Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Pope John Paul II: Ye Hath Left Us

We all knew this day would come. The Vatican officially announced Saturday that Pope John Paul II had died, quelling reports from Fox News that he had died several hours earlier, and dashing my theory that he had been dead for several years and just propped up like in that movie "Weekend at Bernie's". Seeing the papal body all decked out and displayed for the masses made me actually think he has not looked that good in years.

Seriously, I am eerily drawn to the nonstop, wall-to-wall coverage of all Pope all the time. The tradition of the conclave and all the voting is fascinating. The fact that there are "talking heads" actually analyzing the situation and speculating as to the "horserace" is ludicrous. They all smelled a bit of a story today when the Poles were disappointed that JP2 would be entombed in the Vatican instead of returning to his native Poland. It's like the newsfolk hoped there would be a riot or something. And listening to American Catholics or others say that there should be a Latino or African selected as the sucessor to JP2 is ridiculous. The cardinals will pick who they want and I am pretty confident in saying that race or demographics in the church will have little effect on the vote.

I also spent some time Saturday hanging out with my friends the CIB and Superfrankenstein and enjoyed pope puns aplenty. At one point I remarked that I felt guilty and I'm not even Catholic. I'd post a few of the less tasteless remarks here, but I can't remember most. Laughter and such will do that to you. However, I encourage people to post their tributes and trashings if they want.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When there is only one comment, why does it say "1 comments" instead of "1 comment?" That is dumb.