...lots of people, wine, snacks, cake, speeches. A book launch is a bit like a christening-party, with everyone wishing the new arrival well. So the new book on Blessed John Paul has got off to a happy start...
It is hardback, with the most beautiful illustrations by Kati Teague.There's drama, with images of the Occupation in WW11, and the assasination attempt in 1981, and there is tenderness, with some lovely scenes of BlJP with children. There's lots of information about his mission and work - his devotion to the Rosary, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nice pic of the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger busy at work on it), World Youth Day, and more...
The launch party was at St Paul's bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, and was a lot of fun, with chatter and laughter. Afterwards, a family supper: I had spent the day with a dear niece - it's half-term this week - exploring Westminster and Parliament and then decorating the celebration cakes together at the bookshop.
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5 comments:
Well done Joanna.
I hope it does well. I didn't think JPII was a saint at the time, but I'm beginning to realise that he probably was. He seemed to have the gift of tongues, for example.
Dear Joanna,
The book looks great- many congratulations. And such an amazingly courageous man, it is right that we should celebrate him in as many ways as possible. I will certainly be buying a couple of copies for my children
I for one do not think that the late Pope from Poland should not at this time be called "John Paul The Great" until the Vatican and History says otherwise because of the serious flaws in his papacy you seem to want to forget. Remember Joana Pope Paul VI was also called "The Great" by many people (including JPII himself) but soon the title was dropped.It is presumption at best and it ignores John Paul I as well.
He is definitely John Paul the Great, and this is not just because of his personal prayer-life and his heroic final long witness through suffering but because of his great missionary journeys; his magnificent encyclical letters on Divine Mercy, on the Eucharist, on moral theology, and more; his ground-breaking approach to the Jews which reopened a dialogue broken off in the first century AD and now continuing; his superb teaching on Mary and on the Rosary (giving the Church the Luminous Mysteries,a lasting gift); his inspirational role in the victory over atheistic Communism; and his magnificent guidance of the Church over the threshold of a new Millenium with repentance for past wrongdoing and prayer-filled hope for the future...but also because of his courageous witness to truth in the face of passionate opposition on issues ranging from the sanctity of human life to the unique role of the Church, his valour in the face of personal danger (the 1981 assasination attempt, various other attacks on his life), and the example he gave of forgiveness, charity,and hope.
Paul VI was a deeply good man and is already named as a Servant of God - he has been underrated and it would be good to see some more writing about him.
JP II was by any reckoning the greatest man of the second half of the 20th century - I can't think of anyone else who comes close - for all the reasons you cite plus one more. He rescued the Church which by 1978 was in freefall after the worst pontificate in modern times. Paul VI might have been a good and holy man, but his leadership of the Church in the turbulent decade that followed the Second Vatican Council was little short of disastrous. I feel desperately sorry for him; hated by liberals for Humanae Vitae and by conservatives for encouraging Bugnini to take a wrecking-ball to the liturgy, the last ten years of his life must have been a torment. It is hardly surprising that no encyclicals emerged in these years.
He was the obvious successor to Pius XII just as Eden was to Churchill. Before he retired Winston confessed "I don't think Anthony is up to the job." It appears that Pius felt the same about Montini, which is why he denied him a red hat and shunted him off to Milan.
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