ACCOUNT #1 (WHEREIN IT IS SAID THAT HE PASSED JUST AFTER THE CELEBRATION OF THE VIGIL MASS FOR DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY WAS CELEBRATED IN HIS PRESENCE).
ACCOUNT #2 (WHEREIN IT IS SAID THAT HE PROFESSED HIMSELF HAPPY UPON HIS DEATHBED.)
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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I must remember to avoid reading this stuff while I am at work. My coworkers do not understand why I am weeping.
What a happy and blessed death.
‘thann
What a hopeless irreconcilable contradiction!
Clearly Pope John Paul II never existed.
Upon further analysis it is obvious that because of the uncanny agreement between certain personal and geographic details in the stories, that account #2 is just a much later redaction on account #1 with additional material inserted from a Q source dating no earlier than 90-120 years after the described events. The account #1 itself is the compilation of four different sources: the Popist; the Holy Fatherist; the Supreme Pontifist and the Journalist. Though the existence of the “Journalist” is hotly debated by some, the PHSJ theory of authorship is currently accepted by most respectable scholars. The articles were most likely written centuries after the fact as polemics and aids in proselytization and contain many mythical elements.
Only one verses is considered to date from the actual time of the described events: “bells rang throughout the city”.
One minute I’m crying from imagining the Holy Father giving his final “Amen” to the prayers of the unsuspecting crowd below, then I’m laughing from BillyHW’s “form criticism”.
I understand that Jimmy himself is actually a composite character. Obviously, no one person could be that brilliant. I believe that probably several respected apologists contribute to the body of work attributed to him, and that this further reflects the beliefs of the broader “Jimmy-an” community.