Information Related to "Death of a Titan: John Paul II's Impact on Europe and the World"
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The impact of John Paul II on the last quarter of the 20th century and more was and continues to be monumental. He came to the papal throne in 1978 and almost immediately began to do, say and write more than any previous pontiff in church history.
John Paul II easily became the most-traveled pope. He published more papal encyclicals than any who had previously occupied the chief chair in the Vatican. He wrote more books and appointed more cardinals. The Times (London) thought him the most influential political figure of his generation. His was a life of superlatives.
But the late pontiff once said: "They try to understand me from the outside, but I can only be understood from the inside" (John Cornwell, The Pope in Winter, 2004, p. xiii).
Ultimately, only God can see on the inside and judge the worthiness of our lives. He is "the Judge of all" (Hebrews 12:23). Still the outward life of John Paul II is well worth careful analysis and examination.
The pope's Polish origins
The pope's philosophy of life and the nature of his papal reign were forged in Poland—a Roman Catholic country with a complex history severely troubled by Germany on the west and Russia on the east. Both nations occupied Poland during his lifetime.
As noted British historian Paul Johnson commented on the pontiff: "He had spent his manhood largely under the tyranny of the two vilest anti-life systems the world has ever seen: Nazism and Communism, together responsible for the unnatural deaths of over 120 million people in Europe and Asia. He had seen at close quarters the appalling consequences which inexorably follow when authority is directed by [a] philosophy contemptuous of life" (The Wall Street Journal, April 4).
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