John Paul the Great?

Fire of Liberty

In today's edition of The New York Post, Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things, has a great commentary on why PJPII should be deemed John Paul the Great. As the good Father Neuhaus points out, John Paul II would be one of only of three to have "the Great" moniker on their name, which include Leo the Great (he persuaded Attila the Hun not to kill innocents in Vienna) and Gregory the Great from the 5th and 6th Century A.D. Neuhaus noted that John Paul II has also demonstrated in through his various writings, works as well as his courage that he is in the same vein as the two other popes who are considered "Greats." While one could spend all day talking and discussing the countless examples of the Holy Father's greatness, I think Father Neuhaus puts his thumb on the best example of John Paul II's greatness in the following paragraphs:

If any phrase encapsulates the message that John Paul declared to the world, it is probably "prophetic humanism." There is nothing more humanistic than the Catholic Christianity that he proclaimed and lived. The message centers in the astounding truth that God became a human being in Jesus Christ. You cannot get more humanistic than that.

It is impossible to understand John Paul without understanding that his entire thought and being was grounded in the incarnation, the teaching, the suffering, death, resurrection and promised return of Jesus Christ. He was, through and through, an intellectual and philosopher. The school of philosophy to which he belonged, and to which he made many contributions through scholarly articles and books, goes by the perhaps obscure names of "phenomenology" and "personalism," but always his thought was Christo-centric, centered in the revelation of God in Christ.

His humanism was thus very different from the kind of vacuously optimistic view often called humanism — for John Paul was not an optimist, and optimism is not a Christian virtue. Optimism, one might say, is simply a matter of optics, of seeing what you want to see and not seeing what you don't want to see. John Paul was, rather, a man of hope — which is a Christian virtue.

I believe if the vote of naming the Pontiff- John Paul the Great- came down to a vote, then this should be the deciding factor. If Father Neuhaus has anything to do with this decision then he's in like Flint. John Paul the Great has a good ring to it. It's already catching on throughout the cable news World.