Pope John Paul II, again

Continuing from the preceding DoubleQuotes...

The late Pope's gestures towards both Jews and Muslims, however, were conducted against a background of resistance on the part of his fellow churchmen, including many members of the Curia.

I have chosen the two extreme responses here, one from the website of a papal claimant who viewed John Paul II as a heretic and his presence in a synagogue as proof of that, the other from the site of Fr Trosch, a sedevacantist priest (which is to say a priest who considers the papal "seat" or throne to have been vacant for some time), who views JPII's kissing of the Quran as proof of his apostasy... specifically to illustrate the severity of these contrary currents, which pulled against whatever moves he made to open the Church to the wider world around it...

View Pope John Paul II against a background of liberal expectations, and he may seem an extraordinarily conservative Pope. View his acts and pronouncements against the background of some of the more conservative currents within and close to his own church, on the other hand, and some of them -- such as his visits to mosque and synagogue, and his remarks quoted in the previous DoubleQuotes -- may seem startling in their courage and forcefulness.

May he rest in peace.