Peggy Noonan: The Day I Met the Pope

Opinion Journal ^ | 08/02/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[ArneFufkin]

Hey Mr. Tooth -

You've got a winning lyrical talent, friend! If Victoria Delsoul is posting your stuff on her ID page... woo hoo! Steve Vai and Tommy Emannuel want to borrow your riffs too!!! Yawn Okay!!! LOL

Good job. Fly to New York FOOL. ;^)

[ppaul]

[MeekOneGOP]

---

Peggy Noonan

Peggy Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal. She is also a contributing editor of Time magazine and Good Housekeeping, a member of the board of the Manhattan Institute and author, most recently, of the bestseller "The Case Against Hillary Clinton" (HarperCollins, 2000).

Ms. Noonan was a speechwriter and special assistant to President Reagan from 1984 to 1986. In 1988 she was chief speechwriter for Vice President George Bush as he ran for the presidency. Her first book, "What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era" was published in 1990. She is also author of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" (1994) and "On Speaking Well" (1998).

Before entering the Reagan White House she was a producer at CBS News in New York, where she wrote and produced Dan Rather's daily radio commentary. She also wrote television news specials for CBS News. In 1978 and 1979 she was an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University. Ms. Noonan lives in New York.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/bio.html

[xsmommy]

this is very moving.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

ping

[lodwick]

Thanks and bttt.

[My back yard]

I would give some body part to see this Holiness. An appendage anyway.

[maica]

I am so glad that Opinion Journal readers - no matter their religious feelings - will have an opportunity to read this essay. Anyone who has been in the presence of John Paul knows they have been in the presence of a saint.

[Aggie Mama]

So very moving. I'm in tears myself.

[dead]

bttt

Beautiful.

[Valin]

Thanks for the flag. You made my day.
If this article doesn't git your gitter going you need a new gitter.

[PatrickHenry]

I'm really curious about the procedures for that audience. Was there no name-check at the door? No security screening? It almost seems as if anyone could have gone to those doors in the morning and been allowed in. It's disturbing that the Pope would be so vulnerable.

[Valin]

I was educated totally in Catholic Schools,... in grammer school I had Nuns (The Sisters of Notre Dame)... in High School I had Franciscan Brothers

Dominicans here. I've always been glad I was taught by those folks, their message seemed to be (looking back over the decades past) you WILL learn this..or rue the day, stupidity was not an option.

[Elsie]

What did his trip accomplish? Something big. He proved that no matter how healthy or capable-seeming the pope is or is not, he is here, he is loved, he has power, he is a presence. The trip was a reply to those within and without the church who have called for the pope's resignation or retirement. John Paul said, through his actions, God decides when a pope "resigns"; God will take the pope from the earth, and as long as God keeps the pope here, the pope will fill the shoes of the Fisherman and do the work of the Lord.

---

Yeah..... but is he a PROPHET!?

---

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/721688/posts

[Campion]

(No personal experience here, I'm going by this description and that of others who've had a private audience.)

I think the Swiss Guards know exactly who is coming, and they have a pretty good "grip" on how to tell who is who. You have to have at least a little "pull" to get a private audience in the first place (there's a public audience on Wednesdays for the hoi polloi; anyone can get a ticket to that, provided they ask early enough), so a bad guy would have to take someone's place and be a good enough imitation to deflect any suspicion on the part of the Guards.

[Campion]

Yeah..... but is he a PROPHET!?

He's not an adulterous, occultic fraud like Joseph Smith was, if that's what you're asking. Jupiter amulets? Peep-stones? Golden plates? "Angels" who are really the channeled spirits of dead Indians? Stealing other men's wives? Temple rituals with blood oaths? False prophecies of the end of the world by the 1890's? Men becoming "gods"? Carnal intercourse between "Heavenly Father" and the Most Holy God-bearer Mary, a la Greek and Norse paganism? Polytheism?

Read up on the Kinderhook plates, if you want a fine example of Joseph Smith's prophetic talents.

Blecch!

If that's what you get with a "PROPHET," may God in his mercy preserve us from PROPHETs.

[AnalogReigns]

While I am a Presbyterian, who thinks the Pope is nothing more than a Bishop of Rome--exalted by millions--I am a great admirer of the man, and I really appreciate Peggy Noonan's description here. John Paul II is a great Christian leader--and I think he is probably one of the most Christ-like and godly Popes of the last 1000 years. He exalts our humble Lord Jesus...and that is what makes him great. My own father, also a Presbyterian--and an extremely godly and loving man, was given a hug by this Pope about 20 years ago. Dad was at an event where the Pope was present, and a group of children cried out for John Paul to bless them...and Dad with his characteristic gentle humility was asking the kids to quiet down...but John Paul with his own characteristic gentle humility of course came over to bless the noisey kids--and in the process embraced my Dad.

Both Dad and this Pope are in Christ--and its the goodness of Christ that makes them great...each with their own role to play in God's kingdom.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Hehehe...Good one...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads ups!