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REMEMBERING JOHN PAUL II

Ultimo Aggiornamento: 09/02/2012 01:56
14/06/2009 20:45
 
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CARDINAL DZIWISZ ON JOHN PAUL II'S 1ST POLAND TRIP

Krakow Archbishop Explains What Changed Europe

KRAKOW, Poland, JUNE 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The dismantling of the Berlin Wall didn't begin in Berlin; rather it happened in 1979 in Poland, according to Pope John Paul II's longtime personal secretary.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, now archbishop of Krakow, affirmed this in an interview with Marcin Przeciszewski and Tomasz Królak of the Polish Catholic agency Kai, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Polish Pope's first trip to his homeland.

ZENIT here presents that interview, in which the cardinal suggests that the June 2-10, 1979, papal trip was the event that started to change the face of Eastern Europe.

Q: When did John Paul II begin to think about a possible visit to his homeland?

Cardinal Dziwisz: Already as a cardinal, Karol Wojtyla gave great importance to the 900th anniversary of the death of St. Stanislaw, and from some time before he had prepared the celebrations. He had given invitations to all of the cardinals that participated in the conclave of August 1978 and he immediately invited Pope John Paul I to Krakow as well. Because of this, from the first moment of his election to the See of Peter, it was natural for him to do everything possible to come to Poland to celebrate the anniversary. He felt it a moral duty to be in Krakow, though he realized it wasn't going to be easy to bring this about.

Q: Did he think that the Polish Communist authorities wouldn't easily accept something like this?

Cardinal Dziwisz: When the Polish authorities heard this request, they reacted negatively. But in the mean time, John Paul II had received the invitation to visit Mexico. He welcomed it with joy. For him, Latin America was very important in regard to liberation theology -- the attempt to see the social doctrine of the Church through the lens of Marxist ideology. And he said: If I can go to Mexico, the nation that has the most anticlerical constitution in the world, then even the Polish government cannot tell me no. He well remembered that the Communist authorities had not permitted the visit of Paul VI. But nevertheless he intuited that they couldn't stop him.

Q: When did the negotiations begin?

Cardinal Dziwisz: Quite soon. The negotiation was directed by the secretary of the Polish episcopal conference, Bishop Bronislaw Dabrowski. In the end, Warsaw opened the doors but with a condition: The Pope's visit could not coincide with the anniversary of St. Stanislaw in May. The Holy Father answered: That's fine, then I'll come the next month, in June.

Q: And regarding the itinerary, were there difficulties?

Cardinal Dziwisz: It was established that the Pope couldn't go beyond the Vistula, to the regions of eastern Poland. And Silesia was also excluded. Basically, the authorities wanted the trip to be as brief as possible and the movement very limited.

Q: In the end, the difficulties were overcome. Did John Paul II consider the possible consequences of his trip? Did he realize that it has been so crucial for the development of events in Poland?

Cardinal Dziwisz: No one could foresee that. He was convinced that the Polish nation, so strongly rooted in the faith, deserved the visit of the Pope. Today without a doubt we can say that his first pilgrimage to Poland was the most important of all the papal journeys because it sparked a process of incredible changes at the global level. Everything began during those days.

Q: How did the Pope prepare for this trip?

Cardinal Dziwisz: He alone wrote all the texts of the discourses and the homilies. The role of the Polish section of the secretariat of state was only to give citations. He didn't use any notes; his memory was enough. He was perfectly organized and he wrote very quickly: A long discourse didn't take him more than an hour and a half of preparation. For a brief discourse, an hour was enough. And he read a lot. He was able to do various things at the same time.

Q: The principal theme of the pilgrimage was the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. This was cited in almost all the Pope's discourses. Was this a decision that he consulted his collaborators about?

Cardinal Dziwisz: John Paul II was a visionary, like many artists. He knew what to say and what the nation hoped he would say. He knew how to present these themes in the light of faith and the teaching of the Church. Moreover, it was the period of Pentecost.

Q: But did John Paul II realize that the discourse given in Gniezno -- where he affirmed that the mission of the Slavic Pope was to make Europe rediscover the unity between West and East -- called into question the Vatican Ostpolitik that in fact accepted the existing situation?

Cardinal Dziwisz: John Paul II always rejected the doctrine of the "historic compromise," according to which the West and even the Church were to consider Marxism as a decisive element in the development of history. He was convinced that the future belonged to neither Marxism nor the class struggle. In this sense, he decisively changed Vatican politics. The change of perspective caused reflection in many environments and the questioning of if Marxism were really so strong.

With the same determination, John Paul II opposed the attempts to include the Marxist analysis in the social doctrine of the Church in the context of liberation theology. For him, the development of humanity passed through the possibility of choice and through human rights. He was in favor of the rights of the person and the untouchable dignity of man. The discourse in Gniezno marked the beginning of the fall of the Iron Curtain that divided Europe then. The fall of the Wall began there, not in Berlin.

Q: Was there not concern even in the Vatican at the fact that John Paul II was going so far?

Cardinal Dziwisz: A declaration of such force in favor of these rights indeed alarmed some, among them, even men of the Church.

Q: Does it bother you that today they speak of the Berlin Wall and not of Gniezno or the Solidarity Movement?

Cardinal Dziwisz: Historical facts must be spoken of. The fall of the Wall was the consequence of the process begun in 1979 in Poland and I repeat: The dismantling of the Iron Curtain began June 3, 1979, in Gniezno.

Q: In Krakow, during the course of that first trip, the Pope went to the window of the archbishop's residence and spoke with the youth -- a dialogue that would later repeat itself in each of his trips to Poland. Was this on the agenda?

Cardinal Dziwisz: No. It was an absolutely spontaneous initiative. Thousands of people were waiting under the window and they called to the Pope. He had to let himself be seen in some way. The Holy Father made that decision on his own, against the recommendations of some in his party who discouraged it for reasons of security.

Q: In your opinion, what is the deepest meaning of his first pilgrimage to Poland?

Cardinal Dziwisz: After this visit, Poland was no longer the same. The people held their heads up high; they were no longer afraid.

Q: Was the Solidarity Movement born as a natural fruit of this liberation?

Cardinal Dziwisz: John Paul II liberated the interior energy of the people. In this sense, he established the spiritual foundation for the birth of Solidarnosc the next year.

Q: During his return to the Vatican, did John Paul II make any comments about the trip?

Cardinal Dziwisz: He didn't say anything because he had lost his voice. Upon his return, he was very tired; he slept for a stretch of 14 hours.

Q: Let's talk about martial law, introduced by General Jaruzelski in December of 1981. What was the Pope's reaction?

Cardinal Dziwisz: John Paul II rarely showed his concern. But he raised his voice in the Basilica of St. Peter, in the presence of the Polish delegation presided over by President Jablonski. This happened in October of 1982, on the occasion of the canonization of Father Kolbe. The Pope said, "The nation does not deserve what you have done to it."

Q: But John Paul II had taken into consideration the possibility of a Soviet invasion of Poland?

Cardinal Dziwisz: No one took this seriously into consideration, given that the Soviets were already bent on Afghanistan. We knew that the Soviet Union could not permit it. Regarding this we had precise information directly from the White House; we had received them from Zbigniew Brzezinski and from President Reagan himself, who personally called the Pope.

Q: What was the relationship between John Paul II and General Jaruzelski? He continues saying that martial law was the lesser evil compared to the Soviet invasion.

Cardinal Dziwisz: The Pope never accepted such an interpretation. He respected the intelligence and culture of Jaruzelski, but he was not in agreement with him at all. The general looked exclusively at the East. As opposed to Edward Gierek, who, saying goodbye to the Pope at the end of his trip said, "Here in Warsaw, the winds of the East and the West blow. Holy Father, you keep up those of the West."

Q: Let's move to the present. When can we expect the canonization of John Paul II?

Cardinal Dziwisz: That depends directly on Benedict XVI. In any case it seems to me that everything is going very well. The process for the miracle is already under way. And the recognition of the heroic virtues of Karol Wojtyla will be decisive. We hope that the devil doesn't stick his tail in the matter.

Q: Have you ever felt the presence of the devil?

Cardinal Dziwisz: Yes, I've felt it. In the strongest way when the devil was expelled from a young woman. I was there; I know what that means. It is terrible to sense the presence of a force that is so great and incontrollable. I saw how he mistreated her physically, I heard the voice with which he yelled at her. It happened after a general audience. John Paul II recited the exorcism, but nothing. Then he said that the next day he would celebrate Mass for the intentions of the youth. And after this Mass, she suddenly felt like another person; everything had gone away. At first she didn't believe it; she thought that it was a psychic illness. But Satan exists.

Q: And how can his presence in the world be seen?

Cardinal Dziwisz: Satan exists, even though the prevalent ideology thinks this is pure fairytales. Today the devil works so that people believe he doesn't exist. This is a more perfidious methodology.
[Modificato da benefan 14/06/2009 20:48]
02/07/2009 01:50
 
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JPII Cause Moves Forward

POSTED BY EDWARD PENTIN
National Catholic Register
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 9:11 AM

The latest on John Paul II’s beatification process:

According to Andrea Tornielli, Vatican correspondent for Il Giornale, a meeting of theologian consultors was held yesterday morning at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. It was the second such meeting to examine the “positio ” — documents on the testimony of the cause.

The first meeting on May 13 came across obstacles, not because of the personal holiness of John Paul II was in doubt, but mainly because of a lack of documentation.

Tornielli says that the postulator of the cause, Msgr. Slawomir Oder, has since replied in writing to the objections. Yesterday, at the second and final meeting of the theologians, the majority of those present voted to pass the process onto the next stage. Two of them held back their initial assessment because they believe that “the framework and documentary evidence must be integrated,” reports Tornielli.

Now the “positio ” goes to the cardinals and bishops of the congregation’s members, who before the end of the year will decide on the heroic virtues of John Paul. Then it will be up to Pope Benedict XVI to decide whether to promulgate a decree, declaring him Venerable, the penultimate stage to beatification.

02/07/2009 19:42
 
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GEMELLI'S JOHN PAUL II STATUE UNVEILED

Gives Tribute to Pontiff's Teaching on Suffering

ROME, JULY 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A statue of John Paul II titled "Be Not Afraid," was inaugurated Tuesday at Rome's Gemelli hospital.

The new sculpture was blessed by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow and personal secretary and of the Polish Pope during his 27 years of pontificate.

The Tuscan sculptor, Stefano Pierotti, was present at the inauguration as well as the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno.

Cardinal Dziwisz recalled that the Gemelli hospital was the first place outside the Vatican walls that John Paul II visited as Pope on October 18, 1978, two days after his election.

He went to the clinic to visit his friend, Bishop Andrzej Deskur, who was later named cardinal and president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the cardinal stated.

John Paul II was taken to Gemelli on nine occasions: the first on May 13, 1981, after the assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square, and the last in March 2005, shortly before his death.

He spent a total of 153 days and 152 nights there.

On one of those occasions -- during a stay in 1996 -- the Pontiff dubbed the hospital Vatican III: the third papal residence after the Apostolic Palace in Rome and the summer home in Castel Gandolfo.

The cardinal said that this joke was not far from reality, that the Pope actually felt at home in Gemelli because it was a "Catholic hospital par excellence."

Teaching chair

"How could you not love that place, which would become the symbolic altar where he offered his life?" Cardinal Dziwisz asked.

"From this place, he has taught the Church how to live and how to die with the Lord," he added.

The Gemelli was his original "cathedra" the prelate said, and thus the name of the hospital will remain inseparable from the memory of this Pope.

The cardinal stated, "From the tenth floor window, he blessed the suffering crowd, and now from the center of the square -- where his sculpture was raised with exquisite sensitivity -- he will continue to watch over this site and to bless those who come, and those who here serve the sorrow of mankind."

The administrative director of the hospital, Doctor Antonio Cicchetti, said that there has been a desire to give tribute to John Paul II since April 2005.

Through him, the director explained, the hospital became known throughout the world, "thus increasing its fame and prestige."

Due to the size of the sculpture, he said, the only place conceivable to place it was the plaza in front of the hospital, where it can be seen from the building's windows.

Lorenzo Ornaghi, the rector of Italy's Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, which uses Gemelli as the teaching hospital for its medical school, stated that the statue's theme, "Be Not Afraid," defines the institution.

He recalled that during John Paul II's hospitalizations, the window of the tenth floor apartment, which is reserved for the Holy Father, became for all people the access to a teaching about suffering but also of "endless praise to the Lord, of human teachings and of Christian witness about the gratuitous gift of life and of faith."

The sculpture took about seven months to complete. It weights around 18 tons and measures 3.05 meters [10 feet] tall.

24/11/2009 18:50
 
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Heard on Today Radio 4 this morning:
There was a short news item this morning on "Today". A nun, presumably one of the Polish ones who looked after John Paul, has said that he regularly flagellated himself in atonement for his sins. She must have been able to hear this from the next room.

I've heard no more about it since and I haven't checked to see if it's online anywhere.

26/01/2010 17:49
 
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Pope John Paul flagellated himself, new book says

By Philip Pullella
Jan. 26, 2010

ROME (Reuters) - The late Pope John Paul flagellated himself regularly to emulate Christ's suffering and signed a secret document saying that would resign instead of ruling for life if he became incurably ill, a new book shows.

The book, called "Why a Saint? was written by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican official in charge of the process that could lead to Roman Catholic sainthood for John Paul. It includes some previously unpublished documents.

John Paul, who died in 2005, was sick and suffering in several periods of his papacy. He was shot and nearly killed in 1981, he underwent several operations, including one for cancer, and suffered from Parkinson's disease for more than decade.

The book, which was published Tuesday, reveals that even when he was not ill, he inflicted pain on himself, known in Christianity as mortification, so as to feel closer to God.

"In Krakow as in the Vatican, Karol Wojtyla flagellated himself," Oder writes in the book, citing testimony from people in the late pope's close entourage while he was bishop in his native Poland and after he was elected pope in 1978.

"In his closet, among his vestments, there was hung on a clothes hanger a particular kind of belt for pants, which he used as a whip," Oder writes.

When he was bishop in Poland, he often slept on the bare floor so he could practice self-denial and asceticism, Oder writes.

Many saints of the Church, including St. Francis of Assisi, St Catherine of Siena and St. Ignatius of Loyola, practiced flagellation and asceticism as part of their spiritual life.

The book also confirmed that as his health failed, John Paul prepared a document for aides stating that he would step down instead of ruling for life if he became incurably ill or permanently impaired from carrying out his duties as pope.

He signed the document on February 15, 1989, eight years after the failed assassination attempt. The existence of the document had been the subject of many rumors and reports over the years but it has been published for the first time in full in the book.

John Paul wrote that he would resign "in the case of infirmity which is presumed incurable, long-lasting and which impedes me from sufficiently carrying out the functions of my apostolic ministry."

In the end, the pope decided to stay on until his death, saying it was for the good of the Church. Had he stepped down, he would have been the first Roman Catholic pontiff to do so willingly since 1294.

John Paul moved closer to sainthood last month when Pope Benedict approved a decree recognizing that his predecessor had lived the Christian faith heroically.

It was one of the key steps in the procedure by which the Church recognizes its saints.

The next step will be the recognition of a miracle attributed to John Paul. It involves a French nun who was inexplicably cured of Parkinson's disease after praying to him.

After the Vatican recognizes the event as a miracle, the late pope can be beatified, the last step before sainthood.

Crowds at his funeral shouted "Santo Subito!" (Make him a saint immediately!)

27/01/2010 23:24
 
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29/01/2010 06:22
 
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The purpose of self-mortification

STUNNER! Pope Practiced Self-Mortification.

 
Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:19 PM Comments (1)

So various circles have been atwitter about news reports that Pope John Paul II practiced certain forms of self-mortification or, in the immortal words of the Associated Press, “John Paul II used belt to whip himself.”

It is not surprising that our pleasure-obsessed culture would find this unusual, nor is it surprising that latent anti-Catholic tendencies in the culture would cause people to read it in a negative light—as something shocking or repulsive.

So what can we say to those who have this kind of reaction?

Let’s start with what we can say to fellow Christians (Catholic or not) who find themselves thinking this way: While not every person is called to the kind of self-mortification that John Paul II practiced, self-mortification is part of the Judeo-Christian tradition with roots going all the way back to the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.

We read in the Old Testament, for example, of people fasting, wearing sackcloth (which abrades the skin; the Old Testament equivalent of a hairshirt), putting ashes on their heads, and lying tied-up in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time (Ezekiel 4:4-8).

In the New Testament we also read of such practices, and of particular note are Jesus’ own remarks about (and personal practice of) fasting. If Our Lord himself practiced fasting, then self-mortification could scarcely fail to find a place in Christian spirituality. Note also that in the Sermon on the Mount he doesn’t say “if” you fast but “when” you fast—implying an expectation of his followers.

Once we have recognized this, the issue of self-mortification becomes one of degree and occasion, for the fundamental principle has been established. If a particular Christian’s faith tradition (or personal view) hasn’t made room for self-mortification then he needs to conduct an open-minded re-examination of the issue.

He might be helped in that re-examination by what we can say to a non-believer, which goes beyond establishing that self-mortification is biblical and deals with the underlying principles.

The first thing to point out is that this isn’t masochism. It’s not the case of wanting the pain out of some sick craving. While there are masochists, anything they do along these lines is not a genuine spiritual exercise. The whole point of self-mortification is that you don’t find the pain attractive but are willing to submit to it anyway for a higher goal.

And the non-believer, unless he is a unthinking hedonist, should be able to acknowledge that it can be legitimate to endure pain for a higher goal (i.e., that there can be higher goals in life than just avoiding pain). For example, the pain that soldiers undergo to defend their country, the pain that parents undergo to help their children, and the pain that absolutely all of us must shoulder in order to achieve important goals.

So what goal was John Paul II, and other practitioners of self-mortification, striving for?

Holiness.

Specifically, virtues like humility, compassion, self-control, the ability to say no to your body in the pursuit of a spiritual goal.

A close analogy is the athletic saying, “No pain, no gain.” In order to get your body in shape, you must be willing to endure some hardship, and the same is true of your soul (or your personality if the person doesn’t believe in souls).

Self-mortification teaches humility by making us recognize that there are things more important than our own pleasure. It teaches compassion by giving us a window into the sufferings of others—who don’t have a choice in whether they’re suffering. And it strengthens self-control.

As well as (here’s the big one I’ve saved for last) encouraging us to follow the example of Our Lord, who made the central act of the Christian religion one of self-denial and (in his case) literal mortification to bring salvation to all mankind.

Even if a non-believer doesn’t buy the religious premises involved, he should be able to see the nobility of the principle of shouldering hardship for the sake of others and for the sake of learning virtues like humility and compassion rather than focusing exclusively on one’s own pleasure.

Hopefully he can see why a pope, as the vicar of Christ and as the leader of the Christian world, would be called to personal mortification in a way that goes beyond what most people are.

NOTE: Any form of significant self-mortification must be done under the guidance of a competent spiritual director. Do not try this at home on your own.
16/03/2010 00:13
 
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It seems that John Paul's progress towards beatification MAY be slowed down. The French nun who was cured of Parkinson's Disease has had a relapse. Furthermore, doctors now say she may not have had the disease at all, but some other neurological disease which produced similar symptoms.

I hope all this sorts itself out, as John Paul deserves to be beatified soon. He's already Venerable, as declared by our Holy Father in December.

28/03/2010 00:56
 
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Possible JP II miracle has not yet been examined, clarifies Vatican official

Vatican City, Mar 26, 2010 / 10:02 pm (CNA/Europa Press).- The prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, explained this week that the possible miraculous healing of a French nun attributed to the intercession of John Paul II has not yet been examined by the Vatican Medical Commission.

Cardinal Saraiva made his statements to a group of reporters in Rome in reference to reports published a month ago in Poland claiming that the Vatican commission had dismissed the miracle supposedly experienced by Sister Marie Simon Pierre. The cardinal said the miracle could not have been rejected “because the doctors have not examined it yet.”

The nun had been suffering from Parkinson's, a degenerative disease of the nervous system, since 2001, but has testified that she was cured in the night of June 2, 2005 after praying to John Paul II, whose final years were also marked by the disease.

“All I can tell you is that I was sick and now I am cured. It is for the church to say and to recognize whether it is a miracle,” Sr. Marie Simon Pierre told reporters in 2007.

The procedure for approving a miracle through the intercession of a specific person involves first “that it be approved by a Medical Commission, which certifies that the event is scientifically unexplainable and that the healing is instantaneous, complete and lasting,” the cardinal explained.

Before beginning the final examination, “the Congregation usually gets the opinion of two doctors beforehand” and keeps the information confidential. However, in the case of the French nun, one of the doctors expressed doubt and “the news came out,” the cardinal said. He added that even so, this does not mean that the miracle has been rejected, but rather, as is usually the case, the Congregation will ask for a third opinion before beginning the official examination.

If the evaluation by the doctors is positive, the miracle will be evaluated by a Theological Commission, which will study whether or not the event is due to the intercession of John Paul II. Then, it must pass analysis by the 30 members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who are like the “Parliament” of the Congregation.

Asked if this might delay the date of John Paul II’s beatification, Cardinal Saraiva said, “It’s not a case of delaying because a date was never set in the first place.”

28/03/2010 15:58
 
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MASS FOR JOHN PAUL II


Monday, 29:

6:00 to 7:45 p.m. live from the Vatican Basilica:
Mass on the anniversary of death of the Servant of God Pope John Paul II,
chaired by Pope Benedict XVI.
[Modificato da GABRIELLA.JOSEPHINE 28/03/2010 16:08]
JOSEPHINE

"OMNIA POSSUNT IN EO QUI ME CONFORTAT"
28/03/2010 17:15
 
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LES DEUX PAPES

JOSEPHINE

"OMNIA POSSUNT IN EO QUI ME CONFORTAT"
22/04/2010 05:59
 
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Money, scandal and Rome

George Weigel
Denver Catholic Register
April 21, 2010

It was virtually inevitable that the media firestorm over Benedict XVI’s handling of sexually abusive clerics—even if the insinuations against the Pope were unsubstantiated and unfair—would spill backwards toward the late John Paul II. It was also inevitable that the point of attack would be John Paul’s endorsement of the work of Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a religious congregation that enjoyed considerable papal favor during John Paul’s pontificate.

Since John Paul II died, it has become clear that Maciel led a double-life of moral dissolution for decades, fathering out-of-wedlock children, sexually abusing seminarians, and violating the sacrament of penance. The abuse charges were known during John Paul’s time, but the Pope did not believe them; he may have thought them the by-product of tawdry Mexican politics (politics politics and ecclesiastical politics). In the last months of John Paul’s life, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger re-opened an investigation into Maciel’s affairs; in 2006 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “invited” Maciel, no longer head of the Legionaries, to a “reserved life of prayer and penance” with no public ministry. This amounted to ecclesiastical house arrest; Maciel died in 2008.

When the extraordinary range of Maciel’s perfidies became known, Benedict XVI ordered an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries, which has been completed. Strong measures, one hopes, will now be taken to address Maciel’s sins and crimes, to deal with anyone in the Legion who may have aided him in his double-life, and to save the good that can be saved from the Legion and its lay affiliate organization, Regnum Christi. That salvage job will require a definitive break with the past, and with the Maciel mythology that was a large part of his power.

Maciel was well-known for spreading money all over Rome, as Jason Berry has recently written in the National Catholic Reporter. Some Catholics may find it shocking that envelopes of cash were left in the papal apartment. But the fact is that a great many people give money to the pope: visiting bishops, heads of religious orders, Catholic organizations, etc. As John Paul died with virtually no worldly goods, no plausible charge can be made that he personally benefited from Maciel’s “generosity”; and as these things work, the money was likely given to the late Pope’s secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz, now cardinal archbishop of Cracow. Dziwisz often gave cash to poor bishops and others he sensed were in financial need; perhaps some of Maciel’s money went in this direction. A good novelist might even create a scenario in which Dziwisz used money from Maciel and others to fund underground Solidarity clandestinely during the martial law period in Poland in the early 1980s.

The immediate temptation, to which Ross Douthat unhappily succumbed in the April 12 New York Times, is to conclude that these monetary gifts “explain” John Paul II’s support for the Legionaries of Christ and for Maciel. Prudent analysts will resist that temptation. John Paul and Dziwisz were badly deceived by Maciel. So were many other people, including hundreds of high-ranking churchmen, his own religious community, a lot of very wealthy and presumably astute Mexicans and Americans—in fact, people all over the world. Falling prey to this deception constituted a failure in the late pope’s governance, objectively. But this failure was neither willful (he knew something was awry and did nothing about it), nor venal (he was “bought”), nor malicious (he knew what was going on, and didn’t care), and thus doesn’t call into question John Paul II’s heroic virtue. Nobody ever “bought” Karol Wojtyla with money, in which he had zero interest since his days as a manual laborer in Nazi-occupied Cracow.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger politely and firmly declined Maciel’s gifts; whatever effect Maciel’s money may have had on others in the Roman Curia ought to be investigated as the apostolic visitation of the Legion of Christ is brought to a conclusion. Having spent more than two decades studying the life of John Paul II, however, it seems to me utterly implausible that the late pope’s failure to read Marcial Maciel correctly had anything to do with money.


George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Weigel’s column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Denver.


19/05/2010 02:31
 
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Pope John Paul II's doctor recounts lighter moments with his patient

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
May 18, 2010

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The suffering and death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005 left a deep and lasting mark on his longtime personal physician, but Dr. Renato Buzzonetti's memories of his service to the pope also include lighter moments.

Dr. Buzzonetti, 85, became Pope John Paul's personal physician less than three months after the pope's election and cared for him for more than 26 years.

The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, carried an interview May 17 with the retired physician who was present at all of the pope's public ceremonies inside the Vatican and accompanied the pope whenever he left Vatican territory.

With Pope John Paul, that meant Dr. Buzzonetti not only traveled the globe on official papal trips, but that he also was present each time the pope "snuck out" of the Vatican to ski, hike in the mountains or walk along the seashore. The Vatican would confirm the papal outings only once the pope was safely back within the Vatican walls.

As the pope aged, the doctor said, the skiing disappeared and even the long walks became a matter of finding an isolated place with a nice view where the pope, his secretaries, Vatican security officers, Italian police and Dr. Buzzonetti would eat a bag lunch.

"Near sundown, before heading back to Rome, the pope loved to listen to (Polish) mountain songs sung by his small entourage, who were joined by the Vatican gendarmes and members of his Italian police escort," the doctor told L'Osservatore Romano.

"It was up to me to direct the improvised choir, under the amused gaze of John Paul II," he said.

As for the pope's final illness and death, Dr. Buzzonetti said, "they were days that left a profound mark on my life."

"For a Christian physician, a man's agony is an image of the Lord's," he said.


******************


John Paul II always accepted pain, never asked for sedatives, reports papal physician

Rome, Italy, May 18, 2010 / 01:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Italian physician Renato Buzzonetti, recounted his relationship and experiences with John Paul II as his personal physician from 1978 until his death. Among other things, he recalled details about the May 13, 1981 assassination attempt on the late Pope, his willingness to embrace suffering and the last moments of his life.

Dr. Buzzonetti recalled that after five hours of surgery following the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981, John Paul II said to him: “Like Bachelet,” to which he responded, “No, Your Holiness, because you are alive and you will live.”

“I think he mentioned that name because he was very touched by the assassination” of Catholic judge Vittorio Bachelet, who was killed by the Red Brigades on February 12, 1980,” the doctor said. “The Pope knew him because he was General President of Italian Catholic Action, and he was a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, to which Cardinal Wojtyla belonged.”

Referring to the Parkinson’s disease that struck the Pope in 1991, Buzzonetti said he told the Holy Father “no one ever died” from a shaky hand but that it was a clear sign he was suffering from the disease. “The Pope’s life was more complicated later because of the painful joint symptoms that were particularly intense in his right knee, which prevented John Paul II from standing up and walking briskly. These were two symptoms that, put together and intertwined, made it necessary for him to use a cane and later a wheelchair.”

Despite all of the pain, the doctor said, the Holy Father “never asked for sedatives, not even in his final stages. It was above all the pain of a man who was enclosed, prostrate on a bed or in a chair, who had lost physical autonomy. He couldn’t do anything by himself, and eventually he was completely physically disabled: he could not walk, he couldn’t speak other than with a weak voice, his breathing was labored and short, he ate with increasing difficulty.”

Buzzonetti said a particularly dramatic moment during the Pope’s final days came when he had to receive a tracheotomy. “Upon getting himself up after the anesthesia, after having given his consent, he realized he could no longer speak. Suddenly he found himself facing an extremely difficult reality. On a little chalkboard he wrote, 'What have you done to me. Totus tuus (totally yours)'.”

“It was the realization of the new state in which he had fallen, suddenly exalted by the act of trust in Mary.”

Buzzonetti said the last few days with John Paul II were especially intense. “I felt extremely tense because of the great responsibility that was on my shoulders … My colleagues and I were aware that the disease was … in its final phase. Our battle had been waged with patience, humility and prudence, which was extremely difficult because we knew it would end in defeat.”

He also revealed that he once tried to resign as the Pope’s physician but the Holy Father would not accept it. “It is the will of the Holy Father” that you continue, he was told by the Pope’s secretary, now-Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.

“For the Christian doctor, the dying man is the image of the Lord,” Dr. Buzzonetti said. “Every man has his wounds, carries his crown of thorns, stutters his last words, and abandons himself into the hands of someone who renews the gestures of Mary, of the holy women, of Joseph of Arimathea. The death of John Paul II engaged me even more,” he said.

The physician said the death of Pope Wojtyla “was the death of man divested of everything, who had lived through times of struggle and of glory and who was interiorly stripped of everything to meet the Lord and return the keys of the Kingdom. At that hour of pain and astonishment, I had the sensation of being on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The story was reset, as Christ was preparing to call the new Peter.”


[Modificato da benefan 19/05/2010 02:47]
20/05/2010 01:26
 
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POLISH SURVEYED ABOUT JOHN PAUL II MEMORIES

66% of Catholics Offer Prayers Through Pope's Intercession

By Mariusz Frukacz

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland, MAY 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Karol Wojtyla's birth, celebrated Tuesday, a survey was undertaken to find out what people most remember about the Pontiff.

A Catholic newspaper in Poland, Niedziela, published the results of the survey, carried out by the Church's Statistics Institute, headed by Father Witold Zdaniewicz. Some 500 Polish were surveyed.

When asked about the words of John Paul II that were most imprinted in their memories, 113 people recalled his prayer: "Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth. Of this Earth!" (June 2, 1979).

For 54 persons, his most memorable words were, "You must exact it from yourselves, even if others don't exact it from you" (June 18, 1983).

Another 34 of the responders said that they were most impacted by the Pontiff's exclamation: "Do not be afraid! Open the doors to Christ!" (October 22, 1978).

The survey also asked about most significant moment of John Paul II's pontificate, which 30 people identified as the Polish Pope's first greeting from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica (October 16, 1978).

Another 28 persons had the most vivid memories of the days of the Pontiff's death and funeral.

About the same number, 24 Polish, recalled Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005, when the Holy Father appeared at the window of his study to give his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world), but was unable to speak due to a recent throat operation.

For 19 of those interviewed, the most important scene was that of a suffering John Paul II clasping the cross to himself during the Via Crucis in the Coliseum.

Another 27 of the responders remembers the attack in St. Peter's Square and the Holy Father's meeting with Ali Agca, who attempted to assassinate the Pontiff.

According to the results of the survey, 66% of Polish Catholics reported that they pray through the intercession of John Paul II.

Some 21% took part in two pilgrimages of the Holy Father to Poland, while 18% participated in three pilgrimages of the Pope to his native land, and 1.5% of the Catholics surveyed took part in eight pilgrimages.

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George Weigel Talks About His New Biography of Pope John Paul II

BY JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER
09/14/2010

George Weigel had unprecedented access to the papacy when he wrote Witness to Hope, his biography of Pope John Paul II. Then, for the sequel, he mined the extensive archives of Soviet-bloc spy agencies that were released in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II — The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy, released today by Doubleday Religion, examines John Paul’s struggle against communism from his early days as a Polish bishop to his election as Pope and his orchestration of a nonviolent conclusion to the Cold War; it then skips to the high points and challenges of John Paul II’s last six years, with special attention to the Great Jubilee of 2000, his struggle to deal with the U.S. clergy abuse crisis of 2002, and the onset of Parkinson’s disease that imprisoned his body — even as it drew him closer to the cross and the path of “salvific suffering.”

Weigel spoke with Register correspondent Joan Frawley Desmond about the book.


You published your bestselling biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope, in 1999, more than a decade ago. Summarize some of the fresh and deepened insights regarding his pontificate that you distilled in The End and the Beginning.

The End and the Beginning offers an extensive account of the last six years of John Paul II’s life and pontificate, years not covered in Witness to Hope. In the new book, I am also able to retell the story of Karol Wojtyla’s 40-year struggle with communism in much greater detail thanks to the recent availability of communist secret police and government documents — and there are some remarkable stories to tell. Finally, The End and the Beginning includes a comprehensive assessment of John Paul II, man and Pope, which was not possible in 1999.


Describe your relationship with the Pope.

Although I had been writing about John Paul II since his election to the papacy, and I think he knew of me as one of those who were interpreting him to an American audience, I had my first serious conversation with John Paul II shortly after the 1992 publication of my book The Final Revolution, which was the first study of the collapse of communism to stress the crucial roles played by the Church and the Pope in the revolution of 1989. I think John Paul was far less interested in my analysis of his role than in my claim that moral power — the power of aroused consciences — had been decisive in shaping “1989.” Our conversation deepened over the following years, and of course I spent dozens of hours with him while I was researching Witness to Hope. Happily, the relationship continued after that, and the many conversations and meals I shared with John Paul between 1999 and 2005 help, I hope, to give a richer human texture to The End and the Beginning.

It’s worth noting for the record that neither Witness to Hope nor The End and the Beginning is an authorized biography; no one had any vetting rights over anything, and no one in the Vatican, including the Pope, saw a word of Witness to Hope until I handed the Pope a copy of the book in September 1999. Our conversation over the years was both very friendly and completely adult: There were joys to share, disagreements to explore, problems and dilemmas to consider.


What is the value of time for a biographer, even one who knew the flesh-and-blood man he is writing about?

Obviously time gives one some emotional distance on the person about whom one is writing. But in my case, the most important “time factor” was the fact that I came into possession, after the Pope’s death and through the courtesy of Polish academic colleagues, of a cache of remarkable materials from the files of the Polish secret police and communist-era foreign ministry, the East German Stasi, the KGB, the Hungarian secret police, and the White House, none of which had been previously available. Those materials allowed me to explore the communist war against John Paul II in considerable (and dramatic) detail; some have said that the first third of The End and the Beginning reads like an espionage novel. And I expect there’s something to that.


The End and the Beginning conveys the impression that Soviet-bloc spy agencies devoted considerable resources to monitoring the Church, both in Eastern Europe and the Vatican. Why did they fear the Church?

From the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution on, the Soviet Union considered the Catholic Church its most serious ideological opponent, and thus did everything possible to destroy it, impede its work, blackmail its leaders, and foul its public reputation. To take one example: No small part of the “black legend” of Pius XII’s alleged Nazi sympathies and indifference to the fate of European Jewry was launched by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, in an attempt to ease the communist takeover of east central Europe in the aftermath of World War II. In the case of John Paul II, of course, the threat was even greater, because, as KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov understood shortly after the Pope’s election, a Polish pope with John Paul II’s convictions and skills not only threatened the Soviet position in Poland (and thus the Warsaw Pact) but also the Soviet position in such Soviet “republics” as Lithuania and Ukraine. Andropov was, of course, right, although the Pope’s power was not of the sort that Andropov ever understood — another issue I explore in the book.


Tell us something that surprised you about these records from the KGB and other spy agencies.

Anyone who knew anything about how this deadly game was played knew, of course, that Soviet-bloc intelligence agencies were bending serious efforts to undermine the Catholic Church. I suppose what most surprised me was the sheer magnitude of the effort, which involved millions of man-hours and billions of dollars. I was also unaware of the degree to which Soviet-bloc intelligence agencies attempted to manipulate the Second Vatican Council for their purposes — and how unaware of this assault the Vatican seemed to be (and continued to be until 1978).


How were these spy agencies able to infiltrate Catholic institutions, and what were the motivations of the collaborators that reported on the Church?

There were any number of recruitment or blackmail techniques, which I describe in the book. As for the motivations of collaborators, I think one has to distinguish between various levels of contacts with the secret police. Some were relatively innocent. Others were motivated by ambition, intraclerical intrigues, venality and other forms of corruption. I should emphasize, however, that there is no evidence that any of this nastiness had the slightest effect on John Paul II’s conduct of the papacy.


John Paul II sought to transform the Holy See’s policy of Ostpolitik by creating the foundation for the nonviolent overthrow of the Soviet empire. Yet he appointed Cardinal [Agostino] Casaroli, a strong advocate of Ostpolitik, as his secretary of state. Why did he do that, and what does that decision reflect about his approach to foreign policy? Other examples?

I have long argued that the appointment of Casaroli, architect of the Ostpolitik of Paul VI, as John Paul II’s secretary of state, was an extremely shrewd move on John Paul’s part. With Casaroli as principal Vatican diplomatic agent, no communist government could accuse John Paul of reneging on Paul VI’s agreements or dramatically changing the Vatican’s policy line. Meanwhile, John Paul II himself went around and over the heads of governments with moral appeals to oppressed peoples around the world, calling them to live in the truth, which was his basic weapon against communism. It was a classic good cop-bad cop strategy.


What was John Paul II’s primary accomplishment during the final years of his pontificate?
I would say the Great Jubilee of 2000 and the manner in which he lived his last months, a kind of public dying that constituted what I call in the book his “last encyclical.”


Catholics that love and honor John Paul II were dismayed by his handling of the U.S. clergy sex-abuse crisis. How did you research this issue, and did any of your findings surprise you?

I had, of course, discussed a lot of this in The Courage to Be Catholic and then again in God’s Choice, and in the new book I try to bring this all together in a long-range view.

The first thing to be said here is that John Paul II was a great reformer of the priesthood. When he came to the papacy in 1978, the Catholic priesthood was in severe crisis throughout the world. He changed that, dramatically, by lifting up and embodying a heroic model of priestly self-sacrifice, by his constant personal attention to priests, and by his reform of seminaries (mandated by the apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis).

As I indicated in The Courage to Be Catholic, John Paul II (and indeed much of the rest of the Vatican) was about four months behind the real-time curve of the “Long Lent” of 2002. In April of that year, the Pope was only learning things he should have been told about by his nunciature in Washington in early January. So what could seem like indifference or inattention was in fact a very bad line of communication between Washington and Rome. Finally informed of what was in fact happening, the Pope acted, decisively.


The End and the Beginning suggests that his difficulty dealing with the crisis reflected a disinclination to accept allegations against priests, in part, because Soviet-era regimes unjustly raised similar allegations against priests.

I don’t want to get into speculations about papal psychology, but the fact that charges of sexual impropriety were a standard communist tactic against the Catholic clergy had to have been part of the “filter” through which John Paul II “heard” the stories of abuse that came to the surface in 2002.


You note that Poles were with the Pope during his final hours. How would you describe these bonds between countrymen? What constrained his relationships with non-Poles?

I don’t think it was so much a question of constraint with others as it was the inability or unwillingness of the rest of the Vatican to change its inbred ways. The election of a non-Italian pope was a great shock to the system, and the shock waves endured for more than a quarter century.

As for those around the Pope when he died, well, I rather imagine we’d all like to be surrounded by those to whom we are closest when we begin the final journey to the Father’s house.


What was the impact of a highly visible Pope struggling with all the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease? Offscreen, how did it affect the workings of the Vatican?

Evangelically, the Pope’s witness during his holy death (and throughout his years of physical struggle) was a priceless gift to the Church and the world: his last priestly invitation to believers and nonbelievers alike to enter into the mystery of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

Bureaucratically, things slowed down, undoubtedly. But John Paul II remained the master of the scene until the very end.


In your reappraisal of his pontificate, his spiritual paternity and his deeply mystical spirituality are especially distinctive qualities.

In the book, I try to figure out why this man was so compelling a figure to people who did not share his convictions and commitments. And I decided it had something to do with his remarkable capacity to embody the key traits of fatherhood (strength and mercy) in a world bereft of true fathers. That he also communicated, through that paternity, the reality of a transcendent order in which we participate and which breaks into our mundane reality at surprising moments of grace simply added to the attraction of the man.


What about the broader goals of his pontificate? Within the Church and beyond it?

In sum: His goal for the Church was for Catholicism to rediscover its essence as an evangelical movement in history, the bride of the Lamb inviting the world to the Supper of the Lamb.

As for the world, he was the great defender of universal human rights in our time and proposed that “rights” understood according to the natural moral law could be a kind of grammar by which a fractured world could engage in real conversation.

30/10/2010 17:15
 
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Former President Bush's memoir will highlight influence of Pope John Paul II

Washington D.C., Oct 30, 2010 / 07:21 am (CNA).- An early preview of President George W. Bush's forthcoming memoir “Decision Points,” has revealed that the book will discuss the former president's relationship with Pope John Paul II—especially the Pope's influence on his decision to restrict embryonic stem cell research.

The Pontiff and president met publicly in 2001, 2002 and 2004, for discussions that displayed both profound agreements and serious differences between the two men.

On October 28, 2010, the Drudge Report posted exclusive details from the president's memoir (available November 9). Their first look at “Decision Points” mentioned that the Pope's vision of a “culture of life” helped the president understand the dignity of embryonic human lives, even as proponents of embryonic research urged him to consider the possible benefits.

During their first meeting, in July of 2001, Pope John Paul II reminded the president that “a free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception to natural death.”

“Through a vibrant culture of life,” the Holy Father told Bush on that occasion, “America can show the world the path to a truly humane future, in which man remains the master, not the product, of his technology.”

According to the Drudge Report preview, President Bush was strongly moved by the Pope's cultural vision, as well as his personal witness. John Paul II had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for up to a decade at the time of the meeting. But he opposed research into any possible treatment that would have involved the destruction of embryonic lives.

The Pope's words and witness that summer led the president to make a decision protecting embryonic life in crucial ways. On August 9, 2001, President Bush announced that federal money would not fund research involving any further destruction of embryos for research purposes. The ban remained in place throughout his administration.

Although the president's address on stem cells drew some criticism for its moderately positive take on in vitro fertilization (which also involves the mass production and killing of embryos), many observers praised his cautious approach to bioethical questions, as well as his advocacy of adult-derived stem cell research.

Crown Publishing Group, the publishers of the former president's book, has revealed that “Decision Points” will also detail the considerations that led to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. In regard to this decision, President Bush did not agree with Pope John Paul II.

The Holy Father publicly opposed the “Bush doctrine” of preemptive war against countries suspected of threatening the U.S., stating that war was to be regarded only as a last resort once all other options were exhausted. On March 18, 2003, two days before the invasion, the Pope warned of “tremendous consequences” for the Iraqi people, and said there was “still time to negotiate” to avoid war.

That same day, President Bush declared that America had exhausted its options, describing the invasion as a necessity due to weapons of mass destruction allegedly being prepared by Saddam Hussein. When the two men met again in 2004, the Pope reaffirmed that the stance against war remained “the unequivocal position of the Holy See.”


17/11/2010 23:15
 
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NEW BOOK


Father De Souza on George Weigel's new book


Karol Wojtyla’s war
FATHER RAYMOND J. DE SOUZA
The victory of freedom is won not only by the warriors in battle, but by heroes at home.
As we remember our fallen soldiers in the cause of freedom on Remembrance Day, my own thoughts have been turning this week to the end of the Cold War – it was on Nov. 9, 1990, that the Berlin Wall came down – rather than just the end of the Great War on Nov. 11th, 1918. The victory of freedom is won not only by the warriors in battle, but by heroes at home.

A splendid new book has brought all this to mind: The End and the Beginning: John Paul II – The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy. This volume completes the magisterial biography of John Paul II published in 1999 by my friend George Weigel, Witness to Hope. I had expected him to complete the tale of the final years – the Great Jubilee of 2000, the epic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the years of final illness and finally the last great act of teaching the world how to die. That story is marvelously told in the limpid style that made the first book a work not only of historical biography, but of spiritual reading.

Yet it is "the beginning" that makes this second volume worthy of reflection on Remembrance Day. The "beginning" tells the story of Karol Wojtyla before he was elected pope in 1978 – his youth marked by the Nazi occupation of Poland, and his adult life under Soviet communism. The Polish military forces were defeated by the Nazi blitzkrieg and the Red Army; it would fall to the creative resistance of Polish culture to carry on the battle.

The story can now be told because access to the secret police – the "SB" in Poland – files of the communist era. These files have revealed collaborators both low and high, including those in the universities, the Church, and even in dissident groups themselves. But the real story is how intense was the pressure on civil leaders throughout the Soviet empire to collaborate with the regime, and how many resisted. Murders and imprisonment were part of the SB operation, but insidious, too, was the daily surveillance and constant harassment.

From 1945 onwards, Weigel reports, Wojtyla was under secret police surveillance. His closest friends and collaborators were constantly targeted to betray him. Especially as Archbishop of Krakow, he had to be constantly wary of even his colleagues and household staff, in case infiltrators had been successful. When he arrived in Rome, knowing that there were spies afoot and that the Vatican had no counter-intelligence capability, John Paul handled the communist file within the papal apartment, not trusting sensitive documents to his own bureaucracy.

"It was us against them – all the time," confided John Paul's longtime secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz. Indeed, the battle for freedom in the Soviet empire was total, for the totalitarian state claimed control over all aspects of life, even the family and the Church.

Nazism – the thousand-year Reich that fell 988 years short – was defeated by force of arms. Communism proved a more enduring tyranny that could be contained by armed force, but not defeated. For that, soldiers were not needed but priests and professors, intellectuals and artists, teachers and trade unionists. The creative cultural resistance they offered produced the victory of 1989 and the sacrifices they made, though not in battle, called for heroic sacrifice.
The End and the Beginning
by George Weigel

As we remember our own war dead, our thoughts turn naturally enough to those recently dead in Afghanistan, a fiendish war far from the trenches and armies and agreed ceasefires that marked the First World War. And the enemies we fight today – particularly the phenomenon of homicidal Islamism – will likely require not more soldiers, but those creative cultural warriors that won the Cold War.

The battle for freedom can never be only about remembering past heroism. It requires something more than paying tribute to the armed forces of the present. It demands the vigilance and courage of citizens who refuse to make compromises with tyranny, and who refuse to collaborate in the lies that sustain it.

Weigel's new book opens the curtain on that drama as it was lived for decades behind the Iron Curtain. It is the story of one man to be sure, but also of more than one. The SB would have crushed Karol Wojtyla if he had been truly alone. That he was not alone, but inspired an ever growing number to join him, was the secret to the victory. That victory too bears remembering this Remembrance Day.

04/01/2011 21:31
 
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"Miracle" puts John Paul II's sainthood back on track

MonstersandCritics.com
Jan 4, 2011, 12:47 GMT

Rome - Medical and church experts have recognised a miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II, paving the way for the penultimate stage in the process to make the late pontiff a saint, an Italian newspaper reported Tuesday.

The decision will be formally communicated to the Vatican later this month, and then to Pope Benedict XVI for his final approval, according to the Milan-based daily Il Giornale.

The 'miracle' involves a 44-year-old French nun suffering from Parkinson's disease, veteran Italian Vatican-observer Andrea Tornielli wrote in Il Giornale.

In June 2005, Marie Simon-Pierre was allegedly 'instantly cured,' after her fellow nuns prayed to John Paul - who had died that April - for his intercession.

John Paul is currently a candidate for beatification, the last step before being canonised, or recognised as a saint, by the Catholic Church.

Benedict is very likely to approve the findings of the commission, and could set a date for his predecessor's beatification later this year, according to Tornielli.

In April 2005, mourners at John Paul's funeral in Saint Peter's Square shouted 'Santo subito!' (Saint Immediately) - a homage to the popular Polish-born pontiff whose 26-year reign remains the second-longest in history.

Following his election as pope later that month, Benedict put John Paul on the fast track to sainthood by waiving church rules that normally impose a five-year waiting period after a candidate's death before the procedure that leads to sainthood can start.

In December 2009, Benedict formally recognised John Paul's 'heroic virtues,' and gave him the title 'venerable.'

But before a person is beatified and given the title 'blessed,' by the pope, the Vatican's saint-making department must obtain proof that a miracle has taken place with the candidate's intercession.

Reports in Poland and Italy in March 2010 suggested that the Vatican medical commission of religious and medical experts had doubts over the case involving Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, including the initial diagnosis of the Parkinson's disease.

Some commentators also noted that patients with certain forms of the disease - a degenerative nervous system disorder which afflicted John Paul himself - have been known to make a full recovery.

[Modificato da benefan 05/01/2011 00:28]
13/01/2011 06:04
 
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A Pope John Paul miracle on Friday?

by Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Posted on January 12, 2011

VATICAN CITY — As early as Friday, Pope Benedict XVI could formally recognize the miracle needed for the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

Just over a week ago, we cited a well-informed Italian reporter who said the only steps remaining in the acceptance of the miracle were the assent of the members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes and the signature of the pope.

The same reporter, Andrea Tornielli, reported today that the cardinal- and archbishop-members of the congregation met yesterday and agreed.

Now a different informed source says that Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints Causes, is scheduled to meet the pope Friday and present him with a number of decrees for his consideration. It seems the decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Pope John Paul will be among them.


***************


Cardinals Approve Miracle for JPII Beatification

BY EDWARD PENTIN
National Catholic Register
Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted yesterday to approve a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable John Paul II, according to the latest report from Andrea Tornielli.

“The last obstacle was overcome,” the Vaticanist for Il Giornale writes in today’s paper. “The cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints gathered yesterday morning and reviewed and approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of John Paul II: the healing of the French nun from Parkinson’s disease.”

“Now all that is missing is the final signature of Benedict XVI,” he adds, and repeats his earlier speculation that the beatification “could take place in the spring or in October.” He reports that the cardinals gave their OK “without difficulty” and, “according to some indiscretions, without votes against.”

There’s been no official Vatican announcement so far. That will happen when Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presents a dossier on the miracle to Benedict XVI, calling for his final decree.

The Vatican hasn’t confirmed or denied these reports but has stressed that the final decision on the beatification rests with the Holy Father. Once he promulgates the decree, a date will be set for the beatification.

In his article, Tornielli recalls that there was a slowdown in the cause in 2009 because the congregation wanted “to take a good look at every possible objection and rely on other experts.” But now, he says, “the series of meetings gives the impression of acceleration.”
[Modificato da benefan 13/01/2011 06:14]
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