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The Pope & other recent superheroes...Remembering!

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vanlee
Apr 03 2005
10:07 pm

Here is info on the 4 biggest champions who (mostly thru peaceful means—-amazingly enough) kicked down Communism’s bloody reign in Eastern Europe & the Soviet Union.

I wonder how many college age students realize what these 4 did.

(and of course many others, such as the Graphic Arts warriors in Poland…countless dedicated Christians working hard in the ex Soviet Union…some of the East German religious leaders, [b:19bb613c50]and others surely known at least to God as liberty’s champions[/b:19bb613c50]…_)

The first link is from an Ex Soviet agent…who tells of the Soviet’s perspective on Reagan, etc….
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/1/3/171935.shtml

Margaret Thatcher honored with the US Medal of Freedom…Speech gives some of the reasons for this honor…
http://www.medaloffreedom.com/1991Recipients.htm
Lech Walesa—-led Polish workers uprising.
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/Baker_00/2001_p6/baker_jl_al_sh_p6/solidarity.htm

And the last link tells of the Pope. First non-Italian Pope in several hundred years—-when he came in during the late 1970’s, he was athletic & still skiied.

http://religion-cults.com/pope/communism.htm

Those who wondered if a Polish pope would help then Communist oppressed Poland were more right than they knew. [b:19bb613c50]The earthquake from this peaceful movement…helped shake the foundations of all Eastern European and even the mighty Soviet Union.[/b:19bb613c50]
I remember the excitement of seeing the Berlin Will come down…of the free elections in Poland…of the statues of Lenin, etc. being toppled…I as a Baby Boomer grew up with the quote from Khruschev…who said something about our grandchildren living under Communism (Or am I thinking of Stalin,?)

were great heroes of the time. [/b:19bb613c50] If you don’t like some of their other past policies, etc. remember that many did not like some of Churchill’s or FDR’s politics, but admired them both for how they stood up to the Nazis.

I wonder how history books today present them? I will read my daughter’s history book next year & find out..

As a Protestant friend, I admired the Pope’s courage in speaking his mind. Did I agree on every point/ No. But those who are not too enchanted with their culture can be the ones who make their culture better.

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dan
Apr 04 2005
10:44 am

Thanks for those links vanlee. The world needs more people like John Paul II, but I’d say that the real heroes are the people of Eastern and Central Europe who risked their necks to go out in the street to protest and strike. Presidents and popes don’t risk their lives when taking a stand against despotism, but ordinary people who refuse to cooperate with their oppressors face real danger. Political and religious leaders who stand for what’s right deserve honour, but without large numbers of courageous ordinary folks they would be impotent.

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vanlee
Apr 04 2005
11:35 am

great about this saga (the quick & 99% peaceful) inward collapse of much of Communism was that the leaders & the rank & file oppressed worked together. [/b:9061c409f2]

I think elsewhere in this discussion site I put links to the Graphic Arts War fought between Communist poster artists in Poland and between the Solidarity & friends.

And the Pope & Reagan were both shot during the time of this struggle’s height (the 1980’s) it looks like Reagan’s shooter was just an independent guy, but there is still debate if the Pope’s assassin took orders (via a couple of intermediaries) that originated from Communists.

Did you enjoy reading about the others also? It was one exciting time. One man told me he went to then-Czechoslovakia right after Communism’s fall there. Noticed the radio in his hotel only had an off-on switch. (That way noone could tune in Radio Free Europe or any other subversive stations!!!)

the Communists were as evil as the Nazis—maybe not as racist, but even more deadly to average human beings.

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dan
Apr 08 2005
12:57 pm

Here’s an article that partly gets at my point about the thousands of regular people who did the real work of overthrowing the corrupt dictatorships. Also how the role of “heroes” like the pope become wildly exaggerated in the historcal narrative after the fact.

“Excuse me, but the Pope didn’t end communism”
http://www.slate.com/id/2116428/

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geoff3
Apr 10 2005
03:22 pm

Margaret Thatcher or Lech Walesa? I’m English, so it has to be Lech Walesa! Why has America honoured someone who has deformed english/british society to such an extent, that we are now the personification of greed incorporated. Can’t the Bush family get anything right?

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Adam
Apr 25 2005
11:40 pm

This is a copy of an e-mail sent to me from the Prior at Farnborough Abbey in England. I asked him for his thoughts on the new Pope. Last year, I heard him refer to Cardinal Ratzinger as “Cardinal Rottweiler” and I asked him if he was concerned that this new Pope would be a stickler for tradition and overly conservative. Granted, my friend is rather conservative himself, but not in the American sense. This was his reply, with a few things edited out:

Benedict XVI is….magnificent, and indeed is being referred to in the
English press as the German shepherd !

Your reference to the Dark Ages is an interesting one, even
‘insightful’
as I believe Americans are wont to say.

St Benedict lived a ta time when culture, language, art and
imagination
were at an all time low. So what did he do. He established monasteries,
enclaves of learning , of prayer of work and of study in a world which
had lost the plot. Sound familiar? These places were the only light in
ages which were dark – the future grew from them. Although the press
hate him, the new Pope is a man of outstanding intellect, and is
courteous and gentle beyond belief. He is a man who listens long before
he speaks. I think his reign will be happy.

As for the liberals, well! If you give them what they want then they
become more liberal until there ain’t nothing left. And the Church and
the world will always be at odds – because the language of the cross
will always be folly to those who do not believe. I attach my sermon
from last Sunday. I shall be in Chicago twice next year. . . . . Life he is good. We are
growing. We have been given n 80,000 volume library. We have cows and
pigs now. All very wild an exciting.

Keep the news coming kid. A manly head-but to you and much affection
and
fond memory.

Cuthbert osb

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dan
Apr 25 2005
11:56 pm

the language of the cross will always be folly to those who do not believe.

For Christians to be distinctively Christian is one thing, but since when did ‘the language of the cross’ become equated with 1. being against birth control, 2. being against Turkey joining the European Union, 3. being against rock and roll music.

That kind of ‘cross language’ is indeed folly to those who do not believe. And for good reason.

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geoff3
Apr 26 2005
04:01 am

I’m disappointed Dan, that you relegated rock ‘n’ roll to third place! Surely your values are inverted!!!

Two rules suffice:
1. Rock ‘n’ Roll always preceeds birth control.
2. Rock ‘n’ Roll always has the last word about life, not politics! Reason: Politicians are notoriously bad musicians and can’t hold a tune!

As for liberals and conservatives, well what if you don’t fit into either camp?

As for the all new, all singing, all dancing Pope Benedict? Don’t you think the decision was delivered rather too quickly? Isn’t the appointment of a German Pope a political sop to a secularised nation and former big mover and shaker in Europe?

Didn’t most of the journalists we heard over the Cardinal’s decision, suggest that a pontif from a ‘third world’ nation beckoned? If so, why isn’t the new caped crusader and super hero African or South American, where the majority of Roman Catholics live and move and have their being?

The BBC journalists toured the churches of Rome, asking about the real issues they wanted the new Pope to address. One journalist, after informing his audience that falls in attendance were due to the secularisation of Europe, discussed this ‘fact’ with church attenders. They wished that Pope Benedict XVI would do something about the falling numbers, which was caused by Catholics leaving to attend free-worshipping Protestant churches! So much for secularisation then!

Geoff