markfiend wrote:@ Red Orc, glad you were thinking the same way as me about JPII being a "radical" (Nice thoughts about Chernyenko/Andropov by the way...)
But IIRC the implication of "radical" isn't necessarily "left-wing". It's more to do with "roots" - and you can't deny that JPII with his conservatism was
very popular with a large section of the "grass-roots" rank-and-file Catholic Church. That more liberal intellectuals disagreed with him is neither here nor there.
Incidentally, wasn't "God's Banker" Roberto
Calvi? (not Craxi) Is he the guy that was found hung beneath one of the bridges in London with bricks in his pockets?
They made sure that it was all
squared up and
on the level with that one didn't they?
1 - there just seem to be lots of obvious prallels between Catholicism and Stalinism...
2 - I take the point about etymology - he was, if you like, a 'roots' pope... tho' for the past 250 years in Britain at least 'radical' has usually meant 'going to the root of the problem' as in root and branch reform, not ultra-conservative and fundamentalist - tho' on the other hand Thatcher was described as a radical, so I guess in the end words mean whatever you want them to - shades of Humpty Dumpty. I like the idea of him being a roots pope, maybe he'll be jamming in heaven with Bob Marley. Oh no, JPII would be going straight to hell... if there was one.
3 - completely correct, it was indeed Calvi. I've have to google Craxi now, to see who I'm mistaking him for. And as you say, on the level (and probably all alone to boot, tho' I don't think it's anything to do with the heritage or otherwise of Ozymandias...) - there was something to do with the tides, too, I recall. Left between the high and low tides, I think; and I believe it was Blackfriars Bridge, tho' I could be wrong (it was a long time ago...)
Conspiracy theory? Yeah, it's a theory about a conspiracy. Don't mean it ain't true.
politicians, eh? 
