Pope John Paul II

What can I possibly say that isn't being said somewhere else? You didn't come here to read the same words in a different order, did you? In any case, I'm not even of the same faith, let alone the same sect of that faith.

I've been reading some of the articles, and this one from the Scotsman newspaper is about as good a summary as you will find. He got some stuff right, he got some stuff wrong. He was an icon of what could be as communism fell across Eastern Europe and always supported the workers, lefties to a man, who helped make that happen. He forbade millions of followers to use condoms and so no doubt added to the plague that is AIDS in Africa and elsewhere. He promoted extremist groups like Opus Dei within his Church but spoke out against the Iraq War. He helped to cover up and talk down the child abuse scandals of clergy around the world. He was fallable and imperfect, like all of us.

And he was only one man, even if an influential one.

Of late, it seems we have all been very focussed on the trials of an individual or two while thousands die in Darfur, hundreds in Iraq, millions elsewhere from poverty and war. If I have any read on the man, he would want us to be more interested in them than in him, now. I doubt he had the hubris to feel flattered by the media circus that is about to ensue. I am sure Karol Wojtyla would ask us all to remember and mourn every other human who perished today, many in far more violent circumstances.

Goodnight, and may your God go with you.