Reasons For The Effectiveness of John Paul II

I thought I would take a brief moment to give a few opinions about the passing of Pope John Paul II.

Now I am not a Roman Catholic and have no desire to be one but, I have to admit, as far as popes go, John Paul II was a good one. In fact, the almost universal opinion of all Christians and most world leaders is that John Paul II was a great Pope and will probably go down in history as one of the best popes the Roman Catholic Church has ever had. Probably in the top five.


This then begs the question: Why was Pope John Paul II such a good Pope?

In considering this matter, I came up with three probable reasons:

1) Karol Jozef Wojtyla spent a lifetime fighting fascists (either Nazi or Commie) for both religious and electoral freedoms. These early years of freedom fighting had an indelible impact upon his life and made him an effective Pope with regards to the pursuit of freedom in the world.

2) Pope John Paul II combined both moral conservatism and social activism. It is interesting that in a day when the Protestant Church is largely divided among believers who want more social activism and those who want more moral conservatism that we have a Roman Catholic pontiff who combined both and was admired by both sides of Protestantism. Yes, as I have perused the eulogies this week, I read the conservatives hailing the Pope for his moral stance and the liberals hailing the Pope for his social stance. Now what does this say? To me it says that when a person combines both biblically based moral and social concerns to their ministry that they will have a positive impact on the Church. I think the successful ministries throughout Christendom both in Protestant and Roman Catholic circles bears this out. A lesson for us all.

3) And lastly, and this cannot be overlooked, Pope John Paul II, was one of the first Popes to benefit from the technological wave that has swept the world. Through great advances in satellite and Internet technology, parishioners and all people all over the world could now see and hear the Pope live wherever they or the Pope were. What’s more, the advances in transportation allowed this Pope to be the most traveled in history.

I am sure that there are other significant factors that have led to the success of this Pontiff’s reign. Any one else have a good reason?