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Requiem in pace
Apr. 3rd, 2005 01:00 amI 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.
