Pope and Pol draft
The Pope or the Pol Hope in the Third Millennium or The Death of the West? John Paul II versus Pat Buchanan by John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe John Walton Easton, MD John, thanks for pushing me to read Buchanan’s book. I have a mixed reaction to it. I find it deeply pessimistic, a cry of despair. It is diametrically opposed to the clear teaching – teaching, not commentary – of St. John Paul II, both in its general thrust and in most details. Nonetheless, I found it extraordinarily helpful – a powerful presentation of a viewpoint that had baffled me. For some months in 2022, I felt that I had lost a large part of my vocation – the ability to see what had happened when people drifted apart, the ability to see a way toward reconciliation. Maybe I could help, or maybe not; but for decades I had quite often been able to see the problems that divided people, and to see both views clearly, and to see some ste...