John Paul the Great

Catholic Analysis (aka Oswald Sobrino) has a nice summary of JP's four major encyclicals (as judged by George Weigel) and what they mean for the world today. What's interesting is the identifying of three major forces with traction:

"1.) Pragmatic Materialism and Utilitarianism (what reigns supreme today in American culture); 2.) Radical Islam (proposing coercion as an instrument of religious expansionism); and 3.) the Catholic Proposal, which views freedom as the freedom to choose what is true and good and which rejects coercion as a social instrument. The civilized proposal is the Catholic Proposal. It is also the proposal that will lead to human flourishing."

Interesting.