A realistic assessment of the papacy of John Paul II

Ascended Master Mother Mary, April 2, 2005 through Kim Michaels.

And thus I come to give you a loving but realistic assessment of the papacy of John Paul II. Let there be no doubt that this pope is deeply loved by me. Yet let there be no doubt that he is no more loved than any one of you. Let there be no doubt that Pope Paul II was a pope with a great love for the Church and a great love for the mission of Christ, as he understood that mission. This pope was truly a more spiritual, a more mystical pope than many you have seen throughout the centuries. He was far less concerned about the politics and the power plays of the outer religion than he was concerned with the spirit of the Christian religion.

Yet, that being said, I must tell you with true realism that this pope found it difficult to transfer his mystical longing to the outer Church. He was not able, he was not willing, to take the daring step of transforming the Church according to his inner vision. The pope had many good reasons for thinking that the Church could not, or was not yet ready, to be transformed. Yet I must tell you that these reasons did not spring from the Christ mind but sprang from the collective consciousness of Catholics, a consciousness that has been built and reinforced for almost 2,000 years.

This consciousness deeply affected the pope throughout his life, and it affected him to such a degree that he was not able to look beyond it. And thus, you will see that in many ways this pope attempted to carry on a tradition that many Catholics have realized had become outdated before he even took office. And I must tell you that the outer life of this pope, and especially his illness over these past months, was an illustration of, an expression of, the state of the Catholic Church as a whole. What you see here is a pope who was greatly loved by many Catholics, and he was loved because he was an honorable pope, an honorable person. And thus, in a way, he came to represent the good in the Catholic Church, the potential of the Catholic Church.

And that is why many people did not want to see him go. And in a way this was why he was not willing to go, why he was not willing to give up his office, even when it became obvious to everyone that he was no longer physically or mentally able to fulfill that office. He hung on to his position to the very end, which symbolizes that so many Catholics are holding on to the old ways, the old traditions, to the very end. And what you saw in the life of the pope is that he was not willing to change but that he kept sticking to the old ways, until he passed from the screen of life into the illusion that people call death. The question is, “Will the Church continue to hold on to the old ways until it dies, or will it be willing to be reborn in the Spirit, so that it can become new in Christ, so that it can become a new Church in Christ?”

 

This is an excerpt from a longer teaching. You can read the full dictation HERE.

 

 

Copyright © 2005 Kim Michaels