John Paul II
John Paul II was one of the great popes. He is now a saint. As a saint, that means he has intercessory power. Individuals can pray to him and he will take their concerns directly to God. Someone becomes a saint by performing three miracles. We will discuss what those miracles were, at least one of them.
John Paul became pope during a time of significant stress. There was stress within the Church regarding what constitutes official teaching. There was also stress regarding corruption within the church, and corruption and crime outside of the church.
John Paul decided that the church had committed numerous sins over the centuries and it had to clear its soul by acknowledging those sins. He also decided that the church was internally divided by teachings and the lack of obedience among the hierarchy. He became a tough pope. This left the church organizationally disciplined but also divided in a way that caused many Catholics, especially younger Catholics, to walk away.
This was a class zoom lecture in which students could actually see me as I waved my arms around and snapped my fingers and raised an umbrella for them to see. Fortunately, it was far enough into the semester that I had figured out the art of lecturing to a machine so this is relatively smooth.
Glitches: However, I made two verbal glitches during the lecture. I spoke of Saint Patrick’s Square in Rome when I obviously meant St. Peter’s Square. I also referred to the earlier pope as Pius when I obviously meant Paul. (This pope was not called John Pius, as you may have noted). Sorry for those fumbles.
Some names mentioned: John XXIII, Lech Walesa, Hans Kung, Cardinal John O’Connor, Cardinal Dearden, Cardinal Szoka, Father Robert Drinan, Zbigniev Brzezinski, President Brezhnev of the USSR, and General Jaruzelski of Poland.
Terms mentioned: Vatican Bank, Gambino Family, Warsaw Pact, Schism, Orthodoxy, Orthopraxis, mea culpa.
Note two earlier podcasts relevant to this one.
How a Pope is Elected,
Vatican II.