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John Paul II
Apr. 1st, 2005 03:02 pmAs of this writing, the Pope is still alive, but just barely, according to the official reports.
As is my wont, I am of mixed opinions regarding the inevitable death and its consequences. First, I do not rejoice in any death. (Well, okay, almost any death. But not this one, for sure.) Nevertheless, it's not unexpected, and not the tragedy it was when his predecessor failed to fulfill his potential.
While this Pope, as with most Popes, espoused views and opinions (and therefore influenced millions of others' opinions) with which I disagreed strongly, he mostly demonstrated integrity and consistency in them. When he said "culture of life", he not only meant an intention to prevent abortion, but also an opposition to the death penalty and to most war.
He did strongly restrain change, and have a very conservative worldview. His pushes in this regard have set up the possibility of an unpleasant situation; from all reports, the vast majority of candidates to succeed him are even more right-wing in their views, and may demonstrate less integrity or less restraint than he did in their exhortations to preclude other views from being manifested in the world. We'll see; it's only a concern, and not a certainty.
One thing John Paul II will be remembered for, and I'm not entirely certain as to how to understand, is that he has sainted more people than the entire body of his predecessors before him. He seems to have been fond of mass sanctification; forty martyrs here, sixty there, with the occasional individual for a change of pace. Regardless of whether a Pope makes saints or simply recognizes them, this is a tremendous liberalization of policy for a man who was in almost all other ways highly conservative.
You know, there are LOTS of folks out there who've never lived through a Papal selection. (Though almost all who have, have lived through two.) And I have been hearing that there are people who don't know how it works. That startles me; I know about it both through having lived through and watched the process on the news, but also through literature. I guess I am surprised sometimes when something I believe most folks know turns out to be less common knowledge than that.
We'll see who next wears the cope in the Popemobile. Interesting times, my friends.
As is my wont, I am of mixed opinions regarding the inevitable death and its consequences. First, I do not rejoice in any death. (Well, okay, almost any death. But not this one, for sure.) Nevertheless, it's not unexpected, and not the tragedy it was when his predecessor failed to fulfill his potential.
While this Pope, as with most Popes, espoused views and opinions (and therefore influenced millions of others' opinions) with which I disagreed strongly, he mostly demonstrated integrity and consistency in them. When he said "culture of life", he not only meant an intention to prevent abortion, but also an opposition to the death penalty and to most war.
He did strongly restrain change, and have a very conservative worldview. His pushes in this regard have set up the possibility of an unpleasant situation; from all reports, the vast majority of candidates to succeed him are even more right-wing in their views, and may demonstrate less integrity or less restraint than he did in their exhortations to preclude other views from being manifested in the world. We'll see; it's only a concern, and not a certainty.
One thing John Paul II will be remembered for, and I'm not entirely certain as to how to understand, is that he has sainted more people than the entire body of his predecessors before him. He seems to have been fond of mass sanctification; forty martyrs here, sixty there, with the occasional individual for a change of pace. Regardless of whether a Pope makes saints or simply recognizes them, this is a tremendous liberalization of policy for a man who was in almost all other ways highly conservative.
You know, there are LOTS of folks out there who've never lived through a Papal selection. (Though almost all who have, have lived through two.) And I have been hearing that there are people who don't know how it works. That startles me; I know about it both through having lived through and watched the process on the news, but also through literature. I guess I am surprised sometimes when something I believe most folks know turns out to be less common knowledge than that.
We'll see who next wears the cope in the Popemobile. Interesting times, my friends.
