“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think that the wide circle of the American Society, or the whole wide circle of the Christian Community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. The confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God’s Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously…”
--then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, 1976. Source here. (Note: in researching the source of this, I found this about a slightly different quote here.)
Reposted from "Bonfire of the Vanities" the excellent blog of Father Martin Fox. I know most of you read it but if you haven't gone there yet please check it out. He keeps us honest.
1 comment:
I repeat my post on Fr Fox's site....and add stuff too:
Father Fox...thank you very much for this post. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, subsequently Pope John Paul II, was intimately instrumental in bringing my best friend, a Priest, here, from Poland in the days when priests like Fr Jerzy Popiełuszko were being killed. His transit was aided by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, in Poland, sundry "gray suits" from State and CIA, and definitively abetted by Cardinal Edmund Szoka, here in Detroit, may he RIP.
Yes, yes...there is definitely a reason for the sainthood. He stood up in dangerous days. He made a difference. A difference I can feel and will never deny ever again.
October 20, 2014 at 11:33 AM Delete
Added stuff....I attended the memorial for Cardinal Szoka at the Archdiocese of Detroit Cathedral, but I could not bring my self to approach the bier itself. I'd known the man as an ordinary person, warm and loving, a guy you could just sit and talk with, a man who influenced me with ease. I intended to remember the living man, not the corpse. A man who would insist my better half Judi sit beside him at a dinner, with a twinkle in his eye. He was the first man who made religion "real" to me.
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