Love that quote. I've permanently incorporated it into my material!
Here is another quote:
When I was travelling through Poland as a young priest just after John Paul II's election to the papacy, I was struck not only by the heroic stand the Church was making against the Soviet system, but also by the underlying similarity between these two great antagonists. It was quickly apparent that John Paul's papacy was going to be characterised by Soviet-style double-speak and double-think' 'renewal' was merely the repackaging of past certainties; discerning 'the signs of the times' meant accepting official teaching; 'dialogue', even among bishops, became the ratification of preformulated conclusions. It was distressing that after a great reforming council -- at which the Church decided it had had enough of autocracy -- a pope had been elected whose notion of engaging with the modern world was to enforce absolute conformity to the traditional party line. The unifying theme of papal policy was the centralisation of power. In Latin America, charismatic figures were either crushed... or marginalised... Even Pedro Arrupe... was publicly humiliated.
As this papacy nears its end, it has taken on the characteristics of Brezhnev's last days, when no one knew who was in charge or even if Brezhnev was alive or dead. Those of us who have become refusniks look forward to the future with interest. Dominic Kirkham, Manchester.
DARE I ADD that I have heard hundreds of my fellow clergy speak in exactly those tones? Could it not be that we clergy know something about the deleterious effects of the cult of JP2 that eludes his lay admireres?
oops, I did not need to type out Fr Kirkham's letter -- here it is online: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n05/let...05/
letters.html
One can't help but wonder why the Kirkhams and O'Learys remain in the Church.
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