January 17, 2011. The acclaimed biographer George Weigel
has published the last part of his
biography on John Paul II. This book covers the last six years of
the Pope's life and sheds light on his
fight with communism based on new information from previously
classified documents.
George Weigel
Author, “The End and the
Beginning”
“
These documents demonstrate
the magnitude and depth of wickedness really of the communist war
against Karol Wojtyla of John Paul II for almost 40 years. This
includes everything from blackmail plots to the obvious
assassination attempt of 1981.”
This book touches on the subject of
John Paul II's efforts to denounce any ideas of a clash of religions
after the attacks of September 11th. The Pope was also vocally
opposed to the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In preparation for this book, Weigel
spoke with John Paul II about the sexual abuse crisis in the Church.
George Weigel
Author, “The End and the
Beginning”
“
I discussed the abuse crisis of
2002 and the Pope's response to that in considerable detail in this
book but I am not going to turn the entire life of John Paul II, the
most consequential Pope of the last 500 years, into a story of what
he did or did not do in response to what he knew about the sexual
abuse crisis. When the Pope was informed of what was necessary to do
in the United States, he did it, period.”
John Paul II was known as being a great
statesmen, making more trips abroad than any other pope. He is also
widely viewed as being a central figure in the collapse of European
communism.
George Weigel
Author, “The
End and the Beginning”
“I suspect he will be
remembered for measuring a singular life that somehow embodies the
human drama of the second half of the 20th century in a quite unique
way. If Winston Churchill's life somehow embodied the first half of
the 20th century, John Paul II's life embodied the second half of the
20th century in a unique way.”
This books completes a promise that
Weigel made to John Paul II before he passed away, saying that he
would finish the Pope's story.
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