The Pope

All weekend I’ve been on Pope watch.

Literally I’ve been waiting around for the Pope to pass away so that the newspaper can share the information with all the people who are going to rush to our site (as opposed to CNN, FoxNews or MSNBC) to find out more about it.

Yesterday was the worst. The Vatican was going to make an announcement at 10:30 EST.

10:30 a.m. came and went.

Oh, any minute now they are going to release a statement.

11:00 a.m. rolled around.

There was a slight delay, but they are going to read a statement.

(I was supposed to leave at 11:00 a.m.)

11:15 a.m.

Okay, that’s it, I’m going to leave, let someone else deal with this.

Don’t leave yet, we are just minutes away.

11:45 a.m. – I’m pretty steamed.

Within the next 5 minutes, a statement will be issued. Nothing will be read.

Needless to say by 12:20 the statement finally came.

The Pope had a high fever and wasn’t getting any better.

I felt bad, but I was just ready for the man to die.

Catholicism is foreign to me. My father was Catholic growing up, went to a school with nuns (he still tells horror stories), and was the youngest of 10 kids. But we never really shared in what the church as a whole believes.

We had minor discussions as I was growing up, and I’ve studied a bit on the church as a whole, but it’s teachings, liturgy, and practices aren’t known to me. But I’d like to.

I game with a few guys who are Catholic and very active in their churches (heck, I work for a Catholic University) and I think I will approach them for insight into the things they believe and why they believe them.

For me the most important part is understanding.

I want to understand. I want to know why they think the way they think. I’m not looking for an opportunity to argue, I want to build bridges, I want to seek common ground.

I don’t know much about Pope John Paul II, but I do know that the man made many inroads into nontraditional places. He was a friend to the Jews, he met with Muslim leaders and personally touched millions of people.

In the end though, he was a man, nothing more.

I do not believe that he was Christ on earth speaking the very words of God as law to the masses. But in the same stroke I do not believe that he wasn’t an example of Christ on earth. He loved, he demonstrated and open mindedness to many things. He went. It those publicly demonstrated attributes that I think we can learn from John Paul and that we can respect and honor his contribution to the human race, even if you don’t believe in his religion or politics.

John Paul II 1920 – 2005