Throughout his Papacy John Paul II had the conviction that the Church must play the central role in assisting how to discern true from false freedom. As a trained moral theologian, Karol Wojtyla understood the demands of reason in modernity, its bearing on the fabric of modern life, especially in the sciences. As Pope he sought to strengthen man’s ability to rediscover the fountain of reason. He possessed the strength of a character formed in difficulties; he began to acknowledge some very difficult self evident truths about contemporary life, the limitations of freedom and sexual ethics.
Everywhere John Paul went he saw how modern man possessed more liberation but less fully experienced liberty; more modernity, but less coherence. More media and its violent appendages wrecking the strength of cognition and perception, the twin pillars of the arts; more separation of sexuality from commitment and marriage.
If modern man will not recognize that humanness is inviolable, it will summon its own destruction in the embrace of radical freedom under the guise of efficiency.
How to stem the tide?
Embody and fortify the individual who strives to live a life of grace, even if such a display is a contradiction.
William Holland
William Holland 