That must be some comfort to the millions murdered, maimed or enslaved by communism, and their relatives, eh? /sarcasm
I can promise you that it provided no comfort to my great grandfather, who had everything that he ever worked for stolen by the Communists when he was in his late 50's. This statement, I am certain, provided even less comfort for my grandfather, who was forced to flee his country of birth and leave most of his family behind at age 22 in order to simply survive. He never saw his parents or one of his brothers again, and only saw his remaining siblings for a couple of weeks in 1969.
Yes, Communism brought my grandfather to this country, and therefore my grandparents met and my father was born, leading to me and my kids. Good for me and them - but at what cost to my grandfather and his family? Those remaining behind lived in poverty and in constant fear of The State for the rest of their lives.
I find it impossible to label anything about Communism as a "good thing," except for its fall from power in the late 1980's in the former Soviet Empire. The voices of the tens of millions who were slaughtered by Lenin, Stalin & Mao, as well as all of the brutal and corrupt regimes and terrorist organizations (the legacy of which we are still seeing) supported by the Soviet Union and Red China, cry out in anguish about the evil - the utter lack of good - of that twisted and sick ideology. Sorry, the Pope is wrong. He may be perfect regarding Catholic theology, but he's off the mark on this one. Nonetheless, I salute him for having gone through what he did without losing any of his morality and decency. He's had a tough life (at least until he was elected Pontiff), and he deserves respect for that.
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There is a vast difference between a "necessary evil" and a "good thing." Evil is not good. But if your grandfather cannot understand how something as evil as the Soviet Union can be used to help bring about the salvation of man, he can never understand why evil exists. Ask the Jews who call their own slaughter, "holocaust." (The word means, "a holy offering.")
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I think his life became tougher after he became Pontiff.
I think what the Pope meant was, sometimes the evils of the world such as Communism and Nazis have to be allowed, or I should say have been allowed to a certain point to erupt to the surface, that is until the evils are so in your face and so obvious that the good of the world will then react.
Such as 911, in recent times. For years the evil filth (terrorists) have been nipping at the heels of the US and other western countries and virtually nothing was done for years, perhaps due to certain traits of certain politicians of the time, until of course the US decided by force to kick ass in Afghanistan. (different political traits again)
The only way to deal with scum terrorists,nazis and Commies is to take them to the tree shredders; there is no point in trying to be diplomatic about it all as some left wingers may/have suggest.
The not so obvious point about what the Pope is saying I think also, we must learn from the past which is a good thing, unfortunately learning good things may come from extremely bad things, Communism, Nazis, Terrorists.
Here in Australia, we have been preached to by left wingers (politicians) for 30 years and finally in 1996 elections we had showed we have had enough, it’s a sort of learning process which unfortunately sometimes cost 100’s 1000’s 100000’s or 1000000’s of lives.
So what have we learnt and what do we do for a better future??
Be easy on me guys im new to this:)