The difficulty many people have with the thinking around the thoughts and ideas commonly expressed by great Catholic theologians, such as Pope Benedict XVI, particularly within the format of the papal magisterial writings, is that they deal with the full stretch of human time and beyond to eternity; and that type of thinking—for which human beings are most admirably equipped to engage in once educated and trained to do so—is often difficult to understand in the context of how it is written.
When I was in the process of conversion to became a Catholic, it was the papal encyclicals and the writings of the ancient and current theological writers that most drew me to the ancient faith.
It is this deep vision aspect of the Roman Pontiff that George Weigel touches on in this article.
A Pope of Historic Vision
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
THE CATHOLIC DIFFERENCE
Publication Date: April 16, 2008
John Paul II arrived in Warsaw on June 2, 1979; there and then, he ignited the revolution of conscience that would give birth to the Solidarity movement, the Revolution of 1989 -- and the end of European communism. Distinguished secular historians of the Cold War now argue that John Paul's first pilgrimage to Poland, from June 2 to June 10, 1979, was one of the pivots of twentieth century history.
What seems obvious now, however, wasn't quite-so-clear at the time. On the fourth day of the June 1979 papal pilgrimage, for example, the New York Times concluded its editorial, "The Polish Pope in Poland," in these striking -- and, as things turned out, strikingly myopic -- terms: "As much as the visit of John Paul II must reinvigorate and inspire the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, it does not threaten the political order of the [Polish] nation or of Eastern Europe."
Oops.
On the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI's address to the United Nations and his first pastoral visit to the United States, let's consider the possibility that his "June 1979" has already happened and that, just as in the real June 1979, most observers missed it. And by Benedict XVI's "June 1979 moment," I mean the most controversial event of his pontificate, his September 12, 2006, Regensburg Lecture on faith and reason. Widely criticized as a papal "gaffe" because Benedict cited a robust exchange between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian Islamic scholar, the Regensburg Lecture now looks a lot like June 1979: a moment in which a pope, cutting to the heart of a complex set of issues with global impact, re-arranged the chessboard in a dramatic fashion, with historic consequences.
In June 1979, a pope challenged the orthodoxies of what the Times called "the political order" in Poland and throughout the old Warsaw Pact; in September 2006, a pope challenged the shopworn conventions of interreligious dialogue. In June 1979, a pope set in motion a revolution of moral conviction that eventually replaced "the political order" in east central Europe with something far more humane; in September 2006, a pope may have set in motion a process of intellectual and spiritual awakening that could help resolve the centuries-old question of whether Islam and pluralism can co-exist, and in such a way as to safeguard the religious freedom of all.
Lampstand Foundation website, http://www.lampstandfoundation.org/
"The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint." Charles Peguy (1873-1914)
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.