About the Pontiff
Dean
There are about 6 billion people in the world.
About 1 billion are Catholic and view this man as their spiritual leader on Earth. Think of it: about 1 in 6 people in the world.
Of the remaining 5 billion or so who are not Catholic, hundreds of millions are members of Christian churches such as the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches which view him as "first among equals" among their bishops, even though they don't grant him any special authority.
In the case of this particular pope, rabbis and even mullahs all over the Earth are praying for him.
There are, of course, those who consider him evil, or strongly disagree with some of what he says or believes. I don't consider him evil, although I do disagree with some of what he's stood for. But for myself, I will never be able to forget his steadfast opposition to international communism, and the crucial role he played in its downfall.
A remarkable life.
Barnes
But he's a remarkable man and has had a remarkable influence on our world and on the Church. 97% of the cardinals who will elect his successor were appointed by John Paul II. His influence will be felt far, far into the future.
Throughout his life, he displayed great courage and publically opposed many popular societal changes in moral standards. I do not believe that his policies brought the RCC to a downhill slide, rather he elevated it on many levels by standing by the Biblical principles he was entrusted to guard.
I think he is going to go down as one of the truly great ones, with Paul, Leo, and Gregory.
No matter who his successor is, no matter what his successor does, I'll probably always think of that successor as "That new guy."
(And I'm no Catholic, either. But I have nothing but the utmost respect for what the man has, I feel personally, brought about through his stand against Communism. As much a giant as Ronald Reagan.)
He stands next to Gandhi in my book.
If the Soviets had been the ones running India, Ghandi would have died a quick and violent death.
Whose Church covered up pedophilic abuse in its ranks and through its policy on condoms in Africa condeming millions to a slow painful death by AIDS.
And I seriously doubt the Pope had any sayso in the pedophilic cover-ups. I'd be surprised if he was even aware of the scale of it all.
I'm less thrilled with his various stands where sex was involved.
I will revere him for his aid in bringing about the downfall of Soviet communism. I don't want to rank them, but I agree that Ghandi succeeded because he was messing with the Brits. John Paul II worked against one of the most murderous regimes ever and won.
Also, as the first Polish pope he kept my Catholic HS well supplied with Polish pope jokes.
Did you know that his first miracle was to make a blind man lame?
In fact, their army overthrew their government in order to prevent the Soviets from invading.
So it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that he took on one of the most murderous regimes the world has ever known, because while that may be an apt description of the Soviet Union, it isn't an apt depiction of the Polish communist state.
Archibishop Wojty[l]a was gambling that the Polish state was afraid of the power of the Church - the hold it had over the imagination of the people - and that, if it suppressed the Church, the thin veneer that it maintained of acting in the people's interest would be shattered. His gamble succeeded. The same gamble, run in Soviet Russia, would have failed.
If he was not fighting the Russians, why have we seen reports of the Soviets trying to kill him?
Just ask the Hungarians if fighting their regime meant fighting the Soviets. Or the Afghans.