Why Rex Murphy is Still One of My Heroes
From his editorial
The appeal of John Paul II to young people in particular proceeds from substance. It begins in what he believes, gathers strength in how he believes, and is immensely amplified by his simple example. Conviction is an attractive quality in itself, but conviction allied to service is irresistible.

Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto referred to political correctness in his early address to the Youth Day celebrations. John Paul II is the most politically incorrect leader on the world stage. He is, according to most progressive opinion, on the wrong side of every right topic. He is the patriarch of the world's longest-standing hierarchy, the very antimatter of feminism, a man who has set his teeth against every "modernist" reform. In the views of some, to call him Neanderthal would be an insult to the cave dweller. He is gorgeously, consummately, politically incorrect.

And it doesn't matter a drat. There is something stronger than fashion, and deeper than intellectual trendiness in the man, a clarity that doesn't genuflect to the times. For the crown of John Paul's charisma is, by his lights, that it doesn't flow from himself at all. It is the property of his religious faith -- the conviction, to reverse Time's formulation -- that God is life.