Been reading...

...works by Edith Stein, and realised that I also wanted to read more by and about the great John Paul II. Like a great many of us, I had more or less taken him for granted - "Yes, wonderful man...hugely important..." but hadn't actually hoisted in the hugeness of what was achieved during his Papacy. I knew about the friendship with the Jewish people, opened up by Nostra Aetate and just this week reaffirmed with vigour by our present Holy Father.. But I had not realised the breakthrough that was achieved with the Orthodox Church, specifically by JPII's willingness to express sorrow and repentance for past wrongs caused by Catholics. What has also become very clear is the great intellectual closeness and rapport between JPII and BXVI, the philosopher and the theologian. Over the past three years I've been deep in books by Ratzinger/BXVI, and you note the influence at so many levels...