We mark the passing of the Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla, who is being mourned by millions around the world as one of the greatest pontiffs of all time and the finest leader of our time.
His life is being well-documented in the mainstream media, but it’s important to note that his good works have helped the North American mining industry in two key ways.
The first was his major role as a Cold Warrior — along with Ronald Reagan and Pakistan’s Zia ul Haq — in bringing down one of the most murderous and soul-destroying regimes in history, the Soviet Union.
After growing up as a Pole under Nazi and then Soviet occupation, John Paul returned as pope to his homeland to comfort his oppressed people and inspire them to free themselves from their communist masters.
While other Soviet slaves looked to Poland as a beacon of hope, John Paul then helped convince dictator Mikael Gorbachev to begin unwinding the monstrous experiment of Soviet communism.
Showing his contempt for the power of the papacy, Joseph Stalin once famously asked, “How many divisions does the pope have?” Pope John Paul gave Stalin and history the final answer.
Whatever the religious beliefs of individuals in the North American mining industry, it’s undeniable that John Paul’s success in helping kill Soviet power brought with it a vast array of new opportunities for North American miners in the former Soviet Union and other countries of the Warsaw Pact.
Progress has been hard-won and uneven at mineral projects in these former communist states, but the experiences for North American miners have more often than not been tremendously enriching, both professionally and personally.
The second impact John Paul has had on North America’s miners is more subtle, and it relates to his first decade as pontiff when he achieved a crucial victory over powerful Marxist factions in the Catholic Church, particularly in Latin America.
Had John Paul not decisively purged these factions, the church may have soon have lent spiritual and monetary support to bloody communist revolutions that would have set the Catholic Third World on fire.
In Latin America today, it’s tricky enough for miners to navigate the difficult terrain of geography, race politics, social and economic inequities, drug wars, agricultural demands, and government corruption.
We can all be thankful that John Paul at least helped spare us of having to deal with a powerful Marxist Catholic church bent on communist revolution.
The above editorial represents the views of the acting editor only.
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