Posted on 04/04/2005 3:15:28 PM PDT by qam1
I suppose that every generation goes through the melancholy task of burying the leaders who shaped the world from our childhood. For people of my generation, dubbed Generation X, a group much different than the baby boomers - socially and politically, we have already begun the process of saying good-bye to a number of people who helped to create the world we live in today. The most recent person we lay to rest is among the most influential people the world has ever known: Pope John Paul II.
On Friday, President Bush will be the first United States President ever to pay respects to a Pope in Rome as leads a small United States delegation to The Holy See for the Pope’s funeral.
Already, pundits and talking heads are wondering whether or not President Bush should break with tradition in our, debatably, secular society to attend the funeral of the spiritual leader to over one billion Catholics, but the Pope was much more than a simple spiritualist. He was a man who helped the greatest leaders that my generation remembers transform the world into one of Communism and tyranny against freedom and liberty to one where liberty and freedom no longer fear individual states or the menace of the Soviet Union. Our fear today is not of a missile attack by a superpower, but a chemical or nuclear attack by a small group of disgruntled Islamists.
If ever there were an event for the tradition of a United States President not to attend the funeral of a religious leader and head of state – the funeral of Pope John Paul II is that occasion.
The Pope was a central figure, along with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher coupled with the courageous people of the former Soviet Union, in ending the Cold War and bringing down the Iron Curtain that divided Europe.
Freedom and liberty came to hundreds of millions of people without the firing of a single shot and although times have changed and enemies have become less obvious than America versus the USSR, the message of liberty has not lost on President Bush as he fights a war on terror and leads the world to stomp out a menace more sinister than the Soviet Union.
The cycle of life that takes the great leaders of our generation creates a need for other men and women to rise to a level of prominence that many question if anyone will ever be able to replicate.
When President Reagan died I lost the first President I ever really knew and it was an emotional loss; greatness doesn’t come along very often. Pope John Paul II has been a fixture on the world scene for 27 years and as pictures were being replayed of a young Cardinal Karol Wojtyla walking into the Conclave after the death of Pope John Paul I, who presided over the faithful for only 33 days culminating in what some have dubbed the Year of Three Popes, it was hard not to think about the astonishing things John Paul II brought to the world.
Reaching out to bridge the gap between the Orthodox Christian faiths of the east to the Catholic Church in Rome, being the first Pope in history to attend both a synagogue and a mosque and his greatest achievement, in my mind, of bringing young people into the arms of G-d and making them excited about religion made Pope John Paul II a leader among leaders.
The Pope had a keen insight into the fact that it would be difficult to change the minds of some selfish baby boomers, but to affect the future he had to become as popular as a rock star and affect the behavior and minds of their children.
During World Youth Days he was greeted exactly like a star by hundreds of thousands of young people who see the egotism of the generation that begat us as we distance ourselves from the values they attempt to instill into us. We don’t believe in the free love culture they embraced, or that behavior of an individual in this life doesn’t matter in the next or that taking life from the innocent as they become either a burden (read: Terri Schiavo) or those too weak to care for themselves (read: abortion) is not okay for any society.
Pope John Paul II had a gift of perception that comes from watching his childhood friends be taken to concentration camps by the Nazis never to return. He lived under the tyranny of Communism so was a remarkable figure and inspiration for change as he became the first Polish Pope in history and the first non-Italian in 456 years and also the youngest in the 20th Century.
Three leaders stand out in the minds of people in my generation for their steadfast leadership and courage: Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher. Within a year we’ve lost all but the latter and her health is waning as the result of a stroke and it may not be long before Lady Thatcher is taken from the world and reunited with the men who shared her hatred of tyranny and love of liberty.
As we watch the pomp and circumstance of what will be happening during the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the Conclave of Cardinals as they choose the next Pope, Generation X has to be wondering when will the next group of greater than great leaders appear? Some come close – President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair (neither of them like the other on social issues, but united in foreign policy) are excoriated at home for their various methods of attacking terrorists where they live instead of allowing them to attack us where we do.
Reagan and Thatcher faced similar opposition and history proved that those who opposed them were wrong. Unfortunately, being wrong doesn’t matter when the target is a conservative; being wrong as a liberal elevates their stature, being right as a conservative passes as a blip in history and is often belittled as an accident.
Pope John Paul II made moral teaching a central part of his Papacy; Margaret Thatcher and President Reagan were not willing to assume that the former Soviet Union could not be conquered – and they succeeded. President Bush is doing similar things today as is his counterpart in Great Britain.
When the white smoke rises from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel announcing the election of the next Pope, let us hope that he may follow in the shoes of John Paul II in a way that adheres to the teaching of the value of life and a hatred for tyranny.
He may be too young to have lived under Nazism or from a place too distant to feel the reality of lack of liberty, but with G-d’s help he will realize quickly that the Pope has a way of changing the world by using his Papacy for the good of the world and not simply the good of the Catholic faithful.
Steve Yuhas is a columnist and radio talk show host on KOGO out of San Diego. He may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Given the precedig paragraph, I assume this is a misprint.
I also feel like I should point out that I did NOT teach my children the things this author complains about, and that some of the biggest spenders in Congress are NOT baby-boomers.(Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, Trent Lott).
That's the first I've heard that. How ridiculous!
I'm a Boomer and remember Ike and Pope Pius, but Mrs. C is much younger, an early GenXer and she is particularly concerned that the next Pope will be a liberal who will "Reform" the church. I must admit that I really haven't hought much about it but, now that I do, I realize that the next Pope will be pivotal in the shaping of our future society.
A very liberal Pope could be disastrous.
The one thing that concerns me most about Gen X, Gen Y, and Millenium kids is the fact that so many of them grew up with no parent(s) at home much of the time. In light of recent events, I wonder how many of them will be more than willing to do the "convenient" thing with their aging parents, when the roles are reversed. Scary thought.....
I am sorry for Gen X kids who were raised as latch-key kids with little interest from their parents. That isn't true of all Gen X-ers, though.
Some people, however, are going to reap what they have sown.
I have vague recollection of something when I was a toddler. People were talking about something that had gone down in a nearby RCC. I looked into it later as an adult, asking my folks what had happened. About 1/3 of the congregation had left the church because they wanted to divert some amount of money from normal church funds to essentially give a bunch of people who smashed up their own neighborhood in a riot extra money above welfare. This 1/3 were a faction who had gotten some sort of taste of liberation theology and had been all fired by all the liberalization of Vatican 2. They were the youngest Silents and the oldest Boomers. They were people who, as young adults, had been influenced strongly by Pope Paul VI. So, when they didn't get their way they split away with a renegade priest and formed their own Marxist hippie "church." To me, John Paul II helped to turn around what was clearly the destruction of a key element of Western Civilization. I am not a RC, however, from the standpoint of what's important to Western Civilization, I pray that the next Pope is at least as conservative as John Paul II was. May he rest in peace.
It is my belief that the Holy Spirit brought us JPll and He will also bring us the pope that we need. I have no fear.
Losing two men who were giants of history within one year. They were both at one time actors, powerful leaders, anti-communists, and both shot in 1981.
Being a "True Freeper" is not incongruent with being a true-blue Catholic.
Bring your Fire Retartandt suit, you are going to get flamed.
The obligatory Catholic-bashing on the part of self-righteous evangelical FReepers shall commence in...
Whoops, it's already started...
it won't happen. the liberal factions of catholicism are in the US and in western europe - the two locations where catholicism is dying due to the growth of secularism and imploding birth rates. why have a pope that caters to that segment, when its fading out?
I don't think that being an Evangelical is the only the way to be a true conservative or "true FReeper," and I doubt many other do either.
Though if pressed, I would say the Baptists, the Pentecosts and the Mormons are much truer to the conservative, free market, 2nd amendment, low taxes, limited government, pro-military ideology of Jesus Christ.
Oh, really?
When Peter died, so died the privileges he inherited from Christ.
You acknowledge that Peter was given privileges from Christ. That's a good start. Those privileges were the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Mt 16:13-19) and the power of binding and loosing sins (Mt 18:18). Powerful privileges indeed. However, Peter would be dead by 70 AD. Why would He not intend the office of Peter to be passed on?
When God established His covenant with the nation of Israel, He provided for a living, continuing authority in the Mosaic priesthood. This is testified to in 2 Chr 19:11
See now, Amariah is high priest over you in everything that pertains to the Lord, and Zebadiah, son of Ishmael, is leader of the house of Judah in all that pertains to the king; and the Levites will be your officials. Act firmly, and the Lord will be with the good.
and in Mal 2:7
For the lips of the priest are to keep knowledge; and instruction is to be sought from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
So we have an OT precedent for a living, continuing authority established for spreading God's word, as well as sanctifying and governing. Why would He give to Peter such a great responsibility, along with such powerful authority, and not intend for it to be passed on? Would Christians who did not have the benefit of hearing the Gospel directly from Christ's lips, or living in the times of the Gospel, need that guiding authority even more?
This is something all true Freepers understand intuititvely.
Oh, come now. No need to taunt us by implying that Catholics are not real Freepers (or perhaps even real conservatives?). I've seen you raining on Catholics' parade in this time of change on a few different threads, so I pray that you will give this some thought.
If I taunted, I owe an apology to you, a brother in Christ
What i am trying to say is that Catholicism is ridden with tendencies that manifest themselves in non-conservative ways. Aside from the doctrinal differences I mentioned, it is hierarchical, nondemocratic & characterized by lots of foreign influence.
I think Catholics are fine people, with their devotion to private education and the military. But I still believe that American Protestantism - stripped of Priests, Bishops, and centuries of theology - is a purer form of Christianity (thus the reason that our religous forbears called themselves "Puritans")
This is something for you to consider.
Thank you. Apology accepted. However ...
What i am trying to say is that Catholicism is ridden with tendencies that manifest themselves in non-conservative ways.
Name a church that doesn't have its more liberal members and/or pastors.
Aside from the doctrinal differences I mentioned, it is hierarchical, nondemocratic & characterized by lots of foreign influence.
Christ didn't promise a democracy ... He promised a kingdom. Also, consider Eph 4:11-12:
And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ...
This sounds like a hierarchy to me. And what's wrong with foreign influence? A universal church is going to have influences from all over the world, as its membership and mission are worldwide. Just remember that the Truth is the Truth, no matter where you're from.
I think Catholics are fine people, with their devotion to private education and the military. But I still believe that American Protestantism - stripped of Priests, Bishops, and centuries of theology - is a purer form of Christianity (thus the reason that our religous forbears called themselves "Puritans")
Thank you for your gracious recognition of some of the significant contributions of the Church to our society. I recognize there are a few things that we Catholics could learn from Protestants and other Christians. However, I disagree with your assessment of other churches as a purer form of Christianity as the Catholic Church is the oldest, and can trace its history directly to the time of Christ. The Puritans were an admirable people, but just because they called themselves the Puritans doesn't make them the purest form of Christianity.
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