A Centripetal Man in a Centrifugal Age

Denver's archbishop Charles Chaput (my archbishop!) recently wrote a reflection on the legacy of Pope John Paul II. It has some choice quotes, two of which occur in a single paragraph:

Critics also repeatedly and inaccurately described [John Paul II] as a "conservative" or a centralizer. These are misleading words. He was a centripetal man in a centrifugal age; a force for unity, integration, and renewal of mission in the Church at a time when the aftermath of the council threatened to fragment Catholic identity. The U.S. media's constant harping on issues like abortion, contraception, and women priests revealed far more about American parochialism and sexual disarray than it did about the real issues facing the global Church. In fact, media coverage of the Wojtyla pontificate seemed to become, in its later years, what one of my senior staffers called "a report on the giant by the dwarves."