Was John Paul II under demonic influence? - Many will see the title to this post and assume that it’s hyperbole. Others, like perhaps most regular readers of this space, will answer the question aloud in the affirmative even before reading what follows.
After all, it certainly wasn’t the influence of Almighty God that moved Pope John Paul II to orchestrate the Assisi events, to take part in pagan rituals, and to publicly pray for the intercession of St. John the Baptist to “protect Islam.”
Even so, the thing that moves me to pose this question here today is a video (below) that a friend recently shared on Facebook. It shows footage of the Polish pope at a gathering with high school students in New York at Madison Square Garden in 1979.
Please, take a look.
The pope is formally introduced at roughly the 0:40 mark, after which the raucous cheers of the crowd begin. Pope John Paul II doesn’t respond vocally, however, for more than a minute-and-a-half.
For the sake of expedience, the video …More