Monday, April 04, 2005

R.I.P. John Paul II

A giant among men - a bittersweet legacy

He was a man who changed the course of history. The pivotal moment of his papacy came early. His first visit to Poland, his homecoming, set the stage for world shattering events that followed. Together with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan he helped forge the final assault on Soviet hegemony in eastern Europe. In 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist and millions of Europeans tasted freedom from domination for the first time in some 60 years. This is the sweet part...

And the bitter... That is the vile, disgusting, sickening and evil behavior of some of the priests under him. For a man who had done so much for the youth of the world to sit idly by while his bishops are shuffling one pedophile after another from one parish to another is simply inexcusable. Let me say this - I am a Catholic and I always will be. While my faith in the Lord is not shaken my faith in the administration of the Roman Catholic church is. In my own archdiosese we have a bishop who declared racism as the most pressing issue facing the people of the Church. RACISM! This while priests are buggering young boys and getting away with it! I am sick about it to this day.

I don't think it comes as any surprise that the Church needs something to win people like myself back. A commitment to justice would be a nice start, but I won't hold my breath. Pope John Paul II was a giant among men, we honor him and remember him but we need to move on now.

CW

1 comment:

TJW said...

Like most great men he did have a measure of bad amongst all of that good. I won't dismiss his victories because they easily overshadowed his failures. It is like trying to ignore the benefits of rain by focusing on the unpleasentness of getting wet.

He was a man and therefore imperfect, but he was on the whole pretty damn good.