Pope John Paul II, RIP

Two stories about the late Pope John Paul II. In the first, he shows a quality of love even as a young priest that allows him to discriminate between the "obviously" and the "profoundly" right thing to do. In the second, his charisma is harnessed by others to their own cause...

The Pope was markedly sensitive to both Judaism and Islam, and was indeed the first pope to visit a mosque, and the first (since St Peter) to enter a synagogue. He spoke of Jews as the "our elder brothers in the faith of Abraham" and said of the Muslims that "many of them may serve as a model for us in their devout worship of the one God." [Jonathan Kwitny, Man of the Century, p. 672.]

*

The first in a continuing series...