http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35542708

Pope John Paul letters reveal 'intense' friendship with woman

    15 February 2016
    From the section Europe

[Image copyright From the estate of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka Image caption Cardinal Wojtyla and Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka on a camping trip in 1978]

Hundreds of letters and photographs that tell the story of Pope John Paul II's close relationship with a married woman, which lasted more than 30 years, have been shown to the BBC.
The letters to Polish-born American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka had been kept away from public view in the National Library of Poland for years.
The docuмents reveal a rarely seen side of the pontiff, who died in 2005.
There is no suggestion the Pope broke his vow of celibacy.
The friendship began in 1973 when Ms Tymieniecka contacted the future Pope, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Krakow, about a book on philosophy that he had written.

The then 50-year-old travelled from the US to Poland to discuss the work.
Image copyright From the estate of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka Image caption Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka at the time she met Cardinal Wojtyla
Shortly afterwards, the pair began to correspond. At first the cardinal's letters were formal, but as their friendship grew, they become more intimate.
The pair decided to work on an expanded version of the cardinal's book, The Acting Person. They met many times - sometimes with his secretary present, sometimes alone - and corresponded frequently.
In 1974, he wrote that he was re-reading four of Ms Tymieniecka's letters written in one month because they were "so meaningful and deeply personal".
Photographs which have never been seen before by the public reveal Karol Wojtyla at his most relaxed. He invited Ms Tymieniecka to join him on country walks and skiing holidays - she even joined him on a group camping trip. The pictures also show her visiting him at the Vatican.
"Here is one of the handful of transcendentally great figures in public life in the 20th Century, the head of the Catholic Church, in an intense relationship with an attractive woman," says Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge University.

In the UK, you can watch Ed Stourton's Panorama report: The Secret Letters of Pope John Paul II on BBC One on Monday 15 February at 20:30, and you can catch up via the iPlayer.
And read the full story of Pope John Paul II and Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka
In 1976, Cardinal Wojtyla attended a Catholic conference in the US. Ms Tymieniecka invited him to stay with her family at their country home in New England.
She appeared to have revealed intense feelings for him because his letters immediately afterwards suggest a man struggling to make sense of their friendship in Christian terms.
In one, dated September 1976, he writes: "My dear Teresa, I have received all three letters. You write about being torn apart, but I could find no answer to these words."
He describes her as a "gift from God".
The BBC has not seen any of Ms Tymieniecka's letters. It is believed copies of them were included in the archive that was sold to the Polish National Library by Ms Tymieniecka in 2008, six years before she died. But they were not with the Pope's letters when the BBC was shown them. The National Library of Poland has not confirmed that they have Ms Tymieniecka's letters.
Marsha Malinowski, a rare manuscripts dealer who negotiated the sale of the letters, says she believes Ms Tymieniecka fell in love with Cardinal Wojtyla in the early days of their relationship. "I think that it's completely reflected in the correspondence," she told the BBC.
The letters reveal that Cardinal Wojtyla gave Ms Tymieniecka one of his most treasured possessions, an item known as a scapular - a small devotional necklace worn around the shoulders.

Life of John Paul
How does someone become a saint?
[Image caption The scapular given to Ms Tymieniecka]
In a letter dated 10 September 1976 he wrote: "Already last year I was looking for an answer to these words, 'I belong to you', and finally, before leaving Poland, I found a way - a scapular." He said it allowed him to "accept and feel you everywhere in all kinds of situations, whether you are close - or far away".
After becoming Pope he wrote: "I am writing after the event, so that the correspondence between us should continue. I promise I will remember everything at this new stage of my journey."
Cardinal Wojtyla had a number of female friends, including Wanda Poltawska, a psychiatrist with whom he also corresponded for decades.
But his letters to Ms Tymieniecka are at times more intensely emotional, sometimes wrestling with the meaning of their relationship.
Pope John Paul II died in 2005, after an almost 27-year reign. In 2014 he was declared a saint.
[Image copyright From the estate of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka Image caption The Pope at the Vatican with Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka]

The process of saint-making is usually long and very costly, but John Paul II was fast-tracked to sainthood in just nine years.
Normally the Vatican asks to see all public and private writings when considering a candidate for sainthood, but the BBC has not been able to confirm whether the letters were seen.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints said it is up to individual Catholics to decide whether to send in docuмents.
"All our duties were done," it told the BBC in a statement. "All private docuмents, sent by faithful as a response to the edict, and docuмents found in important archives were studied."
The National Library of Poland disputes that this was a unique relationship. It says it was one of many warm friendships the Pope enjoyed throughout his life.

More on this story

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35542708

    The Pope's friend
    15 February 2016
    Life of John Paul
    15 February 2016
    Pope's letters stir celibacy debate
    9 hours ago
    How does someone become a saint?
    27 April 2014

Only a few Faithful Catholics see that the sins against the 7th Commandment are serious before God. Our Lady at Fatima said to the children more souls go to hell for the sins of the flesh.

This is the 2nd time in one hour I've seen (on CI) a different Commandment cited than what I'm familiar with.  

The 7th Commandment is about stealing.  I think you must mean 6th, or 9th in the case of one party being married.  Catholic priests often refer to "6th & 9th" when referring to sins of the flesh.

This the the numbering I was always taught:



FWIW, when looking for that, I also saw this:

It seems always something happens during Lent.   Maybe this is made up to fast track to married gαy priests.  They are already have married former Anglican and Lutheran priests pastors of huge modern parishes.  And with children too and many not Catholic.  

Once they allow priests to marry women.  It will be discrimination not to allow sodomists priests to marry their boyfriends.

And the current Pope corresponds with former students who are practicing ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs.

And let's not forget the pedophiles clergy who are coming out of the closets to standing ovations.  

Nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.  

I'm using that word - hypocrites - lately more than ever because it applies to so many.  In fact, I have been using it to describe so many that I've begun to take a look as to how it applies to me as well.

Yes, we are all sinners.  But most of us go to confession.  

Protestants did the same thing with the Psalms, by splitting 9 into two (under the excuse that it was much too long) and combining two others near the end of the 150 Psalms, thus keeping the total number at 150, so as not to raise suspicions.  

When you hear "The twenty-third Psalm" called out in the media or in the news or on TV, what they're talking about in the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible is found under "Psalm 22."  Check the Newchurch bible and find that they now follow the Protestant numbering for the Psalms.  This is an outgrowth of Vat.II, as well, similar to the situation with the Protestant numbering of the 10 Commandments.

These are two ways the devil uses obfuscation to introduce confusion.

A Protestant (or a Catholic who doesn't know any better) hearing a sermon thinks "the 6th and 9th Commandments" refers to not killing and not stealing.  So he won't be able to make the connection with adultery, fornication or impure desires toward another man's wife, since those things have nothing to do with killing or stealing.

And if he has memorized any of the Psalms, when he hears one quoted by a Catholic Psalm number he won't have any idea what's going on because it usually can't be found under that same number in a Protestant version.  This gives Catholics and Protestants even more to argue about, thanks to the Protestants.

.

Where did TradCath53 get his ordering of the Commandments?  I know from the Prots. Nobody raised in a Catholic environment would list them that way.  Apparently '53 is a Protestant.   Just asking.  ??????

Maybe he's a convert.   :confused1:

Protestants did the same thing with the Psalms, by splitting 9 into two (under the excuse that it was much too long) and combining two others near the end of the 150 Psalms, thus keeping the total number at 150, so as not to raise suspicions.  

When you hear "The twenty-third Psalm" called out in the media or in the news or on TV, what they're talking about in the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible is found under "Psalm 22."  Check the Newchurch bible and find that they now follow the Protestant numbering for the Psalms.  This is an outgrowth of Vat.II, as well, similar to the situation with the Protestant numbering of the 10 Commandments.

These are two ways the devil uses obfuscation to introduce confusion.

Good point; that is a pet peeve of mine when I hear "The 23rd Psalm", and also the wrong translation of the first line, "the Lord is my shepherd" when it is really "The Lord ruleth me."  

The last few posts would be a good topic for a new thread.  

(Since they are probably lost here on this one, and I bet other Catholics are unaware of these things.)