's death a year ago, one could see a sense of unity...

VATICAN CITY, December 21, 2006 (C-Fam.org) - A prominent journalist has argued recently that international political, economic and social breakdown were largely averted during the 1980's due to the personal and political alignments between Pope John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In his recently-released book, The Pope, The President, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World, National Review Editor-at-Large and Hudson Institute Fellow John O’Sullivan offers new research illuminating the three “hopeful” and “confident” personalities, and the way they forged relationships of mutual trust through their alliances and disagreements in a period of...

The 1981 summer English Seminar in Poznan, Poland, had ended, and the twenty-six British and American instructors and the more than two hundred students had gathered for the farewell party. A young woman from one of my classes told me of John Paul II’s first visit to Poland as pope and the pilgrimage she and her classmates made to Czestochowa to worship with him at the shrine of their homeland’s holiest icon, “the Black Madonna,” at Jasna Gora. “There we were with the Holy Father,” she said, “thousands of us, praying silently with him, and you could feel the power...