iMatt :: The Blog of Matt Clare

I think we’ll all miss John Paul II in some respect. He remained relevant right up to the end. He recently he opposed the invasion of Iraq and held an audience with the 2004 Ferrari Formula 1 team. All of this while being a very public sole dragging a body.

Still, I will never understand his opposition to women as priests, or even married priests: they’ve proven themselves to be sexual active regardless (both in recent American history and previous decades in Canada – and those are the easy examples). And then there is Africa: There a millions people who are now dead in Africa who would not be had a church 1 billion strong not opposed safe sex.

They have started to dub him the the Pope that was the great communicator. I believe that was the title they gave Ronald Regan, and it makes little sense to have two of the top three men involved in ending communism with the same nickname. (For the record: Regan, John Paul II and Gorbachev). The messages John Paul II communicated that I most appreciate was his apology to Copernicus and his acknowledgment of the Vatican’s inaction during the Holocaust. Similarly the messages I most appreciated where his messages to the people of Palestine (very hard to find on the Internet 🙁 ) and the one he placed in the Wailing Wall during his millennium visit to Israel:

“God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations. We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer and, asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.” More here

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 3rd, 2005 at 23:12 and is filed under General, Headlines: True. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.