Posted on 10/02/2006 6:07:20 PM PDT by kellynla
Doctors who operated on Pope John Paul after a 1981 assassination attempt were convinced he would die under the knife, his ex-secretary says in a new book.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, now archbishop of Krakow in Poland, also says in a memoir due to be published next year that efforts to save the pope were hampered by a series of glitches.
Brief excerpts of "My Life with Karol" were made available on Monday by the Italian publisher Rizzoli ahead of its presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week.
In a chapter called "Those Two Bullets", Dziwisz recalls his feelings when Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot the Pope while his open jeep was being driven through St Peter's Square on May 13, 1981 at the start of his weekly general audience.
"I tried to hold him up (after he was hit by the second bullet) but it was as if he was letting himself go sweetly," writes Dziwisz, who served Karol Wojtyla for nearly four decades from the time the future pontiff was a bishop in Poland.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Faith is certainly an element of all of this, which is something most people sort of forget.
The element of evidence that underlines Christianity is that Jesus said He would die, was killed, and then appeared again to a whole bunch of people, including pagans at the time that recorded the incident.
The faith part is "Was Jesus Who He Said He Was?"
I'm not sure you can be more personally involved than to sacrifice your son to save somebody else. The act of salvation is definitely a personal one - accepting Christ as Savior personally.
When Jesus died, He said that we would not be alone, so He sent the Holy Spirit.
Faith is the thing though.
People will throw good money after bad on somebody elses ill-conceived investment idea, but are mortally offended at the thought of even investigating the prospect of a God that offers eternal life in exchange for a simple 'Thank You'.
God's not alone in this. Satan exists as well, which is again another act of faith to accept.
It's not an act of faith like accepting the idea that Santa stuffs himself down the Chimney to deliver gifts on Christmas morning by any stretch. The Bible has been pretty thoroughly studied as a document and a doctrine and has held up better than well.
God's not Barbara Eden either, who blinks and delivers an elephant in your kitchen. This Christian believes he exists to do the will of God, and not God existing to do my will.
Life complicates itself as a result, but on the other hand it brings a fair bit of consistency into the way one might analyze the nature of man.
I'm still waiting on the Muslim apology for the attempt on his life by one of their enlightened(cough) own.
I respect your faith and admire it. I was merely making an attempt to rationalize why some might receive a "miracle" while others, who may be just as deserving, don't. I am not in any way making some sort of opinion on faith or theology. I keep a very open mind on these things.
This is just some further evidence that JPII was the real thing and put here by the Lord God Almighty in order to deal with the Communist hordes, as I pray that Benedict was put here to deal with the Muslim hordes.
You and I are of one mind on this issue. I never imagined the level of anit-Catholicism existing in America until seeing some of the posts on Free Republic.
Anyway Dude/Dudette, I want to party with you.
Exactly. My point is that in my mind, there was never a doubt that it was indeed a miracle.
Yes, and therefore I said "IF"...
Well Okie Dokie then.
As I am sure you know "if" means depending on what you mean by "if". /sarcasm
(you just never know Fr. A CA Guy has a nice ring to it)
Well Okie Dokie then.
As I am sure you know "if" means depending on what you mean by "if". /sarcasm
(you just never know Fr. A CA Guy has a nice ring to it)
They probably sealed their fate.
Dude, actually.
KofC Sir Knight.
If one has a Christian faith other than Catholic, that person must have rationale behind that belief. If Catholicism is the original Church that Jesus founded and that person doesn't follow it, then, since man cannot found something better than God, it must mean that Catholic Church is now wrong.
Therefore, the vitriolic attacks.
Personally, I don't believe in playing chicken with my soul by wandering off into exotic belief systems, or attempting to select from the buffet line. The cafeteria is now closed.
That's always been my suspicion. The soviets have a history of that from iran in the 70s thru the plfp and plo, syria, libya, the whole shebang.
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