WE SHALL NOT SOON SEE HIS LIKE AGAIN
This is what I emailed my grandson during the death vigil for the Pope:
"Having a busy day, yet keeping watch with the pope as he is dying.
"Just now listening to a Pole tell how the Pope helped set Poland free from cruel communist dictatorship under the USSR, when he came to Poland as new Pope in 1979 and spent 2 weeks there, over the objections of the puppet government, and surrounded by about ¼ of the entire population in the streets – so much that the communists did not dare move against him. A man of great courage. His support for Solidarity, the Polish labor union led by Lech Walesa, helped it work to bring the communists down eventually.
"As you know, it was this Pope, with Reagan and Thatcher (and also Solzhenitsyn, the Russian dissident, philosopher and writer,) who helped bring down the Soviet Union, and to set all of Eastern Europe free from its dictatorship and military occupation. It was almost entirely because of their actions that the ‘Iron Curtain’ wall in Berlin was torn down by a great mass of people one day in October, 1989, followed by one Eastern European country after another throwing off the communist yoke in just a few weeks. We may not soon see their like again – yet I hope and pray we will.
"Many do not know of his stature as a philosopher, but he was a professor of philosophy when he became Pope, and wrote seminal philosophical works. The site http://www.theologyofthebody.net/ is one place to get an idea.
"All over the world people were amazed at how young people connected with him and flocked to him.
"He was so remarkable as a person – attractive and charismatic; living under the Nazis as a slave laborer, barely escaping being sent to a death camp; then under communist rule of Poland; a stage actor in Poland before becoming a priest; then studying in an illegal, underground seminary; fluent in 8 languages, speaking some others capably and dozens more a little; very vigorous and athletic, loving skiing, mountain climbing and hiking and continuing these after becoming pope at 58; and too energetic for his staff to keep up with. A remarkable teacher. Prolific writer. Yet despite so much activity, a very spiritual man. Those around him believed he was always turned toward God. They observed him much in prayer.
"He especially spoke of the role of suffering in our lives, and then lived that out later in full public view. He believes that the dignity of human life is not achieved by trying to shape our lives mostly to avoid all suffering or even inconvenience. And that we are most fully human when we are united with others in their suffering.
"He spoke out against the killing of Terri Schiavo right after she was deprived of food and water. In fact, he had said earlier that no one should ever be deprived of food and water; that they are not “artificial care” but basic needs. Oddly, he had to have a feeding tube inserted himself on the last day of Terri’s life. He also came out against the death penalty after meeting with the nun who wrote “Dead Man Walking,” and has opposed it ever since.
"Never as strong after nearly dying from 2 bullets from an assassin (and later forgiving the muslim assassin, and securing his release), then crippled later by arthritis and Parkinson’s disease, he has lived out his own teaching about suffering.
"The time around the passing of the ‘giants among us’ is the best time to learn about them. Their lives are our teachers. Usually, a great wealth of eye-witness information about them is available that is almost impossible to find later."
We are just in the beginning of appreciating this Pope's example and his epocal writings.
John Paul Two, we miss you.
"Having a busy day, yet keeping watch with the pope as he is dying.
"Just now listening to a Pole tell how the Pope helped set Poland free from cruel communist dictatorship under the USSR, when he came to Poland as new Pope in 1979 and spent 2 weeks there, over the objections of the puppet government, and surrounded by about ¼ of the entire population in the streets – so much that the communists did not dare move against him. A man of great courage. His support for Solidarity, the Polish labor union led by Lech Walesa, helped it work to bring the communists down eventually.
"As you know, it was this Pope, with Reagan and Thatcher (and also Solzhenitsyn, the Russian dissident, philosopher and writer,) who helped bring down the Soviet Union, and to set all of Eastern Europe free from its dictatorship and military occupation. It was almost entirely because of their actions that the ‘Iron Curtain’ wall in Berlin was torn down by a great mass of people one day in October, 1989, followed by one Eastern European country after another throwing off the communist yoke in just a few weeks. We may not soon see their like again – yet I hope and pray we will.
"Many do not know of his stature as a philosopher, but he was a professor of philosophy when he became Pope, and wrote seminal philosophical works. The site http://www.theologyofthebody.net/ is one place to get an idea.
"All over the world people were amazed at how young people connected with him and flocked to him.
"He was so remarkable as a person – attractive and charismatic; living under the Nazis as a slave laborer, barely escaping being sent to a death camp; then under communist rule of Poland; a stage actor in Poland before becoming a priest; then studying in an illegal, underground seminary; fluent in 8 languages, speaking some others capably and dozens more a little; very vigorous and athletic, loving skiing, mountain climbing and hiking and continuing these after becoming pope at 58; and too energetic for his staff to keep up with. A remarkable teacher. Prolific writer. Yet despite so much activity, a very spiritual man. Those around him believed he was always turned toward God. They observed him much in prayer.
"He especially spoke of the role of suffering in our lives, and then lived that out later in full public view. He believes that the dignity of human life is not achieved by trying to shape our lives mostly to avoid all suffering or even inconvenience. And that we are most fully human when we are united with others in their suffering.
"He spoke out against the killing of Terri Schiavo right after she was deprived of food and water. In fact, he had said earlier that no one should ever be deprived of food and water; that they are not “artificial care” but basic needs. Oddly, he had to have a feeding tube inserted himself on the last day of Terri’s life. He also came out against the death penalty after meeting with the nun who wrote “Dead Man Walking,” and has opposed it ever since.
"Never as strong after nearly dying from 2 bullets from an assassin (and later forgiving the muslim assassin, and securing his release), then crippled later by arthritis and Parkinson’s disease, he has lived out his own teaching about suffering.
"The time around the passing of the ‘giants among us’ is the best time to learn about them. Their lives are our teachers. Usually, a great wealth of eye-witness information about them is available that is almost impossible to find later."
We are just in the beginning of appreciating this Pope's example and his epocal writings.
John Paul Two, we miss you.
posted by Old Neocon at 12:34 PM
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