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Every Pope is like a sculptor, trying to make his contribution to the perfecting of the Church. JPII is no different. But his part of the sculpture is very intricate, involving some of the most fragile marble in the entire work of art.

He inherited at this time only two tools, because of the duplicity and machinations of those within and without the Flock during the prior decades:

1) A tiny little diamond edged chisel about the size of a popsicle stick (his encyclicals and his travels) and

2)a massive sledge hammer (the traditional forms of discipline available in years gone by.)

He knows that if he swings his sledgehammer, he'll make a lot of dust and noise, and please some folks. But a large piece of the sculpture will fall into ruin (open schism,) a piece that the next Pope might have been able to perfect (Novus Ordo Catholics.)

He also knows that his little chisel is incapable of weeding out the big imperfections in this piece of the marble, and that too must be left to the next Pope.

So instead of making any huge improvements in the form and shape of the overall sculpture, he simply, quietly, and without rest works on those areas where he is able without doing worse damage by trying to do more with his tools than is realistically possible.

And future generations will see the love and tenderness that went into his quiet suffering work, and be in complete awe, because in his day, no one individual could see all the little improvements he had made at the time, improvements that future generations will see and grasp and shed tears of joy to comprehend.

Dear CathFam,

"Every Pope is like a sculptor, trying to make his contribution to the perfecting of the Church. JPII is no different. But his part of the sculpture is very intricate, involving some of the most fragile marble in the entire work of art."

Maybe.

Or maybe he just hasn't been that great an administrator.

The pope is protected from error in his teaching office.

He isn't protected from error in prudential decisions.

It will take a perspective of at least several score years after his death before we'll be able to begin to sort out just what was what.

It's clear that he has upheld the Sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church, and in many ways, has made deeper and clearer our understanding of the Faith. I believe that for these things, he will be remembered well.

But it will be a very long time before adequate judgement can be made of his administrative stewardship.

It wouldn't surprise me if history judged him as having made do as best as he could with a bad situation. It may be that your analysis may be right.

But it also wouldn't surprise me if history's judgement was more mixed regarding his administration of the Church, or even somewhat negative.

This is an unanswered question.

What does not seem to be a question is that whether he did well or poorly in his administrative decisions and prudential judgements, they were his choices to make, they were decisions and judgements which he had the authority to make, and these were binding on the Church, and never an adequate reason for schism.

sitetest

Great analogy, lets pray it is accurate.

I normally don't engage in these threads but I read many.
I don't see Malachi Martin cited much in discussions related to the Church in the last 40+ years. I have read him "always w a grain or two of salt" He seems to have the best insight in many areas, especially in "Keys of this Blood"

Has he been generally dismissed by the Catholic Cacus on FR?

I live in the Cleveland Diocese. Things sure are 'progressive' here. It has been a burden.

Though I wonder when the media is going to start revealing numbers on public school teachers who carry on with students.

I was listening to the radio the other day and they said in Ohio the numbers were quite high. They cited our city where three teachers in 2 years (at one high school) have either resigned, gone to prison or as the last one did about two weeks ago, committed suicide.

Somehow I don't think the media will be as vigilant when it comes to these abuses.