The power of the pure

Katie van Schaijik | May 29, 2012

Janet Smith links a Vatican Insider article on facebook revealing the shocking extent to which Karol Wojtyla was spied on for decades, by priests and others close to him in Poland, until he was elected Pope.  

There were questions about his habits in the office, which documents he took home with him, whether he took the keys to his desk with him, what he talked about at lunch, whether he “liked playing bridge or other card games, or chess” and with whom he played, whether he smoked or whether he liked alcoholic drinks (“how much does he drink and how often”). The secret police even wanted to know “who supplied his underwear,” who “washed his underwear, socks etc.,” whether “he possessed a medicine cabinet and what medication it contained.”

The Communist regime was eager to discover his vulnerabilities.  But they came up short.

Out of the sea of documents, reports and dossiers on Wojtyla, he came out completely clean. He could not be blackmailed, manipulated or influenced. The communist police’s check-up newspaper therefore confirmed that cardinals made the right choice during the 1978 conclave.

His first line of defense in a life long battle against the de-humanizing forces of totalitarianism was his personal rectitude.  

We can learn from that.