Posted on 04/01/2005 5:39:23 PM PST by Cincinnatus
Before John Paul II there was another Polish savior of Europe, King John Sobieski, called upon by the countries of Old Europe to save Austria and the West from invasion by the Turks. Though the hour was desperate, Sobieski marched his troops two days out of the way, to the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, there to pray and copy her image onto their shields. He rallied the weary and wasted remnants of Christianity and gave them new life, and new hope. And victory.
From my birth in 1951 to our wedding in 1978 Mary and I had known only three popes. And then there were three in the first three months of our marriage. We come from a town with strong Polish roots. My wife and children have Polish blood. I grew up a couple of hills over where Polock jokes were all the rage in my youth.
It didn’t take long. Approximately one day after the conclave I heard that the new pope had performed a miracle: he made a blind man deaf. And then came the one about explaining Easter, “when, three days after He suffered and died for our sins, He rose from the dead and stepped out of the tomb! Then He saw his shadow and there were six more weeks of winter.”
And on and on. Some joke he turned out to be, just becoming one of the greatest men who ever lived. His story is oft-told now and will not be repeated. He will be known for all time as John Paul the Great. He is credited along with Reagan and Thatcher with bringing down the Soviet Union and destroying communism. But there’s a little more to the story that you may not have heard.
The picture that appears with my blog is of me with my daughter Anna, standing street-side at President George W. Bush’s first inauguration, January 20, 2001. It wasn’t our first trip to Washington with the kids, but their first presidential inauguration. Having been a Reagan delegate to the 1980 Convention, we were naturally invited to his inauguration. But then Anna came along on January 6, 1981 so we skipped that one. Four years later our third child greeted us on January 14, 1985 so we missed Reagan II as well. I went alone to Bush 41, parking myself on the same corner as this picture. Both Reagan and Bush waved to me, but then I was carrying a sign that said, “Thanks, Ron, for securing the blessings of liberty!” signed by Anna, Bobby and Jamie, and cleverly blocking the presidential view of the Keep Abortion Legal folks behind me.
Three months later, in April of 1989, we all went down to see the cherry trees and spent a couple of days touring and visiting old friends with their new foster-baby. Our last stop was the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. There are many, many side altars and chapels and we stopped in a few. We started to walk past one for Our Lady of Czestochowa. Eight year old Anna took my hand and said, “What is this one, Daddy?” I told her, “This is where we pray for the people of Poland.” Without another word from anyone, she walked to the altar rail, knelt down and said a prayer.
Two weeks later the world was stunned to hear that a coalition in the Polish parliament had thrown out the Communist government and lived to tell of it. The velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere swept across the east. The Baltic states declared their independence, their people holding hands in a line that connected the capitals of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, whispering to each other one word: Freedom. In November, the Berlin Wall came down.
All from the prayer of one little girl.
ping
I think I read somewhere, but dont remember where, that there is criteria for calling a pope, "Great". I believe there only two-Leo, maybe? I could be wrong..
Whatever it is, he's met it.
Agreed.
BTTT!
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