Requiem in pace
Apr. 3rd, 2005 01:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhI am a lapsed Catholic. Last night my friend P, a gay physician and somewhat lapsed Catholic himself, bade me goodnight with, "Pray for the Pope" and I replied, "Of course." I prayed for the Pope to be delivered from his suffering. It seems he lasted through Easter on sheer will.
Now that he's gone, I honestly don't know how I feel. He was a dynamic, forceful man who, in my opinion, moved the Church in the exact wrong direction, and therefore to say he was a great disappointment to me is a vast understatement. But there were things he did do, great works like bringing the Church into conversation with other faiths (most notably Judaism) and being so instrumental in the fall of Communism in eastern Europe. They don't outweigh the dangerously irresponsible things he did, which have been catalogued by others, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen.
But now John Paul II is gone, and my prayers move from him to his successor, that he will be a more forward thinking man, and do what John Paul II could not or would not do. I might even brave the throngs at St Patrick's tomorrow. Now feels like a time for belonging.
Now that he's gone, I honestly don't know how I feel. He was a dynamic, forceful man who, in my opinion, moved the Church in the exact wrong direction, and therefore to say he was a great disappointment to me is a vast understatement. But there were things he did do, great works like bringing the Church into conversation with other faiths (most notably Judaism) and being so instrumental in the fall of Communism in eastern Europe. They don't outweigh the dangerously irresponsible things he did, which have been catalogued by others, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen.
But now John Paul II is gone, and my prayers move from him to his successor, that he will be a more forward thinking man, and do what John Paul II could not or would not do. I might even brave the throngs at St Patrick's tomorrow. Now feels like a time for belonging.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 06:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 08:14 am (UTC)I was chatting to Rene about how it's strange to be a non-religious person right now. Aside from the pope having a definite place in history, I am indifferent to his passing. He was an older man, so it's not like it's tragic in that sense. There are times where I wonder what it would be like to have a strong religious faith, and I wonder if it would be soothing and comforting to me. Sometimes I wonder if I am missing out on some kind of inner serenity. I consider myself agnostic in that I believe there are powers in our world that science cannot (yet?) explain, that I would call supernatural and not of human origin. But that's as far as I can go. The bible is interesting in some ways, but I view it more as a historical narrative than anything. But, yeah. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to believe, and if that would somehow make me more at peace? Not that I'm embroiled in inner turmoil, but hopefully you know what I mean.