Brady Anderson of Mount Pleasant, former head of U.S. Agency for International Development, former U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania
Anderson, a Protestant, said sainthood was of no concern to him, but that he admired John Paul II.
“I think he did a great job. I think he was really important. His history and ethnic and cultural identity was really important, and I think he played that very well. I liked him.
“I thought he was a positive force internationally. I have a very positive memory of his time.”
Read them all.
I certainly have no objection to the beatification of Pope John Paul II, and I have no grounds for expecting anybody to pay any attention even if I did; but I confess to some disappointment that Pope John XXIII is not farther along in this process. He also did a world of good.
This grisly morbid preoccupation with corpses is a wonderful physical manifestation of everything that is wrong with the RCC. Why did they have to exhume the body? Why did they have to examine the body? I surely hope they are not going to set it up somewhere as an object of veneration. It’s repulsive and spiritually corrupt.
carl
Hmmm, perhaps not the best discussion environment here for advocates of ‘Santo subito’…..which I am not, but it was interesting to learn last week that the Cardinals presented a petition for immediate advancement to the canonization process for JPII, before their conclave had actually chosen his successor, and that successor turned it down.
Seriously – there was no body in evidence after the Mass, it was the closed casket. But in any case, the corruption or lack of it of the body could be an aspect of the sainthood investigation, which wouldn’t have been dropped just because of a Protestant Reformation.
I cannot say I ever felt what millions of others did about JPII, and it bothers me that the Maciel and other developments took place around him without any better perception than occurred. However, the saints are said to be ‘people that the light shines through’, like stained glass windows. Evidently JPII was one of those, since over a million souls felt it important to be in Rome to worship when he died, and again yesterday.
The American hagiography, OTOH, that envelops folks like MLKJr. in spotless white robes, concerns me even more, when lifestyle is manifestly not in accord with basic Gospel precepts.
It was jarring to think even such as Mugabe, and Berlusconi, were there too yesterday. But God has different ways to ours.