Thursday, March 02, 2006

Is anybody surprised?

Soviets 'behind pope shooting'
ROME, Italy (AP) -- An Italian parliamentary commission has concluded that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II, a theory long alleged but never proved.

"This commission believes, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leaders of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate the pope Karol Wojtyla," said a draft of the commission's report, a copy of which was made available Thursday to The Associated Press. Wojtyla was John Paul's Polish name.

What impresses me is that although JPG may well have known about this, he didn't use the fact as a bludgeon on the Soviet Union, even though he was probably the most effective force in the twentieth century behind the fall of communism. He allowed it to die in its own evil, rather than using his personal popularity to hasten the process. He had the bulliest pulpit on earth, but refused to use it to play what would have been dirty pool in the long run.

Santo subito!

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