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April 02, 2005

Pope John Paul II

The Pope finally gave up the ghost yesterday, dying at 84. As with the Terri Schiavo case, we can count on various elements within the blogosphere duking it out over whether the Pope was a great man or evil personified. I don't have a dog in that fight. I suspect the man was a basically decent guy who did some very good things and who made some serious mistakes. In other words, I suspect he was human, like the rest of us. I think it's important to give him credit for standing up against one of the great evils of the 20th Century, Communism, while remembering that his church (and as head of the church, he) failed miserably in its attempts to address the horrific child sex scandals. The latter stands as an important reminder about the problems large organizations tend to create as the organization becomes an end to itself and forgets its original purpose, a problem the church will have regardless of who it chooses to replace John Paul II. For today, perhaps it's best to remember the good the man tried to accomplish.