to this story, then we can post it as a team agonist feature Graham

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_03_27.php#005307

...and I think you should not be so generous as to obscure yourself on this one.

Frankly, you have an authenticity about the subject that I, for one, cannot match.

Well done.

Vatican Says Pope John Paul II Has Died

Saturday April 2, 2005 9:01 PM

AP Photo NY111

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II, the Polish pontiff who led the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century and became history's most-traveled pope, has died at 84, the Vatican announced in an e-mail Saturday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4909502,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

In contrast to the church's ancient traditions, Navarro-Valls announced the death in an e-mail to journalists: "The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST) in his private apartment." The spokesman said church officials were following instructions that John Paul had written for them on Feb. 22, 1996.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050402/ap_on_re_eu/pope

Bruce Johnston and Jonathan Petrein | April 3

The Sun Herald - For at least two to three weeks after the Pope's death, the world will be kept in suspense before the plumes of white smoke from a Vatican chimney indicate that cardinals have chosen a successor.

While it is hard to predict who will become the next spiritual leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics, there are already sufficient indications to create a kind of picture.

was wonderful. May John Paul II rest in eternal peace.

See here: http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/archives/veiled4allah/010500.php

Mass for Holy Father Announced;

General Congregation of Cardinals to be Held on Monday

from http://thepopeblog.blogspot.com/ :

Very interesting to see the difference in how US and French TV are discussing the legacy and themes of John Paul's papacy.  The US media are talking anti-communism, 'culture of life' - anti-abortion and anti-contraception, and briefly mentioning his opposition to the Iraq war, but emphasizing his close relationship with right wing US presidents.

The French TV news does talk about anti-communism a lot and mentions the anti-abortion talk.  But their main emphasis is on the Pope's repeated attacks on the exloitive nature of captitalism, his lectures to US pressure about the selfish greed of the wealthy and their indifference to the suffering of the poor both in the wealthy west, particularly the US and in the Third World.  They talk of him drawing a contrast between the powerful of the world and the poor and quote him saying that one must always be on the side of the latter.  

In terms of framing what's always struck me as a major stupidity of the left is their insistence on ignoring those parts of the Pope's message that accords with theirs and instead focussing on what they dislike. The right has done the reverse.  As a result the right is able to paint itself as the true voice of the faith, and the left as anti-religious.  Yet the reverse is at least as true.  

John Paul II has been appropriated by the American right. But his "culture of life" was not the same as theirs.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Amy Sullivan

Article at SALON

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/02/pope/

Special edition - normally no paper on Sundays.  Free of charge

The cover says "John Paul II has passed" (literally 'gone away/left)

This is by far the most important Polish paper.  It has ok relations with the liberal wing of the Polish Church, bad ones with the middle, and horrible ones with the hard right wing part.

Rather then the normal front page of the newspaper you get a special page all in black. A black and white portrait of the Pope, the words John Paul II 1920-2005 and a poem presumably written by the Pope:

To you I give all the fruits of my life and my service,

To you I entrust the fate of the Church,

To you I leave my nation,

In you I have faith and once again say:

Totus Tuus, Maria!

Totus Tuus.

Amen

Judging from the date and place (Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, August 2002) it would have been written during his last visit home.

the home page is here:

http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/

the cover of their special edition is:

Rzeczpospolita, Poland's second most important daily, has excellent relations with the liberal wing of the church and good ones with the centrist wing. Its relations with the right nutcase wing are just as horrible as Gazeta Wyborcza's.

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006604.php

one of my fav lines:

and I am extremely surprised at how al-Jazeera has become EWTN for the purposes of the Pontiff's death, :)

DEBKAfile Special Report 2 April:

 The most peripatetic of all pontiffs, the white-cassocked figure of Pope John Paul II waving from his popemobile - bulletproofed since the 1981 attempt on his life - became a legendary figure as he crisscrossed the world's map for more than 20 years.

One of the longest and most moving of his trips was his weeklong millennium pilgrimage to the Holy Land, not only as a Christian but as a Pole who grew up with Jews and mourned Jewish friends, neighbors and former playmates, who perished in the Nazi Holocaust. His tearful embrace with a Shoah survivor at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem was spontaneous and heartfelt.

A certain disappointment with the papal visitor's failure to apologize for the record of his predecessor Pius XII in the Nazi era faded quickly when he stood at the Western Wall and said: "Personally, I have always wanted to be counted among those who work, on both sides, to overcome old prejudices, and to secure ever wider and fuller recognition of the spiritual patrimony shared by Jews and Christians. I repeat what I said on the occasion of my visit to the Jewish Community in Rome, that we Christians recognize that the Jewish religious heritage is intrinsic to our own faith: "You are our elder brothers."

That said, he inserted the written text into a crevice of the Wall.

The statement was perfectly consistent with his lifelong work, from before the time when Karol Wojtyla as a young priest took part in drafting the groundbreaking 1965 Vatican II document that ended centuries of Christian anathema of the Jews. The document condemned "hatred and persecutions of the Jews," affirmed the validity of Judaism as a religious way of life with which Catholics must establish relations of "mutual knowledge and respect" and repudiated the idea of "the Jewish people as one rejected, cursed, or guilty of deicide..."

Never one for pompous or pious speeches, the pontiff took often revolutionary steps to make that edict come true.

In 1993, the Vatican extended long-overdue recognition to the State of Israel and in 1994, they exchanged ambassadors. He was the first pope since the founding of the Catholic Church to visit a synagogue when he paid his respects at the Great Synagogue of Rome in the ancient Jewish Ghetto. There, he said: "The Jewish religion is not extrinsic to us, but in a certain way is intrinsic to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion."

He was the first pontiff to visit Auschwitz. And, in 2001, he stood beside Ukraine's Chief Rabbi Yaacov Bleich and prayed at the main Babi Yar Memorial for the souls of 200,000 dead, including 150,000 Jews, who were massacred by the Nazis in 1941 at this ravine region. In the first two days of the slaughter, Ukrainian Jewry was destroyed.

The pope's gesture followed criticism for his failure to respond to an anti-Semitic diatribe from Bashar Assad during a visit to Syria.

In 2003, the Vatican opened some of its archives on the pontificate of Pius XII covering the Nazi period.

In January, 2005, his health already in decline, John Paul II warmly received more than 100 Jewish leaders, rabbis and cantors at the Vatican. Shalom Aleichem, he said and urged them to do more for stronger dialogue between Jews and Catholics. That may have been almost his last audience for a large group of visitors.

http://www.debka.com/index.php

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2005-04-03-pope-iowa-forum_x.htm

Arab media coverage of Catholic leader's death infuriates Islamists

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Monday, April 04, 2005

DUBAI: The Arab world's leading satellite television channels have been giving unprecedented coverage of the death throes of Pope John Paul II, provoking anger from Islamic extremists.

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, famed for screening "exclusive" videotapes from Islamic militants including Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was among the first to announce the pope's death. On Sunday it continued providing widespread coverage of his life and death, as did Dubai-based Al-Arabiya.

Both Al-Jazeera and Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya transmitted live from the Vatican over the past few days, with blow-by-blow accounts from their correspondents at the Vatican, in Rome and at holy sites in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The two stations, along with many others throughout the Arab world, aired several documentaries about John Paul II and his various appeals for peace and dialogue between all faiths and civilizations.

They also highlighted images of the pope during his historic visit to the Palestinian territories and Israel in March 2000 when he was warmly welcomed at the Palestinian refugee camp of Dheishe, near Jesus's traditional birthplace of Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Arabs throughout the region assiduously followed the pope's numerous initiatives, including his unrealized desire to go to Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to see how Iraqis suffered under international sanctions.

But radical Islamists, who advocate the expulsion of non-Muslims from Islamic countries, have been using Islamist Web sites to vent their anger at Arab television stations for according the pope such importance.

[...]

AFP

John Paul II: His Under-reported Legacy

John L.Allen at NCR has a mega post...

Apr 5, 2005  

 Ratzinger's mustard seed

By Spengler

That an earthly agency might hold the key to the kingdom of heaven is a fond hope of mankind, such that the passing of the Vicar of Christ touches even those who long since rejected that hope. Into whose hand will the key pass? News reports suggest that the succession may fall to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the Vatican's chief theologian. With no way to game the odds that this might happen, I think it worth noting that Ratzinger is one of the few men alive capable of surprising the world. Ten years ago, he shocked the Catholic world with this warning:

We might have to part with the notion of a popular Church. It is possible that we are on the verge of a new era in the history of the Church, under circumstances very different from those we have faced in the past, when Christianity will resemble the mustard seed [Matthew 13:31-32], that is, will continue only in the form of small and seemingly insignificant groups, which yet will oppose evil with all their strength and bring Good into this world. [1]

He added, "Christianity might diminish into a barely discernable presence," because modern Europeans "do not want to bear the yoke of Christ". The Catholic Church, he added, might survive only in cysts resembling the kibbutzim of Israel. He compared these cysts to Jesus' mustard seed, faith of whose dimensions could move mountains. Ratzinger's grim forecast provoked a minor scandal, complete with coverage in Der Spiegel, Germany's leading newsmagazine. The offending sentences did not appear in the English translation, "Salt of the Earth", and were not discussed further in polite Catholic company.

more

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD05Aa01.html

Apr 5, 2005  

 THE ROVING EYE

Looking South for a pope

By Pepe Escobar

So there may be two superpowers alter all: the US, because of its military might; and the Vatican, because of its spiritual power. Josef Stalin famously asked, "How many divisions does the Pope have?" John Paul II, the last, great political superstar of the 20th century, commanded no divisions. But the Pope who came from the cold was instrumental in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the symbol of the system which had produced Stalin himself.

In more than a quarter of a century, the breathless "athlete of God" projected spiritual power across all continents like no other global leader. It did not escape the perception of 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide, not to mention Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and animists, that John Paul II also forcefully condemned the war on Iraq - to the great chagrin of born-again Methodist George W Bush, a man who claims a permanent IDD connection with God.

As crucial as he may have been geopolitically and georeligiously, John Paul II, just like Pope Paul VI, failed at the gates of China. Unlike the Iron Curtain, Beijing would never allow the Pope to become a powerful symbol against repression. Christians may be a tiny minority in Asia. But John Paul II always insisted this would be the continent of Christianity's "Third Millennium". Many Vatican analysts agree that the time may be ripe for a Pope from the Philippines, from South Korea, or from India.

An Asian Pope?

The key Asian possibility in this case is Ivan Dias, 68, the archbishop of Mumbai. Dias has been a priest since 1958, worked in Africa, normalized religious practice in post-communist Albania and was always very close to Mother Teresa in Kolkata and to John Paul II himself, who appointed him archbishop in 1996. Dias - a simple, gentle man who lives a Spartan life quickly became the spokesman of India's Catholics (only 3% of the population), always facing trouble from aggressive Hindu nationalists. His entourage defines him as the Gandhi of India's Catholics. But he's also very conservative: Dias was at the heart of the Vatican sanctions against theologian Jacques Dupuy, who was in favor of a non-orthodox realignment between Christianity and the great Asian religious traditions.

Saint Wojtyla superstar

The beatification process of the most filmed and photographed man in the world for the past quarter of a century started the minute he died, Saturday night at the Vatican. It's unlikely that the next Pope will be such a consummate actor and athlete of God. The new Pope will be chosen among nuances of conservatism: John Paul II managed to marginalize all dissent inside the Catholic Church, from fundamentalists on the right to the theology of liberation on the left.

That's the other face of his superstar coin: an almost Stalinist ideological centralism which many Vaticanists say was rarely seen even in a 2,000-year-old multinational corporation with vast experience on the matter.

John Paul II's extreme moral and sexual conservatism - against abortion ("legalized extermination"), against euthanasia, against homosexuality ("evil"), against gay rights, against divorce, against a bigger role for women in the Church, against birth control - and his incomprehension of how the AIDS virus is transmitted sexually, could lead him to be occasionally mistaken for a 13th century theologian. But he could always throw a political bomb, as Vaticanist Philippe Levillain notes: "One of his most beautiful encyclicals is Centisimus Annus ["after 100 years", a reference to Rerum Novarum by Leon XIII], in which he affirms that capitalism has no right to dominate the failed hopes of socialism. The great social idea of John Paul II is that one must maintain the egality of chances between individuals by guaranteeing equality between countries. The rich must really help the poor."

Regime change, Vatican-style

Considering that of the 117 cardinals of less than 80 years of age who will vote in a conclave to elect a new emperor of the Church, all but three were appointed by John Paul II himself, it's fair to expect that the elected won't deviate from his precepts. But the fact is that to elect the correct successor to such a charismatic, global megastar like John Paul II will require a lot of help from Divine Providence.

The kingmakers are Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, and German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the custodian of orthodoxy. Behind the scenes the key actor is Spanish Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, the chamberlain, the man who is actually preparing the conclave and who filters the names of the papabili to a handful around whom the real serious discussions will take place. Among other important actors - like Jean-Marie Lustiger, former archbishop of Paris, and Edward Egan from New York - we find another Asian, Cardinal Jaime Sin, the archbishop emmeritus of Manila. But the grand elector is undoubtedly Ratzinger, the dean of the College of Cardinals.  

more

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD05Aa02.html

A Legacy Of Bigotry: Former Yugoslavia And The Pope

By Patrick Moore

John Paul received a frosty reception in Republika Srpska (file photo)

It was only natural that the first Slavic pope attracted particular attention in a country whose name translates as "Land of the South Slavs." He was warmly greeted by Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Slovenes, and Albanians on his visits to the region, but he never fully overcame deeply rooted mistrust by the Orthodox toward him as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/04/937f0729-4782-4656-8a04-83c985bc0041.html

Litaniae Sanctorum in Latin with cardinals; brought me shivers and verklempt. So beautiful.

http://home.earthlink.net/~thesaurus/thesaurus/Sancti/LitSanctorum.html

Instead of "ora pro nobis" I heard it was "pray for him", I heard, though I couldn't catch the Latin phrase; they also added a lot of the early Popes.

(I looked up in my old missal--you get 7 years indulgence for it--lol.)

By  Alexander Schwabe in Wadowice, Poland

The pope's body will in all liklihood be laid to rest in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. But what about his heart? Poland, the pope's birthplace, thinks John Paul II's heart should return to Krakow -- and the country may get its way. It could help the Poles as they struggle to overcome a huge national loss.

It sounds, at first, a bit gruesome: Poland, Pope John Paul II's homeland, wants the dead pope's heart. But for Polish believers, the idea is not at all impious. Having come to terms with the fact that, in all likelihood, Karol Wojtyla will be laid to rest in St. Peter's in the Vatican, they would like the heart of the man they, and the world, honored and loved like no other to be brought back to his homeland. There, it could very well become a new center of worship for Catholics in Poland -- almost like a reliquary of Jesus.

The Polish clergy has not yet commented officially on the possibility of receiving the pope's heart. But there are indications of a secret accord between the Krakow archbishopric and the Vatican. Highly placed Polish dignitaries are allegedly discussing the question with John Paul's personal secretary Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. On Friday, even before the pope's death, Rev. Janusz Bielanski, priest in the Wawel Palace Cathedral in Krakow, returned from Rome where he was purportedly involved in negotiations centering on the question of the pope's burial. The Vatican, it seems, gave its approval to the idea of transferring the heart to Poland. Whether it actually happens, however, is dependent on the reading -- scheduled to take place on Monday -- of the pope's final instructions. The pope's funeral is to be held at the Vatican on Friday.

[...]

The return of Karol Wojtyla's heart would also be a balsam for the Polish soul. Many Poles say, of course, that the pope is immortal and that he stays forever young. Indeed, they honored him as a saint even during his life. But as John Paul II's illness worsened and it became clear he was dying, the country -- with its history of being partitioned by large, powerful neighbors -- has become once again overcome by a feeling of helplessness.

Hanna Suchocka, a former prime minister and now Poland's ambassador to the Vatican, quickly summarizes the profound meaning the pope has had for Poland's identity: "We can hardly believe it, but we have to come to grips with it," she said, referring to his death. "We will feel an emptiness because the point of reference represented by John Paul II is now gone. In historically difficult moments, the pope was always a support for us. Now he is gone and we will have to do everything on our own."

Just hours after the death of the pontiff, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and the Polish government ordered a national period of mourning to last until the pope's funeral. All flags are flying at half-staff, school has been cancelled, the city of Warsaw called off all cultural events over the weekend and the governing party has delayed the start of their campaign for a "yes" vote for the European constitution. A woman in Wadowice, the pope's birthplace, spoke for many when she said, "I didn't go to work because I could think of nothing else than the death of the pope."

The editor in chief of the intellectual weekly Tygodnik Towszechny, Adam Boniecki, summed it up best: "The pope has returned home to the Father. We have been left behind. We are mourning for ourselves."

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,349575,00.html

funeral being held on Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2005

Major news media around the world devoted 10 times as many stories to Pope John Paul II's death as they did to the re-election of President Bush, according to an analysis released Monday.

The Global Language Monitor, which scans the Internet for the use of specific words or phrases using Roman characters, found 35,000 new stories on the pope in the 24 hours after his death Saturday.

That compares with about 3,500 new stories on Bush within a day of his re-election and 1,000 new stories on former President Reagan within a day of his death last year.

cont @

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=640161

Editorial: Pope John Paul II

3 April 2005

Pope John Paul II's death last night will be mourned not just by the tens of millions of Roman Catholics around the world but also by other Christian denominations and followers of all other faiths. Muslims in the Middle East will feel the loss particularly deeply....

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=61500&d=3&m=4&y=2005

North Korea Catholics Said to Hold Memorial Services for Pope

By VOA News

05 April 2005

North Korea says its Catholic community has organized religious services in memory of Pope John Paul.

The official news agency, KCNA, on Tuesday quotes Samuel Jang Jae On, described as head of the country's Catholic association, as saying North Korean Catholics are deeply saddened by the pontiff's passing.

The agency says Mr. Jang sent the Vatican a message of condolence.

North Korea is widely described as one of the world's most repressive political regimes. It is not clear how many Catholics live in the Communist nation and to what extent they can practice their religion.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-04-05voa108.cfm

Polish Group Waits Behind Thousands at Vatican to Pay Respects

By Craig Whitlock

Washington Post Foreign Service

Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A18

VATICAN CITY, April 6 -- A glimpse of St. Peter's Basilica lifted the spirits of the weary Polish pilgrims as their three-bus convoy pulled into the center of Rome Wednesday morning, 25 hours and two minor mechanical breakdowns after they departed Krakow. But they quickly discovered that this was only the first stage of their 2,000-mile round-trip journey to honor the life of Pope John Paul II, their national hero and holy father to millions of Polish Catholics.

The next destination for the 145 pilgrims was the inside of the imposing and majestic St. Peter's, where the pope's body lay in state. To get there, however, they would first have to navigate an arduous path.

[...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32491-2005Apr6.html

NB it is estimated that some _two million Poles are making the trip to Rome_

by Wojciech Kosc

6 April 2005

A man who changed Poland and Europe radically.

When he became pope, Karol Wojtyla said he wanted to reunite Western and Eastern Europe. A little more than a decade later, that goal had been achieved. For many Poles - and for many others - much of that was his doing.

The young Wojtyla was born in 1920 into a Poland whose independence was only 18 months older than he was. The young country was soon crisscrossed with political tears, leading eventually to the authoritarian, quasi-dictatorial rule of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski. Beyond its borders, Europe was being pulled apart by fascism and communism. The inevitable rip came in Poland. When they heard the Nazis had invaded, Wojtyla and his father walked east. When they heard the Soviets had also attacked, they turned back, towards Krakow.

He was 19 at the time, fighting age - and a particularly suitable age to become a slave laborer for the Third Reich. He escaped deportation by merging with the population, choosing to do another, voluntary form of hard labor, as a stone cutter in a quarry outside Krakow. (A shopping center now stands there, but people know full well who used to work on that site 60 years ago.) Then he worked in a chemicals factory, an experience of industrial life that filtered into his thinking. He risked death by helping to spirit Jews out of Poland, and avoided a nationwide round-up of men after the Warsaw Uprising when Krakow's archbishop let him into his palace. He also escaped death under the wheels of a German lorry, surviving but walking with a slight stoop thereafter. His father, a retired soldier, was not so lucky: he died in 1941, leaving Karol without a family.

The young actor and literature student emerged from the war as a graduate of underground courses in theology and philosophy. They needed to be underground: a vast number of university lecturers had been sent to concentration camps.

Eventually, in 1946, as an atheist regime was taking power in Poland, Wojtyla left behind his acting ambitions and became a priest, bringing his sense of drama into a church that was supposed to be taken off the national stage (though he continued to write poems and plays). The Polish Church had emerged from a crucible, though one-third of its priests died in concentration camps. Wojtyla and other new Catholic priests found themselves in a new crucible. It neither crushed nor compromised him. Instead, he seemed to view communism as a challenge to everything Christianity stood for.

He rose to the challenge. As a professor in Lublin - the only Catholic university in Poland or in the Soviet bloc - he refined his philosophy and theology and defined it partly in contrast to the communist system. Throughout his rapid rise from parish priest to bishop (in 1958), archbishop (in 1964), and cardinal (in 1967), he tried to create space - literally - for Catholics to worship. In his first parish, he managed to build a church by getting parishioners to build it themselves. Refused the right to build a church in Nowa Huta (unsurprisingly, since this metallurgical city had been built on the edges of Krakow in an attempt to provide a real and symbolic counterpoint to the clericalism of Krakow, center of Catholic Poland), in 1959 he began holding open-air masses there. They were attended by thousands. In 1977, a church was finally built. He had faced down the communist authorities, through constant dialogue. We have a right to practice religion, he believed; we therefore have a right to freedom.

[...]

Transitions

by Krzysztof Burnetko and Jaroslaw Makowski

6 April 2005

What comes after a great pope? A great test for Poland's Catholic Church.

Though John Paul II was the pope of a catholic church, one embracing up to a billion people, in Poland he was usually called "our pope." He was a national symbol, a man who had become almost an icon. He made Poland recognizable not just to professors in the Sorbonne, but also to farmers in Montana and even to some Africans and Asians without television or the Catholic faith. We cannot be surprised, then, that Poland is a nation plunged in sorrow, united in prayers for and remembrance of the dead pope.

Yet when the mourning period is over, this pope may become not just a source of pride for the Church, but a cause of arguments and divisions. In this sense, the death of John Paul II will inevitably change the local church. But other changes, changes that are today difficult to foresee, may prove truly dramatic.

Indeed, without Pope John Paul II, Poland's Catholic Church resembles an unpinned grenade, ready to explode unless the Polish Church's hierarchy and its clergy treat it with due caution. For Catholicism as it is practiced along the River Vistula, this test could prove an ordeal.

[...]

Transitions

NY Observer 4/11

Joe Conason

John Paul's Duality: Neither Left nor Right

http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/conason.asp

....The complications of John Paul II went beyond his conflicts with modernity. While he rebuked Catholic theologians who had dared to question Papal infallibility and other aspects of traditional law, he acknowledged the actual fallibility of his predecessors with two remarkable acts: his apology for the past sins of the church against "our elder brothers in faith," the Jews, and his broader apology for the church's errors during the millennium celebration.

In that open spirit and in defiance of old prejudices, he enunciated his most profound message, venturing from church to synagogue to mosque, meeting and praying with the prelates and priests of other denominations and even other religions. Unafraid to embrace the possibility of truth and grace in diverse faiths, he inspired multitudes in his campaigning for human solidarity. Immune to cynicism, this great and good man served us all as the tireless apostle of peace and reconciliation--which is why so many people who disagreed with John Paul II will continue to read him, admire him and honor his memory.

For those of you who may have heard the JP2 ceremony, you might have heard this. Beleiver or not, this should strike us. The death of JP2 may bring diffeent feeling to different people, but this call to penitence should be heard by all. Today we are entering the 21th century, and it's time to start taking responsability for our action. Responsability for our earth, for the people of all nation, for our lifes.

The suffering of JP2 during his life , war, communism, were our making, not god's wrath on us humans. The era closing with the death of JP@ was our making. He is the last of them, after Reagan, Arafat,after the capture of Saddam etc...

To me it's clear, whatever you can think about him, the death of this man close an era. The next one's shape is our responsability. LAst one were ours too.

By Rita Süssmuth

Pope John Paul II was tremendously criticized for his verdicts against contraception and opening the Catholic priesthood to women. But his critics have failed to acknowledge one thing: Karol Wojtyla was no misogynist. In fact, he was quite the opposite.

Karol Wojtyla was a person who sought dialogue and exchange of views, and it was this fundamental approach that also characterized his relationship with women.

In the 1960s, when he was an archbishop and on the verge of becoming a cardinal, the women's movement was just getting underway in Western Europe and North America. At first, it was a movement with which Karol Wojtyla had little contact, despite the fact that the importance of women in the church and in society was the topic of lively discussion at the Second Vatican Council. But soon afterwards, the questions this movement had raised became extremely important for the pontificate. Karol Wojtyla became pope in an era when the traditional relationship between women and men was being systematically turned on its head. Social roles that were once considered a matter of course were being questioned and changed. Women and men were seeking new paths, often together but sometimes in conflict with one another.

Pope John Paul II recognized the importance of gender issues at the beginning of the new millennium. Radical changes in the relationship between men and women are not isolated, but are happening worldwide, and together with the great opportunities they provide for both sexes, they also bring deep-seated conflicts and the risk of renewed violence. Wojtyla also wanted to be a "pontifex," a builder of bridges, when it came to questions of how women and men live with one another, how they relate to one another and what they can gain from one another. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Roman institution commissioned by the pope to uphold the Catholic faith, stresses that women should increasingly be "given access to responsible positions" in politics, business and social issues. One hopes that the German church will also take the Vatican's position to heart and broadly encourage women to take leadership roles within its own institutions. As early as 1981, Germany's bishops declared that it was their goal for the church to become a "model for coexistence and cooperation between men and women on the basis of equality and partnership."

[...]

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,350277,00.html

Four million pilgrims and 200 heads of state are today in Rome for Pope John Paul II's funeral. The attention which the event has attracted has taken even the Vatican by surprise. German papers today look at why the Pope's death has proven itself to be of such immense significance.

[...]

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,350337,00.html

By Hans-Dietrich Genscher

Without Karol Wojtyla the statesman, the freedom revolution of 1989 and 1990 would probably not have been as non-violent. With his Eastern Bloc politics and his moral authority, Pope John Paul II played a decisive role in bringing about the fall of the Iron Curtain.

When we think of the sweeping changes that took place in Europe and Germany in 1989 and 1990, one name should not be absent from the list of those celebrated for helping to bring down the Iron Curtain: that of Poland's Karol Wojtyla, the man who, as John Paul II, presided as head of the Catholic Church for more than 26 years.

At the time of his death, John Paul II was the last of the protagonists of the great historic changes characterizing the end of the 20th century who was still in office. By advocating on behalf of peaceful coexistence for the world's cultures and religions, he recognized, far more clearly than most people involved in the globalization discussion, the intellectual dimension of this revolution we call globalization, a revolution that is far more than just an economic process.

I am not in a position to speak to and assess his impact in and on behalf of the Catholic Church. As a Protestant and liberal, this is certainly an issue about which I could have plenty to say. But this pope's impact went well beyond the Catholic Church, making him one of the most important personalities of the 20th century.

In our first meeting at the Vatican on April 16, 1982, it was already clear to both of us that we would disagree on many issues. After all, one would never expect a Polish-born leader of the Catholic Church and a Protestant liberal from the country that produced Martin Luther to agree on all questions of religion and social policy. When we met, I initiated the conversation, deliberately acknowledging and accepting our differences. The Pope smiled and nodded, obviously pleased to see me taking the first step.

But this recognition of our differences also allowed us to speak uninhibitedly about issues that were equally important to the head of the Catholic Church and the German foreign minister. When we met again at a later date, we recalled our first conversation and concluded that one of the reasons we got along so well was that we were the only two political figures in the West who not only bore considerable public and political responsibility, but had also experienced first-hand, though under completely different conditions, both the Nazi dictatorship and the "healing principles" of socialism.

[...]

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,350276,00.html

Last update: April 8, 2005 at 10:01 AM

Text of the homily at pope's funeral

Associated Press  

Published April 8, 2005  

Text of the homily read, in Italian, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, during the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II. Translation provided by the Vatican:

"Follow me.'' The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock. "Follow me'' -- this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the key to understanding the message which comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality -- our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude.

These are the sentiments that inspire us, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, present here in St. Peter's Square, in neighboring streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome, where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to Heads of State, Heads of Government and the delegations from various countries. I greet the Authorities and official representatives of other Churches and Christian Communities, and likewise those of different religions. Next I greet the Archbishops, Bishops, priests, religious men and women and the faithful who have come here from every Continent; especially the young, whom John Paul II liked to call the future and the hope of the Church. My greeting is extended, moreover, to all those throughout the world who are united with us through radio and television in this solemn celebration of our beloved Holy Father's funeral.

Follow me -- as a young student Karol Wojtyla was thrilled by literature, the theater, and poetry. Working in a chemical plant, surrounded and threatened by the Nazi terror, he heard the voice of the Lord: Follow me! In this extraordinary setting he began to read books of philosophy and theology, and then entered the clandestine seminary established by Cardinal Sapieha. After the war he was able to complete his studies in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. How often, in his letters to priests and in his autobiographical books has he spoken to us about his priesthood, to which he was ordained on Nov. 1, 1946. In these texts he interprets his priesthood with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord. First: "You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last'' (John 15:16). The second saying is: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep'' (John 10:11). And then: "As the father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love'' (John 15:9). In these three sayings we see the heart and soul of our Holy Father. He really went everywhere, untiringly, in order to bear fruit, fruit that lasts. "Rise, Let us be on our Way!'' is the title of his next-to-last book. "Rise, let us be on our way!'' -- with these words he roused us from a lethargic faith, from the sleep of the disciples of both yesterday and today. "Rise, let us be on our way!'' he continues to say to us even today. The Holy Father was a priest to the last, for he offered his life to God for his flock and for the entire human family, in a daily self-oblation for the service of the Church, especially amid the sufferings of his final months. And this way he became one with Christ, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep. Finally, "abide in my love:'' the Pope who tried to meet everyone, who had an ability to forgive and to open his heart to all, tells us once again today, with these words of the Lord, that by abiding in the love of Christ we learn, at the school of Christ, the art of true love.

Follow me! In July 1958 the young priest Karol Wojtyla began a new stage in his journey with the Lord in the footsteps of the Lord. Karol had gone to the Masuri Lakes for his usual vacation, along with a group of young people who loved canoeing. But he brought with him a letter inviting him to call on the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski. He could guess the purpose of the meeting: he was to be appointed as the auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. Leaving the academic world, leaving this challenging engagement with young people, leaving the great intellectual endeavor of striving to understand and to interpret the mystery of that creature which is man and of communicating to today's world the Christian interpretation of our being -- all this must have seemed to him like losing his very self, losing what had become the very human identity of this young priest. Follow me -- Karol Wojtyla accepted the appointment for he heard in the Church's call the voice of Christ. And then he realized how true are the Lord's words: "Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it'' (Luke 17:53). Our pope -- and we all know this -- never wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself, he wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment, for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience how everything which he had given over into the Lord's hands came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of literature became an essential part of his pastoral mission and gave his new vitality, new urgency, new attractiveness to the preaching of the Gospel, even when it is a sign of contradiction.

Follow me! In October 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla once again heard the voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: "Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep!' To the Lord's question, `Karol, do you love me?' the archbishop of Krakow answered from the depths of his heart: "Lord, you know everything: you know that I love you.'' The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who ever heard him preach, knows that. Thanks to his being profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ's flock, his universal Church. This is not the time to speak of the specific content of this rich pontificate. I would like only to read two passages of today's liturgy which reflect the central elements of his message. In the first reading, St. Peter says -- and with St. Peter, the pope himself -- "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ -- he is Lord of all'' (Acts of the Apostles 10:34-36). And in the second reading, St. Paul -- and with St. Paul, our late Pope -- exhorts us, crying out: "My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved'' (Philippians 4:1).

more

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5337052.html

Secular Europe also is a rival to Vatican teachings

By DON MELVIN | Cox News Service

VATICAN CITY - In the week since his death, praise almost beyond measure has been lavished on Pope John Paul II. But for all his strengths, the talk among cardinals who have gathered in Vatican City is of the daunting challenges his successor will face.

John Paul's accomplishments are not in doubt: He played a role in the fall of communism, visited the far corners of the world, reached out to those of other faiths and drew young people to him in an almost mystical way.

He may well have earned the title that some are trying to bestow upon him: Pope John Paul the Great.

But as old problems are solved, new ones arise. As communism has crumbled, radical Islam has risen. As the church flourishes in Latin America and Africa, it has withered in Europe. As a pope focuses outward, he may pay too little attention to the church's internal management.

According to people who have talked with the cardinals now gathered in Rome, most of the men who will elect the new pope are concerned with the rising secularism in Europe, the church's sometimes difficult relationship with Islam and the need to strengthen its internal governance.

Overcoming divisions

And there is the explosive issue of sexuality, which includes priestly celibacy, homosexuality and gay marriage, birth control, abortion and in vitro fertilization.

But while there is general agreement on the nature of the challenges, there are serious divisions over the best ways to respond to them. Overcoming those divisions, some of which cut deep, is another of the challenges the pope will face.

Europe, the church's own back yard, is a significant problem.

"Some people look at Europe and see it spiritually tired, if not dead," said the Rev. John Wauck, who teaches at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and is a member of Opus Dei, a controversial personal prelature.

Christians failed to get a mention of God in the proposed European Union constitution. Rocco Buttiglione of Italy, appointed last year as the European Union's Justice Commissioner, had to withdraw because of his views that homosexuality is a sin and women should stay home to care for their families.

And the union seems to be infected with a "radically secular culture," Wauck said, one on the verge of legitimizing gay marriage, abortion and euthanasia.

Beyond that, attendance at Mass has declined significantly throughout Europe. Some of the world's great cathedrals stand almost empty Sunday after Sunday.

Some cardinals say the church needs more democracy and transparency in the way it is run in order to fit into the modern era and gain acceptance.

Others say no: The church must be bolder and less equivocal in stating what Catholicism is all about. What is needed, they say, is not compromise but evangelism.

A similar divide exists over how to handle the relationship between the Catholic Church and Islam, each of which has about 1 billion members.

John Paul II was the first pope to enter a mosque, the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus in 2001.

Some cardinals think the church should continue to reach out to moderate Muslims and take care to do nothing inflammatory.

"The next pope will need to be someone capable of dialoguing with the different religions of the world, and particularly Islam," said the Rev. Keith F. Pecklers, a Jesuit professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. "Islam is on the rise, and Christianity, at least in the developed world, is in decline."

Internal affairs

But another group, said John Allen, the Vatican correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter, is skeptical that there is such a thing as moderate Islam. They think what is needed is "tough love;" their buzzword is "reciprocity."

If Muslims are allowed to build the largest mosque in Europe in Rome using Saudi money, this group asks as an example, should not Catholics be allowed to import Bibles into Saudi Arabia?

Then there is the issue of the internal management of the church, which many cardinals feel was neglected during John Paul's peripatetic travels.

Some feel there has been insufficient contact between Rome and bishops who are not up to snuff or who stray from church doctrine.

And the church's response to the sexual abuse of parishioners, often children, by priests in various countries has been seen as woefully inadequate - and even, at times, complicit.

"The sadness of the sexual scandals has not helped the credibility of the church," Pecklers said.

But attention to church management can take many forms.

Reform-minded cardinals favor a more ecumenical style. But other cardinals long for more discipline from the top.

In few areas do the differences seem more difficult to bridge than the area of sexuality. Wauck said the next pope must continue John Paul's espousal of "a culture of life," which includes not only opposition to abortion and euthanasia but "a view of human sexuality and its connection with life."

During John Paul's reign, Pecklers said, the Catholic Church has become quite polarized between right and left.

"The next pope," he said, "will need to work to heal that rift."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3125401

Boos and Catcalls Greet Bush at St. Peter's

When his image flashed on a huge outdoor TV screen, the multitude gathered for the funeral of Pope John Paul II had a pointedly unpleasant message to communicate to the U.S. president.  

Rome: It was a historic moment: George W. Bush was the first president of the U.S. to participate in burying a Pope - despite his controversy with the Pontiff over the Iraq War. Loud booing was heard, when on a large television monitor carried a close-up of the President and Mrs. Bush.

George W. Bush had also brought a high-ranking delegation to Rome, which included his father, George [H.W.] Bush, his predecessor, Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. At St. Peter's  Square, Bush sat in the second row of honored guests. The seats were arranged in alphabetical order, after the French names for each nation. Beside Bush sat French President Jacques Chirac. About 40 members of the U.S. Congress were also in attendance. The huge crowd gathered in the Square reacted with booing and catcalls when a large television monitor carried a close-up of the President and Mrs. Bush.

<snip>

http://www.watchingamerica.com/derspiegel000003.html

Nigeria: Launch pad for next pope?

  By David Loyn

BBC Developing World correspondent in Abuja, Nigeria  

It took a seven-year-old boy, Etienne Benokagbue, to articulate the feelings of a whole congregation.

When he prayed that those choosing the next Pope would have God's guidance but may they "choose an African Pope", there was a short stunned silence in the packed cathedral in Abuja, before a spontaneous round of applause.

The cathedral, currently being rebuilt in a major expansion programme, was full to bursting for the Requiem Mass for Pope John Paul II, with those who could not get in kneeling in the cement dust outside.

There is vigorous growth in Catholicism here, despite considerable competition from other non-conformist churches.

All Nigerians believe in some force outside themselves, with more than 90% regularly attending a place of worship, according to a BBC poll.

This makes it the most religious country in the world, and there are signs everywhere advertising the new churches which spring up every week.

Leading Catholics do not see this as a threat. One of the senior figures in the Church here, Father Matthew Hassan Kukah, said that his favourite story in the Bible is the one about Joseph's coat of many colours - meaning that any church will do.

He said that many Catholics might go to early morning Mass, and then go on for the dancing and exuberant worship at a Pentecostal service, much as you might go to a Jazz club in the West.

There is even significant crossover with the majority Muslim community, with a prominent Catholic Bishop coming from a Muslim family as just one example.

The first 10 messages that Father Kukah received in commiseration on the death of the Pope were from Muslim leaders.

African influence

The late Pope was "revered and adored" in Nigeria, according to Father Kukah. And Africa's most populous country is demanding that its voice is heard in the conclave to choose the next pope, even if its favoured son, Cardinal Francis Arinze, does not become Pope himself.

 I don't see why there is so much obsession with promoting condoms, and very little attention being paid to the inequalities that exist in the world

Father Matthew Hassan Kukah  

Pope John Paul II did much to increase African influence in the Church. When he became Pope in 1978, African representation was just 1% in the College of Cardinals. Now it is 11% - still much less than in Europe, but it is making its voice heard in another way too.

African demands for poverty to be finally dealt with are now at the top of the political agenda worldwide.

The G8 group of the world's richest countries and the UN itself are both committed to major summit meetings on poverty this year.

Father Kukah said that the Catholic Church's demands for justice and an end to global inequality are their key concerns, not the family morality issues of birth control and abortion which are often characterised from outside as being a unique Catholic obsession.

He says that the West does not understand Africa: "I don't see why there is so much obsession with promoting condoms, and very little attention being paid to the inequalities that exist in the world, whether it's the debt question as it relates to Africa, or a range of other issues.

"Western media and Western society don't seem to appreciate the complex issues in Africa."

Moral divide

Catholics here believe that in the pursuit of individual personal and material interest, the West has lost something.

Rose Benokagbue, Etienne's mother, says "Perhaps the Western world will learn from an African Pope, and be helped in maintaining in some of those values that they have lost."

more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4424439.stm

Canuck's a contender

CP



VATICAN CITY -- Marc Cardinal Ouellet is an unknown among pope-crazed Romans but the youngish Canadian cardinal speaks the right languages, has studied the right subjects and has all the media savvy the next pontiff will need. And now Ouellet, 60, is creating another ingredient required to win any election - buzz among those supposed to be in the know.

Apr 12, 2005  

 China, Catholic Church at a crossroads

By Francesco Sisci

ROME - The Taiwanese press reported on Chen Shui-bian's presence at the funeral of pope John Paul II: "The Holy See used an alphabetical order of country names for seating arrangements, and they used 'Taiwan' to seat President Chen Shui-bian. Chen's seat was therefore placed on the right side of the church in the first row and in the fourth seat. And since no translators or bodyguards were provided, Chen and other leaders had a bit of difficulty speaking with one another" (Dongsen Xinwen, April 8, "President Chen arrives at Vatican City to mourn").

This item illustrates two serious brush-offs that the Vatican, the most ancient and careful diplomacy in the world, gave Chen: 1) It didn't give him the right to represent China, but only his island, Taiwan; and 2) it did not help Chen in his attempt to rub shoulders with other state leaders, which was probably his main reason for traveling to Rome.

Sources in the Vatican are much blunter about the event. They say Chen asked to meet senior officials and cardinals, but all his requests were denied. Nobody spoke to him, he was put in a situation where he would be de facto isolated, and none of the big state leaders wanted to be seen talking to him - and the Vatican did nothing to ease his difficulty. The Italian government rapidly whisked Chen in and out of the city, not allowing him to stay for more than a few hours in Rome; indeed, Chen would have had to spend four times as much time sitting on a plane from Taipei and back as he spent in Rome itself.

All this is no breakthrough, however, in relations between China and the Vatican, and nobody is sure what it really is. Certainly it is something, especially considering that in the days before the Chen visit the government of China expressed, via the state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association, Beijing's condolences on the pope's death. Being does not have diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

Notwithstanding that, the day before Chen's arrival, China protested against the Vatican allowing him at the funeral at all. "Under current circumstances, China won't send representatives to the Vatican," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said last Thursday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. The Chinese government had expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" to the Vatican and to Italy for issuing Chen a visa, Qin said. Qin's statement proved that China had been considering sending a delegation to the funeral, and that it did not because of Chen's presence. Arguably, China would have sent a delegation if Chen had not been allowed in Rome.

It is not clear what actually went on in the contacts between the Vatican and China, but one can surmise from Qin's statements that there were such contacts, but that they made little progress. We know that the day before Qin's statement, Chen had already announced he would go to Rome to the funeral. The Vatican did not send any invitation for the event, which was a public ceremony where anybody would be welcome to attend. Under the all-encompassing forgiveness of the Church, the Vatican could not exclude anybody who wished to come to the ritual. So to force Chen out of the funeral after he had announced his arrival would have been very unCatholic, if indeed the Vatican did not approve of having Chen there - which appears to be the case, judging by the glacial shoulder the Vatican gave him at the funeral itself.

But even if the Vatican had wanted China at the funeral and China wanted to go, there would have been many practical difficulties, as the two governments do not have formal diplomatic relations. And now there are more difficulties with establishing bilateral relations: Chen's visit and Beijing's failure to send a delegation; and who the new pope will be, and what he will think about China.

Certainly, the humiliation of China's absence from the prime drawing room of international politics, the pope's funeral, was largely self-inflicted. After the canonization of Chinese saints on October 1, 2000, China cut all contacts with the Vatican. Pope John Paul II tried to bridge the gap - he sent some kind of formal apology through an open letter to Beijing in 2001 - but nothing happened (see Pope apologizes to China and calls for ties, October 26, 2001). Beijing missed a chance to normalize ties with a pope who was eager to work in this direction.

The next pope could be very different.

more

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GD12Ad05.html

http://www.worldnews.com/p/b9/267aca14b03fec.html?id=WNATb5fddc7c488050330b4cd468e8b6f675

Africa, Islam and the next Pope

Wide Reach of Papal Clout

Anglicans talk of unity with Rome

Holy Spirit's Role in the Election of a Pope

Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 1:20 pm

Article: www.zenit.org

Holy Spirit's Role in the Election of a Pope

Interview With Father Paul O'Callaghan

ROME, APRIL 18, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Watching news reports on the conclave, many Catholics are asking themselves: Who is the Holy Spirit and what is his role in the conclave?

ZENIT asked Father Paul O'Callaghan, dean of the Faculty of Theology of the University of the Holy Cross, to talk about the main protagonist of the conclave.

Q: So many are calling on the Holy Spirit these days. Do you think that he is invoked only in very important moments?

Father O'Callaghan: I am convinced the Holy Spirit is active always in the Church and the world, and has been so in a singular way over recent weeks. When John Paul II attempted to speak at the "urbi et orbi" blessing on Easter morning, Paul's words to the Romans came to mind: "The Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words."

Watching the enormous multitudes patiently waiting their turn to catch a fleeting glance at the body of the Pope laid out in St. Peter's Basilica, I was struck by the fact that they did so under no constraint whatsoever, simply because they wanted to do so: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." With patience and good manners: "God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit."

Seeing the many who joyfully received the sacrament of reconciliation, Jesus' words come naturally to mind: "Receive the Holy Spirit, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven."

And of course, looking at the extraordinary variety among the mourners, it was easy to think of the Acts of the Apostles, often called the Gospel of Holy Spirit: "Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia." There was wondrous variety, but only "one Spirit."

It is true that Christians, generally speaking, invoke the Holy Spirit on special occasions. Whether they do so or not, however, the Holy Spirit acts always: powerfully, incisively, silently, inspiring prayer, freedom, love, conversion, variety, unity. And there is no reason to think that the Spirit will not act during the days coming up to the conclave and during the conclave itself. With an important proviso, however.

The effectiveness of the Spirit's action depends on human collaboration, intelligence and effort. And we humans are perfectly capable of resisting the Spirit, of saddening the Spirit.

The cardinal electors are by no means exonerated from reflecting deeply on all the implications of the momentous decision they are called to make. John Paul II, in his 1986 encyclical, "Dominum et Vivificantem," spoke of the Spirit that purifies the world of sin. It is clear that the Spirit brings believers to overcome the "spirit of the world."

And in "Universi Dominici Gregis" he wrote: "I earnestly exhort the cardinal electors not to allow themselves to be guided, in choosing the Pope, by friendship or aversion, or to be influenced by favor or personal relationships towards anyone, or to be constrained by the interference of persons in authority or by pressure groups, by the suggestions of the mass media, or by force, fear or the pursuit of popularity. Rather, having before their eyes solely the glory of God and the good of the Church, and having prayed for divine assistance, they shall give their vote to the person, even outside the College of Cardinals, who in their judgment is most suited to govern the universal Church in a fruitful and beneficial way."

Nor may the rest of the faithful remain passive. When St. Peter was in prison, we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, "earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church." Through persevering prayer all Christians partake very directly in the election of the new Pope.

Indeed many of those who pray assiduously these days will perceive the conclave as a truly "democratic" event. In a sense, Christians will have the Pope they deserve.

Nonetheless, we should implore God in his mercy to give us not just the Pope we deserve, but the one our world really needs, racked as it is by strife and despair and disbelief. As we read at Mass, "Look not at our sins, but on the faith of your Church."

Q: Why is the Holy Spirit associated with the conclave and not also the Trinitarian figure of the Father and the Son?

Father O'Callaghan: It is quite clear that the action of the Holy Spirit is none other than that of the Father and the Son. Three Persons, One Being: that is the mystery of the Trinity. The Father acts through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

However, from the morning of Pentecost onwards, Christians were convinced that the Church is a living organism driven by the Holy Spirit. It makes sense that special moments throughout its earthly pilgrimage would experience the consoling and strengthening power of the Spirit. When the Council of Jerusalem was celebrated, for example, the Holy Spirit was invoked.

Besides, according to Scripture, the Holy Spirit is said to mould the life of Christ the Eternal Son in each and every believer, crying out in their hearts that they are children of the eternal Father.

The term "Christ" means "anointed," and Jesus is indeed the one anointed by God's Spirit. One of the titles commonly given to the Pope is the "Vicar of Christ." Becoming Pope, therefore, will involve a special outpouring of the Spirit. Another title given to the successor of Peter is "Holy Father." Jesus himself said that "I will not leave you orphans. I will pray to the Father and he will give you another consoler, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth."

And the fact is that John Paul II has been a powerful spiritual Father figure, over the last quarter of a century, for far more people than would be prepared to admit it. Perhaps that is why we miss him so much.

Q: What is the origin of the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus," and when is it sung?

Father O'Callaghan: The hymn is from the end of the ninth century. Though sometimes attributed to St. Ambrose, St. Gregory the Great, or Rabanus Maurus, the author is actually unknown. Pope Leo IX intoned it publicly at the Council of Rheims.

It is commonly sung on special occasions when the Church seeks the protection and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is also used in vespers on Pentecost Sunday.

Q: Could a greater devotion to the Holy Spirit be cultivated among the faithful?

Father O'Callaghan: Christian spirituality necessarily involves a real and continuous openness to the Holy Spirit, what spiritual writers call docility. Doubtless, Christians should cultivate a more conscious devotion to the Spirit, among other reasons because the Spirit will never force our response, but gently, and insistently, inspire, encourage and purify us.

Privileged moments to cultivate devotion to the Spirit include: the celebration of the Eucharist -- according to St. Irenaeus, nowhere else is the Spirit more active; silent, recollected prayer; meditating Scripture, which was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; contemplating the life of Mary, whose life was entirely open to the Spirit; giving thanks to God for all his gifts -- the Spirit is the "personification" of gift within the Trinity; generous self-giving to others; asking for guidance when we are not sure how to act; personal reconciliation with God.

more

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0504/S00283.htm

was another photo of another in the print edition, at Houston Street and Avenue B. I have seen 2 in "da Bronx".

NYT

NEW YORK UP CLOSE

For a Figure on High, Homage From the 'Hood

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

John Paul II was memorialized by James De La Vega in East Harlem.

By STEVEN KURUTZ

Published: April 24, 2005

With all the media coverage beamed in from the Vatican over the past few weeks depicting the late Pope John Paul II as a man of the people, it seems only appropriate that he has received a local sendoff, and in that most democratic of ways: the street mural.

Two days after the Pope's death, the graffiti artist James De La Vega painted the first tribute in aerosol. Sprayed onto the security gate of Mr. De La Vega's store on 104th Street and Lexington Avenue in East Harlem, the image shows Jesus on the cross along with a man weeping, while the pope is between the two, praying. The pope appears at peace and also slightly wobbly-looking, owing to the corrugated waves of the metal gate.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/nyregion/thecity/24pope.html

http://cagle.slate.msn.com/news/PopeMemorial/

Pope seeks to beatify John Paul  

Pope Benedict XVI has begun the process of beatifying his predecessor John Paul II, the first step to sainthood.

"The cause for the beatification of John Paul II is open," the new Roman Catholic leader told priests meeting at Rome's Basilica of St John in Lateran.

The Pope waived the usual rules which require a five-year wait before the Church begins to make someone a saint.

John Paul II died on 2 April, leading to widespread calls from Catholics worldwide for him to be made a saint.

cont @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4543501.stm