April 2
...serving up your daily dish.
The bells are tolling in Vatican Square as Catholic pilgrims listen to the official announcement of the Pontiff's death.
Requiescat in pace, too. One can only wonder at who his successor will be, feign astoundment at the jockeying for Papal power soon to follow.
Posted by: cathar | Apr 2, 2005 10:33:55 PM
Why was no one screaming to remove the Pope's feeding tube?
Posted by: Ben's Hog | Apr 3, 2005 9:01:14 AM
Hooking together Barista's post about Dan Brown's books, and the passing of The Pope:
Couple of summers ago I read a book called "The Accidental Pope" by Raymond Flynn, which is a rather far-fetched story of how a widowed American priest becomes The Pope... that being said, the chapters about the selection process were incredibly interesting.
Posted by: gc | Apr 3, 2005 9:47:50 AM
I am a bit disappointed that more have not posted acknowledging the Pope's passing. I am not Catholic but without a doubt his impact on the world, his encouragement of Solidarity, his push for better interfaith dialogue places him in a special place in history. He was a great man, leader and inspiration for the world.
Posted by: jmo | Apr 3, 2005 10:54:26 AM
Yes, the Pope's passing hasn't gotten enough media coverage.
I am certainly not a Papal scholar or anything of the sort, but if someone landed from another planet this morning, they would safely assume that this Pope character was the leader of the planet Earth. Let's see . . . . 6.5 billion people on the planet. . . . . supposed 1 billion Catholics (a number I am sure is vastly inflated, probably because it includes people like me born into a Catholic family that haven't stepped into a church in 20 years and don't plan to any time soon . . .) To me that look's like at most 15% of the world looked to this man as a spiritual leader. Anyone want to venture a guess how the Dali Lama's passing would be covered compared to this? Somehow the media has had it drilled into them over the last 100 years that a Pope passing has to be treated as about the most influential news story short of a giant comet hitting the Earth. Just once I want to see a camera stop some guy on the street who is honest enough to say "the Pope. Gee, he didn't really have any effect on my life at all."
Posted by: you_gotta_believe | Apr 4, 2005 8:37:50 AM
"the Pope. Gee, he didn't really have any effect on my life at all."
Well, that hypothetical bone-head would be hard to find in Poland, The Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Russia, or indeed anywhere else where the average person has any understanding of the world history made in the last 26 years.
Posted by: Right of Center | Apr 4, 2005 9:45:02 AM
Just as an experiment, I'd love to stand outside St. Patrick's Cathedral with a microphone and camera and stop a few "grieving" worshippers and ask them to recite for me one particular significant thing that the Pope said that affected their lives. I'm sure I would hear a lot of nothing. The truth, of course, is that most of those people have (1) never read a single thing he's written or (2) probably can't remember the last time they heard him speak in English.
Posted by: you_gotta_believe | Apr 4, 2005 10:56:42 AM
You gotta be kidding....If you think that the common man in the street life is not different post Soviet empire with all its collateral positive benefits you must be taking something that clouds perception. There is such a thing as objective reality, to deny that the this Pope had an influence is simply absurd. This morning in the Gulf News published in the UAE, there was a long editorial praising Pope John for his tireless work to improve interfaith relations with the Muslim world. I could go on but I suspect it wouldn't matter
Posted by: jmo | Apr 4, 2005 11:31:13 AM
Jerry - It matters, it definitely matters.
I'm glad that this Pope's nascent efforts to reconcile with Islam were noticed in the Arab world. Hopefully the next Pope can pick up the work he started. There's a crying need for understanding and acceptance not just where you are but in places all over the world where muslims and christians live as neighbors.
I'm proud of him for his stance against the death penalty and his demand for universal human rights, including the freedom of conscience. He wasn't able to liberalize doctrine as much as I would have liked, but he was a good man and a good Pope.
Posted by: MiloG | Apr 4, 2005 4:07:16 PM
