Thursday, April 28, 2005
Who Was The First?
The discussion rages in conservative circles over who was first to attribute "Great-ness" or "Saint-hood" to John Paul II. Catholic Sensibility chooses stay out of the competition, conceding earthly designations of sainthood or greatness properly belong to the due process instituted by the Magisterium. Or to popular posthumous acclaim, at least for progressives.
Michael Novak of the National Review claims, "To the best of my knowledge, we at Crisis magazine early on were the first to put the name 'John Paul the Great' in print, and new editor Deal Hudson emblazoned it on the front cover in 1997."
Maclin Horton at Caelum et Terra: "I know I remember Daniel Nichols using that phrase--with the addition of 'Saint' ... And I thought I remembered it occuring in Caelum et Terra. Which it did ... in the Summer 1995 issue."
However, I've done some further research, and I present my findings from the tales of a humble Iowa Catholic who was among the thousands who welcomed Pope John Paul to Des Moines way back in 1979. In fact on October 4th of that year, the following conversation between Beatrice Appleby and Margaret M. Laroquette was overheard by the editor of the Cornflower Hornblower on the bus trip back from the state capital ...
Bea: What a great man, that Pope John Paul.
Maggie: Indeed. He's so saintly.
Bea: When our grandchildren get as old as we are, it wouldn't surprise me if they referred to him as St John Paul ...
Maggie: ... the Great!"
Even before the great conservative journals of the 90's were trying to anticipate each other in publishing the phrase, "St John Paul the Great" had already been uttered by two humble apple pie-baking Catholics on the back roads of Iowa. Our research department feels sure it can locate the town newsletter of Cornflower, IA to locate the actual text as it appeared in the following week's edition. Stay tuned.
