Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II is near death, and is not expected to survive the weekend.



He was a force for good in this world. The pope helped fight Communism, feeling that people should be allowed their religious freedom. He stood for that in a time when few did.

From Hugh Hewitt:
"Such an outpouring of deep sorrow I don't think the world will have seen since Churchill died.

"With Reagan and Solzhenitsyn, John Paul II represents the three forces of opposition to communism that shattered the evil empire, the Soviet Union --the American-led West, the Eastern European resistance, and the Russian dissident movement. They also represented the three spheres of opposition: political, artistic and spiritual. Each man came into the field of his greatness later in life, and each has endured hard circumstances in their later years."

We are witnessing the final traces of a difficult age fading away, an age dark and heavy with oppression and with Armageddon waiting in the wings. The key figures of the final years of the Cold War are leaving the stage, leaving it to us; and leaving us to find our own way in this new wilderness of the post-Cold War world. They leave us, but they give us their examples.

Which are a pretty good foundation to build on.