"Infinite Dignity"

Diane Montagna Interviews Edward Feser on 'Dignitas infinita' | The imprecise and extreme rhetoric about human dignity in the new Declaration, and the radical new conclusion about the death penalty that the Declaration draws from this rhetoric, are . . .https://t.co/bdSppg7kDw pic.twitter.com/tyI9c2cqGS

— The Catholic Thing (@catholicthing) May 4, 2024

NLM: Minutes from JP2's Commission of Cardinals

Minutes from the Commission of Cardinals That Advised John Paul II to Lift Restrictions on the Old Missal https://t.co/ykaSTzF3JP pic.twitter.com/rvpQy35Fvg

— NLM (@NLMblog) January 9, 2023

Grondelski's Review of Sign of Contradiction

John Grondelski for @NCRegister with this stellar review of "Sign of Contradiction."https://t.co/2XGlCayvpl

— Cluny Media (@ClunyMedia) August 23, 2021

Rectification of Names

John Paul II Institute No Longer Reflects the Aims of Its Namesake, Critics Contend | National Catholic Register @NCRegister @PontIstGP2 https://t.co/imNqkE3LLJ

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) July 2, 2021

A Good Choice for CUA Press?

I’m thrilled that @CUAPress is endeavoring to publish English Critical Editions of the works of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II. Many of his works have not been translated.

Wonderful that they started with Person and Act— the previous English translation was fraught with problems. pic.twitter.com/Xy1aR3EKFm

— Fr. Thomas Petri, OP (@PetriOP) May 25, 2021

"But JP2!"

Pope Francis just the consequence of that problem which is Latin ecclesiology/Roman claims about primacy.

Confusion twice confounded: On the motu proprio Spiritus Domini by Peter M.J. Stravinskas

pic.twitter.com/aKlHGEo6xG

— Ortho.Bro ☦️ (@bro_ortho) January 11, 2021

An Apologia for John Paul II

Any charge that John Paul II’s management style was “superficial” is “false and deeply unfair: nothing in his way of being or operating was superficial.” https://t.co/JEwnDz89W7

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) December 13, 2020

"No Roman saint-making machine at work here."

Kenneth Woodward on the Canonization Process for John Paul II

Woodward's judgments about the Roman saint-making machine are correct, even if he wants to save the canonization of John Paul II by the Latins.

The canonization of a pope is not a canonization of his papacy as well. https://t.co/9o9QUNKeB8

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) November 28, 2020

Cardinal Dziwisz's Role During the Pontificate of John Paul II

Polish documentary about Cardinal Dziwisz. raises troubling questions about the role he played as John Paul II’s secretary in relation to former US cardinal McCarrick and the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel https://t.co/fUk3F53gRC

— Gerard O'Connell (@gerryorome) November 22, 2020

McCarrick Report

The full McCarrick report is now online and public:https://t.co/gwpHjH7RKt

— Cindy Wooden (@Cindy_Wooden) November 10, 2020

The #McCarrickReport: Full Text and A Vatican Summary | National Catholic Register https://t.co/WF5kvpnWac @NCRegister

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) November 10, 2020

#BREAKING Vatican releases report on disgraced former Cardinal and sexual predator Theodore #McCarrick.

No press conference accompanied this document release, no statement from the #Vatican was made.https://t.co/yTCSHOMEX1 pic.twitter.com/Ztk93jJzQK

— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) November 10, 2020

Statement on Holy See’s Report on Theodore McCarrick Most Reverend José H. Gomez Archbishop of Los Angeles President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: https://t.co/HzuFRE7O8l pic.twitter.com/jhq66P729i

— U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (@USCCB) November 10, 2020

The #McCarrickReport is a sad whitewash. Contrary to this headline, blaming JPII, the report says "3 of the 4" New Jersey bishops" provided John Paul “with inaccurate and incomplete in information…regarding McCarrick’s sexual conduct with young adults.” 1/2 https://t.co/kGAuKUh32F

— Raymond Arroyo (@RaymondArroyo) November 10, 2020

It remains unknown how much Pope Francis knew about McCarrick in the five years between Francis’ election as pope and his removing the former cardinal from ministry, @ColleenDulle writes.https://t.co/QMfscDikFN

— America Magazine (@americamag) November 9, 2020

“In the case of #McCarrick, the simple fact is that pathological personalities lie and deceive people - even intelligent and saintly people - and that’s what McCarrick was able to do," said George Weigel. https://t.co/awhGiqwdR2

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) November 10, 2020

The Vatican report recognizes the history of Theodore McCarrick as a serious injury to the Catholic Church. But it does not address the crucial question of influence: the influence that McCarrick wielded, and the influence that promoted him. https://t.co/P0fMtSkqee

— Philip Lawler (@PhilLawler) November 10, 2020

My instant reaction to the #McCarrickReport: its chief purpose is to obscure the shameful role played by Pope Francis, who rehabilitated McCarrick and his cronies because they were useful to him, and acted only when the media forced him to. https://t.co/DH24ojFfDJ

— Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) November 10, 2020

This tells us so much about the politics of today’s @USCCB https://t.co/4WW3NGjwkv

— Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) November 10, 2020

First glance, the McCarrick report is a very sobering, astringent read that doesn’t hide any uncomfortable truths. It just lets the chips fall where they ....... BLAHAHAHA Nope. All blame shifted to nobodies or the deceased.

— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) November 10, 2020

Vatican’s McCarrick Report reveals crucial gaps in Archbishop Vigano’s ‘testimony’ https://t.co/C3QwmHFuer

— America Magazine (@americamag) November 10, 2020

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò issues initial response to the #McCarrickReport: pic.twitter.com/6yauaD5uGL

— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) November 10, 2020

It's truly astonishing that Francis still imagines that anyone takes him seriously. Thank God for Viganò and, quite frankly, to hell with the Vatican spin machine! https://t.co/ffWtjth1Pf

— Michael J. Matt (@Michael_J_Matt) November 10, 2020

Fr. Thomoas Loya is a Fan of JP2

and a proponent of theology of the body. But even if this is understandable, I still consider it a Latinization.

Perhaps in a Hundred Years, a Fair Account Will be Written

Not only of Jorge Bergoglio, but of Karol Wojtyła's impact on the patriarchate of Rome. The last stages of the imperial papacy?

He was elected just before my first birthday. When he died, I was already married. His papacy dominated the Church in my lifetime - a Church that was never healthy.

I both loved & lamented him. He seemed to vacillate between holiness & heresy. What an enigma. https://t.co/YjDnLGYi9a

— Steve Skojec (@SteveSkojec) October 22, 2020

John Paul II

Look at this man's face and tell me he thinks capitalism is great, I dare you. https://t.co/dNuohYDedR

— Marc John Paul Louis de Montfort Barnes! (@BadCatholicBlog) October 22, 2020

John Paul II Exhibition in Rome Promotes Beauty as a Source of Hope and Life | National Catholic Register — today is the feast day of St. John Paul II https://t.co/vuK54S8so9 @Solena_Tad

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) October 22, 2020

Critical Edition of the Writings of Karol Wojtyla

How many libraries would be purchasing this collection? Libraries in Latin seminaries and universities might be interested, but is this really a good dedication of resources during a time of collapse? I'd rather see someone working on a bilingual critical edition of the Church Fathers. IMO, Karol Wojtyła's originality in philosophy and theology may not be overrated but its value is limited, and his importance for the patriarchate of Rome is definitely exaggerated.

CUA Press is doing a 20+ vol. English critical edition of all of Wojtyla/JPII's writings, starting with Person and Act. Huge. Also, Mike Aquilina's new compilation of the Fathers on the Mass, new translations of Piers Plowman and Pascal's Pensees... Looks like a great season.

— Catholic Culture Podcasts (@CatholicPods) September 18, 2020

Another Defense of Vatican II

An older essay, from 2012.

CWR: The True Spirit of Vatican II by Douglas Bushman
The main desire of the Council was to reinvigorate the Church’s mission of promoting a fully human life in Jesus Christ.

John Paul II and Vatican II

CWR: A Saintly View of Vatican II by Douglas Bushman
For St. John Paul II, Vatican II is a concrete, historical realization of Christ’s promise to be with His Church through the work of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, it makes a claim on his faith.

It's another essay by a Latin about a Latin council, which may exaggerate certain Latin pious beliefs about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and a supposedly valid ecumenical council (but really a synod of the Patriarchate of Rome).

To view the Council in faith, with St. John Paul II, is to see that at Vatican II the apostolic Church experienced anew the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to send the Holy Spirit, Who “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). For this reason, “Obedience to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council is obedience to the Holy Spirit…. Obedience to the Holy Spirit is expressed in the authentic carrying out of the tasks indicated by the Council, in full accordance with the teaching set forth therein” (Address to the College of Cardinals, November 9, 1979).

One cannot make historical judgments about a council without the exercise of faith, and Latin critics of the council, such as Latin traditionalists, have their own starting points which are held in faith.

Just as the pope may have been canonized in part for "ecclesial" reasons, to promote the credibility of Vatican II, so his judgments concerning the council are perceived to have more weight because he has been canonized.

Adam DeVille on John Paul II

CWR: John Paul II: Diagnostician of Divisions, Doctor of Ecumenism by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille
In the encyclical Ut Unim Sint, given twenty five years ago, the late pope wrote about “the necessary purification of past memories,” a consistent and urgent theme of his pontificate.

Deville uses both Taft and John Paul II for a discussion of the healing of memories. That certainly is a necessary part of reconciliation.

Nevertheless, there are more recent and more hopeful signs. These have increased with Constantinople’s granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church last year. With Russia thereby losing control over much of Ukrainian Orthodoxy in 2019, the latter remains free to deepen the healing in its already amicable and often co-operative relationship with Ukrainian Catholics.

Whether what is going on in Ukraine is a helpful development or not remains to be seen. The jockeying between Moscow and Constantinople needs to end (and recognition of Roman primacy is not the quick solution that Latin polemicists would make it to be); this may require further humbling of both historic sees by God. There needs to be ecclesial reform happening in many churches, but not the changes that liberal progressives want.

More on John Paul II/Karol Wojtyła

They are making a big deal out of the 100th anniversary of his birth because of the agenda to canonize him and to protect the "legacy" of Vatican II after the rather disastrous pontificate of Paul VI and the inconsequential pontificate of John Paul I. John Paul II seems larger than life as his pontificate was concurrent with the fall of the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc, and some, like Weigel, were eager to attribute being a cause who brought about the fall of Communist states to John Paul II. The conservative ultramontanists who think that John Paul II was traditional and liked him will defend his reputation, regardless of what evidence a more neutral historian might evaluate differently. Unfortunately for the patriarchate of Rome, he was canonized too quickly, and a fair and impartial assessment of his legacy may never be written at this point, unless the patriachate of Rome and its reputation were to suffer such a reversal in the future that all of its actions are called into question.

John Paul the Forgotten? by Richard A. Spinello

While Francis seems to be ignoring or revising the "theological legacy" of John Paul II (his encyclicals), what long-term effects will Francis's papacy have, besides confirming divisions among Latin Catholics and maybe even bringing about more muddle-headedness for those who have not been catechized well?

There are at least two other things at work here:
1. John Paul II's encyclicals can be difficult to read. This is a clear contrast with the encyclicals of Benedict XVI. While seminarians and young priests of the "John Paul II generation" may admire John Paul II, how many of them have the theological education to properly evaluate his writings, or the desire really to engage with them properly?
2. Top-down, centralized teaching of theology is a disservice to theology, which requires a personal relationship between the teacher and the student. It should be no surprise if the transmission of theology by the patriarch of Rome is incomplete and ineffective.

How many of today's current Roman Catholic seminarians were influenced by Pope Francis, rather than Benedict XVI? There are many priests, especially Jesuits, who are vocal Francis adherents, and progressives who see Francis as embodying their interpretation of Vatican II. Whether they will have any long-lasting influence on the patriarchate of Rome remains to be seen, as most of them are older and have limited influence among those who have different opinions about theology and liturgy.

There will be a lot of commentary about his pontificate this week, but it is unlikely that I will do a greater search of links to post them. Maybe Phil Lawler will have an interesting take on the man and his pontificate.

More:
CWR: Wojtyla’s Athenian catechesis: An antidote to the culture of veriphobia by Eduardo Echeverria
A review of Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s newly discovered and published 1965 reflections on St. Paul’s discourse at the Areopagus, titled Teachings for an Unbelieving World.

Remembering the lens and the life of Pope St. John Paul II by Joanna Bogle
He was an innovator soaked in the rich traditions of the Church, a man of physical courage who found his strength in spiritual truth, and a mystic with a robust and cheerful style which endeared him to non-believers and even to cynics.


First Things:
A Protestant Appreciation of Pope John Paul II by Bruce Riley Ashford
Pope on the World Stage by Peter J. Leithart
My Pope by Julia Yost

Wojtyła's The Catholic Social Ethic

CLJ: Everything You Know About John Paul II's Early Lectures on CST Is Wrong by Paweł Rojek

Everything You Know About John Paul II's Early Lectures on CST Is Wrong https://t.co/anjjkhsb5s
#ThankYouJohnPaul2 #JP2

— Church Life Journal (@ChurchLifeND) May 18, 2020

Ultramontanists will differ on the authority of the text depending on whether they agree with it or not. That's the folly of being an ultramontanist -- his lectures should be evaluated as moral theology, one theologian's private opinions, and nothing more than that.

Related:

The Polish Romantic Messianism of Saint John Paul II https://t.co/3PcRXWglqi
#ThankYouJohnPaul2 #JP2

— Church Life Journal (@ChurchLifeND) May 18, 2020

What Will Be Left of the Patriarchate of Rome in 100 Years?

CWR Dispatch: The next hundred years of St. John Paul II’s legacy by Jonah McKeown for CNA

Will ultramontanism still be around then?