Historical Drama with Pope John Paul II

Historical Drama with Pope John Paul II
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com –The Annunciation of the Lord, Friday, March 25, 2011

Excerpts from George Weigel’s book, “The End and the Beginning: “John Paul II was keenly aware of being the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. So from the very beginning of his pontificate, he bent every effort to introduce himself to his new flock in terms they could understand and appreciate… 95

“Karol Wojtyla had always understood himself as a priest and a bishop, not a politician; that sense of his vocation did not change when he assumed the Chair of Peter as pope. As priest and bishop had frequently spoken in defense of the human person and in defense of religious freedom. He would not – could not – change those convictions as pope. Moreover, he took his election as an act of Divine Providence rather as simply the result of papal electoral arithmetic, he had to conclude that his distinctive life experience had brought him to the papacy at this moment in history for a reason… 97

“The KGB had targeted Wojtyla for surveillance under its PROGRESS operation since 1971; PROGRESS used the infiltration of “illegals” – foreigners often masquerading as businessmen – to monitor the activities of those suspected of subversion. On October 17th, the day after Wojtyla’s election, the KGB resident in Warsaw Vadim Pavlov, sent Moscow Center an SB assessment…

“Wojtyla holds extreme anti-communist views. Without openly opposing the Socialist system, he has criticized the way in which the agencies of the Polish People’s Republic have functioned, making the following accusations: that the basic human rights of Polish citizens are restricted;

that there is an unacceptable exploitation of the workers, whom “ the Catholic Church must protect against the workers’ government;” that the activities of the Catholic Church are restricted & Catholics treated as second-class citizens; that an extensive campaign is being conducted to convert society to atheism and impose an alien ideology on the people; that the Catholic Church is denied its proper cultural role, thereby depriving Polish culture of its national treasures.” 100

“Jerzy Turowitz, Wojtyla’s long time friend and editor at Tygodnik Powszdechny got a pithier reaction to John Paul II’s election from a distinguished Italian journalist who … had good Soviet connections: Moscow, the journalist told Turowitz , “would prefer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as Secretary-General of the United Nations than a pole as pope.” Solzhenitsyn himself was convinced that something important had happened. When the news of Wohtyka’s election reached the Nobel Laureate in his exile in Cavendish, Vermont, he threw out his arms and exclaimed , “It’s a miracle! It’s the first positive event since World War I and it’s going to change the face of the world!”

“Solzhenitsyn who admired Stefan Wyszynski, [Archbishop in Poland] did not know Karol Wojtyla personally, but he knew what his election meant: the Catholic resistance to communism would be rooted in religious convictions and expressed through the instruments and symbols of culture, which Solzhenitsyn believed were the strongest and most effective weapons available… 101

George H. Kubeck
It’s great to see bishops step into the footsteps of Pope John Paul II in dealing with the U.S. culture of death advocates; and conformable to the 1st Amendment. Most of the bishops are J.P.II’s appointees.