Unless you have been living under a rock or in a cave, you should know that Pope John Paul II passed away on Sunday Morning 3 April 2005. The whole world seems to be in a sombre mood with the multitudes pouring out their condolences and sorrow at the loss of a great man. I am, however, slightly ambivalent about his death. His policies in the vatican and his staunch adherance to conservative values seems to divide me. Even though I am catholic and am obligated to follow the rules set out by the vatican, I can't help rile against the stance that the church has taken against abortion, against contraception, against women in the church... But then these positions may because of the growing catholic population in the developing countries who tend to be more conservative compared to those in the developed countries.
It would be interesting to see who will be the next pope but I suspect that he will be of the same conservative streak as the late pope. Due to his long reign, Pope John Paul did select ALL of the cardinals that are currently responsible for the election of the next pope. Also the issue of the developing countries would require a conservative candidate to take over the papacy.
One more note: When the media mention that he is the most travelled Pope in history, don't they also realise that he was the pope during a time when travelling was made easy with airplanes and there was a relative peace throughout the world that allowed him to travel so extensively.
5 April 2005
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2 comments:
oh come on..you must always be that critical huh?haha...he was still a great person i think...and i'm a christian..tsk tsk..
my condolence btw...
erm..are you writing about prince charles & camille anytime soon?my parents were dissing camille all the way during our sunday lunch..haha..
haha. oh shawn. i think i am a conservative catholic too. heh. we can talk abt tat sometime, the church stand etc, tho i might not know much. see, even stef.. ;p
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