Remembering the good and the bad about Pope John Paul II

I had intended to write a bit about some of the darker aspects of the tenure of Pope John Paul II from an Orthodox Christian perspective, but Dr. Joseph McLellan has beat me to the punch. See click here to read part I, and click here to read part II.

In short, we certainly owe him a debt of gratitude for his stand for the sanctity of human life, and his opposition to communism. However, he was not the traditionalist that the media has made him out to be. He held traditional Roman Catholic views on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and clerical celibacy, but he actually took the Roman Church in a more liberal direction when it comes to Ecumenism and inter-religious "dialogue". Click here for a summary of a video tape which documented the many betrayals of Christ which took place with the full blessing of Pope John Paul II.

For example, in Assissi, Italy, at a day of prayer for world peace, Buddhists were given the use of a Roman Catholic Church, and allowed to set up a Buddhist idol on the altar.

Here are a few photos of similar betrayals:



Here we see Pope John Paul II kissing a copy of the Koran... a book that denies the doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ




Here we see Pope John Paul II receiving a holy feather from a Pima Shaman




Here we see Pope John Paul II receiving a Hindu blessing... the red dot on the forehead.




It is just such things as these that made Mel Gibson so mad that he painted his face blue, donned a kilt and a sword, and became a Traditionalist Roman Catholic (a group in schism from Rome, which holds to the older traditions of the Catholic Church).