By David Smith
Any non-Catholic who presumes to judge the Catholic Church stands a considerable risk of sticking his nose where it does not belong. I am not a Catholic, so I have no standing to criticize the Church’s internal decisions, or beliefs, or anything else internally Catholic. (Of course this does not really apply to bloggers, or any other media opinionators, but I like to try to follow it anyway.)
However, the actions of the Church in the world, and especially of its pope, reach far beyond the Church’s Magisterium. And the past few popes have cast giant shadows on us all.
John Paul II was a great voice, one may even say fighter, for human freedom and dignity. He had positive impacts in many areas, but nowhere more than in the struggle against totalitarian dictatorship. With his personal experience of both Nazism and Communism, he seemed immune to the modern disease of moral equivalency. Nor was he inclined to speak in the soothing voice of a diplomat from a neutral state trying to coax the great powers to play nice. He was a moral leader, and he knew that the fight against totalitarianism was first and foremost a moral fight. Continue reading ‘The Man in White Fails the Ladies in White’
