Why Was Pope John Paul II So Great?

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This is just see what people think.
His feast day is Tuesday, October 22, by the way.
 
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His love for humanity. His most stand out moment in my book is that incident in a communist country, his homeland, where he got up and spoke and the crowd , thousands, started chanting

We want God

and so started the end of communism there. There is a great documentary about his life.
 
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Mostly for his role in helping bring down communism, for being a strong pro-life voice amid the culture of death, and for emphasizing the Eucharist and Blessed Virgin when these things were being obscured. Some of this is by comparison to his predecessor Paul VI, who presided over the auto-demotion of the Church (his words) when practically everything was thrown into confusion. JPII brought back some semblance of stability and clarity.

JPII’s pontificate was certainly not perfect or all great; however, in general it was a gradual, but important, step in the right direction.
 
Have you even seen his Magisterium? It’s massive, clear, and rich.

St. John Paul II should not only be a saint, he should be declared a Doctor of the Church.
 
I don’t have a very strong attraction to him. I was a bit turned off after finding he kissed the Koran. Reminds me of Pope Francis and his mother Earth/Pachamama fiasco…
I also thought he had a lot to do with the reforms that went on in the church from Vatican 2?
 
He was so full of the love. I was only three when he died, but I still love him. His devotion to Our Lady inspires me and he was strongly pro-life. This pope loved people, he hugged people, he laughed and he just captivated people in general.
 
I kind of took him for granted when he was alive. I was impressed with his efforts to bring down Communism and with his travel schedule. The only previous Popes I’d known were Paul VI and JPI, and Paul VI traveled very little and made no pastoral visits after 1970, and of course JPI wasn’t Pope long enough to do much of anything.

I think the thing he did that made the biggest impression on me was forgiving his assassin in the prison. I remember that famous photo of him meeting with the assassin was even in a Patti Smith video for “People Have the Power”. It was a very powerful image and I remember thinking it showed how holy the Pope was, that he would go meet with and forgive someone who almost killed him.

Also, it was kind of cool to have a Pope who wasn’t Italian for a change (the Polish people I knew were especially jazzed about having one of their own as Pope), and was fairly young, by Pope standards, when he took office.
 
He was a Pope that went directly to the people, preaching Jesus, the cross, following in Christ’s footsteps, practicing devotion to our Lady, exhorting the Eucharist and confession and instituting the FSSP, which grew from 9 priests to 124 diocese worldwide.

Here are some of his quotes 29 of the Best St. John Paul II Quotes for Young Catholics - LifeTeen.com for Catholic Youth

“Be not afraid” was one of his favorite exhortations.

I was in Jr when he became Pope; because of him and Mother Theresa my love of the faith grew and deepened immeasurably. They had true and authentic devotion, especially for the Eucharist.

Peace and God Bless
Nicene
 
This has been beaten to death… but St JPII was simply respecting the middle eastern custom of kissing a gift. He wasn’t revering the Quran as we would venerate the Gospel Book. He was showing respect for a gift.
 
He also added the luminous mysteries to the Rosary. Very cool.
 
I would say mostly his role in bringing about the end of communism in central and eastern Europe. His teachings about things like the dignity of the human person and the dignity of work are also very important. I think his involvement in anti-communist movements in Latin America was more controversial. He also failed to address the sexual abuse crisis in the Church and protected Marcial Maciel. But no great figures in history are without controversy. It’s recently come to light, for example, that Margaret Thatcher was probably involved in covering up child sexual abuse allegations and promoting the careers of alleged offenders such as Sir Peter Morrison and Sir Jimmy Savile.
Cruc3S1gnatus said:
I also thought he had a lot to do with the reforms that went on in the church from Vatican 2?
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And that would be a good thing, surely.
 
I am very glad to know this. I had never heard this before. The image of him kissing the Koran was very discouraging. I feel much better about it now.

I do not challenge the authority of the Church to do this, but I am less than enthusiastic about the contemporary rush to canonize saints so soon after their death — not just JPII, but Mother Teresa and Padre Pio. I have a deep devotion to Padre Pio but, just off the top of my head, I have to think that 100-150 years should pass before the Church canonizes a saint. On the other hand, it is advantageous to have people still living who can produce evidence for canonization, and whose testimony can be recorded by modern media and scrutinized by contemporaries. So I just don’t know. As anyone can attest to who reads my poor comments here on CAF, I tend to skew traditional in just about everything, and traditionally the Church waited a long time to canonize, sometimes never doing so. And Lord knows we need as many exemplars of holiness as we can get in these chaotic times.

Incidentally, how did the designation of “John Paul the Great” get started? Not challenging, just wondering.
 
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If it wasn’t for Saint John Paul II, I probably would have lost my soul and would never be on this forum. He changed my life. 💗 love JPII and I continue to study what he has written. St.John Paul pray for us.
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
I do not challenge the authority of the Church to do this, but I am less than enthusiastic about the contemporary rush to canonize saints so soon after their death — not just JPII, but Mother Teresa and Padre Pio.
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With all due respect, the vast majority of the hundreds of recent canonizations have taken at least a century to conclude. And a number of the “quick canonizations” have been martyrs such as St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Edith Stein, a number of Cristero War martyrs such as St. Toribio Romo and St. Jose Sanchez Del Rio, and St. Oscar Romero. It’s kind of hard to argue against making someone a saint who publicly dies due to their faith and then works a miracle after death to boot.

It’s also not particularly “contemporary” to occasionally canonize a saint quickly.
Pope Pius X, whom most traditionalists revere and was loved by the people, was canonized in the pre-Vatican II era just 40 years after his death.

St. Therese of Lisieux was canonized in 1925, only 28 years after her death.

The fastest canonization in history was the martyr St. Peter of Verona who was canonized in 11 months in 1253.
St. Anthony of Padua was also canonized less than a year after his death, in 1232.

St. Francis of Assisi, who arguably was the Mother Teresa of his day, was canonized only 2 years after his death, in 1228.

St. Bernardine was canonized only 6 years after his death, in 1450.

There are many other historic examples of quick canonizations.

So if you want to complain about fast canonizations, that’s your prerogative, but don’t call it a contemporary trend, because it’s not.

As for “The Great”, it’s a title historically given to Popes by popular acclaim, so if somebody wants to call Pope St. John Paul “the Great” then he’s just following in the tradition that made Pope Gregory “the Great” and Pope Leo “the Great”.

Since his death, Pope John Paul II has been referred to as “the great.” Have any other Popes been given this title? - Catholic Straight Answers

Since the death of our beloved Pope John Paul II on April 2, 2005, many have been hailing him as “Pope John Paul II, the Great.” Three Popes have had the title, “the great,” appended to their name: Pope St. … Continued
catholicstraightanswers.com
 
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I think he was referred to as “the great” almost before he even died. I also think that the reason for it was that he was pope during a time that was marked by many unprecedented circumstances and he faced all of them. On top of that, he was relatively young when he was elected and so had the time and energy to rise to the particular challenges. He was also familiar with the challenges that he would have to face during his pontificate.

For example, he was familiar with oppressive governments, the changing culture of youth, and the need for ecumenism. He didn’t slouch on the job. He rose to the occasion. And so people called him great.

However, I don’t know where people get the idea that he was somehow instrumental in bringing down communism. The biggest influence that I saw him having was just by virtue of his nationality and the inspiration that had on the Polish people to be a constant thorn in the USSR’s side.
 
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1Lord1Faith said:
However, I don’t know where people get the idea that he was somehow instrumental in bringing down communism.
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Uh, because it’s generally accepted that he WAS instrumental, whether you agree or not. From Wikipedia:
Pope John Paul II has been credited with inspiring political change that not only led to the collapse of Communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Eastern Europe, but also in many countries ruled by dictators. In the words of Joaquín Navarro-Valls, John Paul II’s press secretary:
The single fact of John Paul II’s election in 1978 changed everything. In Poland, everything began. Not in East Germany or Czechoslovakia. Then the whole thing spread. Why in 1980 did they lead the way in Gdansk? Why did they decide, now or never? Only because there was a Polish pope. He was in Chile and Pinochet was out. He was in Haiti and Duvalier was out. He was in the Philippines and Marcos was out. On many of those occasions, people would come here to the Vatican thanking the Holy Father for changing things.[177]
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en.wikipedia.org

Pope John Paul II - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
St PJ2 exemplifies heroic commitment to God and in His image…the human person. He exudes confidence and hope in the face of evil. He knows where he is going and knows where he came from, and shows us the way as well.

I believe those personal qualities and virtues spring from the deepest life of prayer. He was devoted to St John of the Cross.
 
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