The American Spectator

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Protestant failure to address papal motivation can be read as a backhanded compliment to the late pontiff. For example, at least one preacher on the militantly Calvinist edge of the reformed tradition is of the opinion that the pope’s death represents a chance for other Christians to “expose Catholic errors,” which by his curious lights include “dogmatic denial of the gospel.”

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler, though not as quick to speak ill of the dead, still faults John Paul II for never confronting “the most pressing issues of evangelical concern.”

Consider the unconscious arrogance of that charge, which to avoid ridiculousness must overlook the fact that John Paul II had his hands full shepherding 1.1 billion fractious Catholics, staring down the Soviet Union, mending fences with Jews, and striving for rapprochement between Eastern and Western churches. While doing all of that and maintaining a travel schedule that would shame airline employees, the pope still found time to address other Christians in such seminal documents as the encyclical letter “Ut Unum Sint.”

Let it be said for the record that John Paul II was a worthy successor to Peter. His shortcomings were administrative rather than pastoral. To call him a charismatic religious figure with a shrewd sense of Communist weakness and lot of white in his wardrobe is to miss the main thing, which was the relationship with Christ in which he found purpose and consolation.