Buckley: A Farewell to Pope John Paul II

William F. Buckley Jr.:

"Well of course, what makes people famous is fame, and John Paul had been at the central part of the international stage a dozen years. He did not command an air force or any bark larger than that commanded by the Founder when he stilled the storm, and drew up the fishes. Where did this old Pole get that magic?

He had such an effect on men and women of all races, of all ages, though it was in particular his impact on young people that arrested attention. And then there was the cloud hovering dreadfully close, the Parkinson's disease that finally made even simple speech problematic.

...then intermittently the great light within flashed, and one saw the most radiant face on the public scene, a presence so commanding as to have arrested a generation of humankind, who wondered whether the Lord Himself had a hand in shaping the special charisma of this servant of the servants of God, as the pope styled himself, his death leaving a most awful void, and a disconsolate world. "

WFB yet again at his sometimes succinct, always insightful self.