Written by
Domenico Bettinelli, Jr., is a father of five and husband, a Roman Catholic, born in Boston, educated at Franciscan University of Steubenville, who has worked in Catholic media--print, broadcast, and online--since the mid-90s. Find out all about Dom on his About Me page.
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…But the pope also came under criticism toward the end of his pontificate for leaving in office American bishops who had covered up sex-abuse charges against priests.
“John Paul must bear partial responsibility for the catastrophe that has befallen us,” Catholic columnist Rod Dreher wrote in the Wall Street Journal in August 2002. Nevertheless, Mr. Dreher said the pope, whom he has called “the greatest man of my lifetime,” would go down in history as John Paul the Great.
The pope himself hinted that he knew administration was not his strong suit, saying that “a part of a pastor’s role is to admonish” and that he perhaps failed to be strict enough.
“Maybe I should reproach myself that I did not try to rule enough” while in Krakow, John Paul wrote in his next-to-last book, “Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way,” published in May. “But it stems from my character.”
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Well written.
Good obit. Thanks for linking it, Dom.