Pope Praises Moves Against Communism
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VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II on Friday pronounced a stinging epitaph for Communist rule in Europe and praised those who resist totalitarianism.
In some of his bluntest comments on the collapse of the Communist monopoly of power in Eastern Europe, the Polish-born Pope said the world’s great ideologies have failed to stand the tough test of events.
In a speech to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, he also praised the “heroic resistance” of East European Christians to totalitarian rule.
“So-called scientific systems of social renewal, even of man’s redemption by man . . . have shown themselves to the eyes of the entire world for what they were: tragic utopias that have entailed unprecedented regression in the tormented history of mankind,” the pontiff said.
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