Blessed be Portugal !

"Earlier in the day, I had been received by Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, Germany...

We began by speaking about the centrality of the message of Fatima for John Paul II. Meisner has himself been to Fatima five times in the past 15 years. The first time was just after the fall of communism. Mesiner had experienced communism as the bishop of Berlin, in communist East Germany, before he became bishop of Cologne.

It was Pope John Paul who ordered him to visit Fatima, saying "You are from a communist country yourself, go to Fatima. Before the light of the faith was extinguished in Eastern Europe, the light of faith was lit in Portugal just half a year before. Blessed be Portugal!

Meisner attributed the fall of communism to Pope John Paul. "The Pope pulled the carpet out from under the feet of communism," he said. "Only the one who knows God, knows man."

...But the Pope also became very critical of Western societies, Meisner said.

"I made two great intellectual errors in my life," he said. "The first was thinking that communism would end only after 100 years; the second was thinking that when communism fell, all our problems would be solved. That has proven false."

He said, "Western hedonism, as communism, will also someday collapse..."

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