News-Record.com

The global news coverage of the death of the pope is amazing, yes. Here in Taiwan, major major coverage, too, in all the Mandarin-lanugage newspapers, even the tabloids that usually show tastelessness. Your scan of the front pages around the world is amazing.

But I have a question: what is the big deal? Yes, the late pope was a fine man, with a good heart, but in the eyes of many people, he leads an organization that has its head in the sand, is way outdated and in many ways, reactionary and illberal to boot. This organization does not represent the majority of the world's peoples, nor does it represent the majority of Christians, most of whom are Protestants now.

If the head of the Protestant churches was to die, would there be this kind of coverage? No way. If the head of the world Buddhist group or the world SHinto group or the world Moslem group or the world Jewish group were to die, would it be this kind of huge news? No way.

So why, when the pope dies, the head of an international body that has its head in the sand, most of the time, except Sundays, God bless them, why does this death of this pope merit such widespread global coverage?

My guess it is the institution he represented, the ceremony of it all, like the TV media weddings of the UK royalty and the death of Princess Di. It is the symbol of what he represents, I guess. What do you think?

I, for one, while I respected the man, never thought he was any kind of representative of God on Earth, and I feel the Catholic Church has caused alot of harm these last 50 years, what with the sex abuse scandals that the Pope never addressed until too late. Why do we pay homage to something that is dark, secretive and out-dated?

May he rest in peace. But let's get real and create a society that deals with reality, not with superstition and the supernatural and myths that have long been disproven. No disrepect meant, but what's the big deal with so much, READ: HUGE! global coverage of a non-event?

Regardless of what you think of the Catholic Church, the pope is the leader of one of the world's largest denominations, an inspiration to millions, an influential political force and one of the best-known faces around the world. It's certainly a big news event.

You wrote: "Regardless of what you think of the Catholic Church, the pope is the leader of one of the world's largest denominations, an inspiration to millions, an influential political force and one of the best-known faces around the world. It's certainly a big news event."

I respect the Church and the pope. Please don't misunderstand. Even though I follow neither. And yes, he is a celebrity pope, a celebrity face, a celebrity world traveller, the popemobile and all that, and a great man. But why does HIS death get so much airtime / print space when other leading thinkers and doers of the world, when they die, they just a normal 800 word obit. Why the celebrity obit for the pope? I feel the media is falling over itself just for the sake of a celebrity pope. That's not news. That's celebrityhood. Or am I missing something?

Yes, it's news. Important news to the world's 500 billion Catholics, globally. But for a newspaper in Buddhist Taiwan, for example, to have a two-page spread devoted to the pope's death, is beyond me. Or has the age of celebrity faces changed the way news is reported? The same thing happened with the death of Princess Diana. Way out of proportion for what she did in her life.

When Jerry Falwell kicks the bucket, will he get such huge news coverage? No way. And yet, he has been as influential a man as the pope.

China's web portals have blocked prayers, blessings and other comment on the death of the Pope from being posted on the Internet, officials said.

I guess they can wait for official government prayers, blessings and other comments. They have this dotcom
http://corp.china.com/ It's a leading integrated enterprise software and mobile applications company in China and internationally. Its Hong Kong subsidiary has attained Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status.

Maybe they are praying for blessings from Bill Gates and praying for Microsoft in China. I read that they are developing applications in China that will know what you are thinking before you know it. Not much academic freedom in China and Microsoft is in there with both hands. More dumb world domination schemes live from Redmond to China. So much for free thinkers. Maybe the Chinese would be better off blocking Microsoft and letting the Pope in.

WARNING: DO NOT READ IN CHINA
or in Redmond, Washington!!!

Clowns to the left and jokers to the right.
I'm stuck in the middle with you.

Social Justice cannot be attained by violence.
Violence kills what it intends to create.
In God We Trust

A friend of mine asked me: Was Carol Wojtyla any good as a Pope?

He replied: "I am not a Catholic, and therefore JPII's performance is none of my business, but I never liked him, and I am not start being all nice to him just because he's dead. I think he was only elected because he was Polish, and there was a Cold War to win."

Adn then he added:

In his favor:

spoke up against the Oil Crusade more loudly than his predecessors spoke against the rise of Nazism.

On the other hand, he fell short of a full anti-war campaign, and stopped talking about the war altogether when Catholic-friendly European leaders promised they'd campaign on his behalf to have Christianity included in the EU constitution.

the only Western leader to speak up against, and put pressure on, Israel. Particularly when the Israeli army put the church of Bethlehem under siege (what did the Protestants say? Charles/Lizzie, whoever of the two is the head of the CoE, should feel ashamed of themselves for keeping quiet). Of course, he did it for the wrong reasons - but he did it.

apologized for a lot of the Catholics church's past mistakes, from the Galileo trial to assorted carnages. Being a staunch conservative, he may not have meant it, but apologise he did.
he replaced a lot of the Italians within the Vatican with people from around the world. That's good for the Church, and for Italy (the fewer Italians, the less they'll get angry with us

Against him:

telling Ugandans that accepting condoms from AIDS workers was a sin. In my book, that is a crime against humanity.

being a staunch conservative, and a friend of Ronald Reagan, and supporting RR's politics in Latin America, particularly by removing any bishop who would stand up to the US-backed death squads and tried to be on the side of the poor.

not allowing women priests. In his mind, he never left the 14th century.

being in denial about the whole child abuse issue

he took John Paul I's name, but not his attitude.

When elected, JP I refused the usual gold paraphernalia and pomp that goes with the ceremony, saying "Jesus never had any of that". When JP II was asked the same question, he said "Traditions must be preserved".

Well, now he's dead - RIP. Sadly, the next one is not likely to be any better, especially if Ratzinger gets elected.

Japan news: A-bomb survivors, congregations in Japan mourn pope's death

People in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Sunday mourned the death of Pope John Paul II, who visited the atomic-bombed cities in 1981 to appeal for world peace.

Toshiyuki Fukazaki, a 75-year-old former Hiroshima city government official, said the pope's appeal "was comprehensible as well as powerful. He told the world of the importance of the experience of Hiroshima."

Personally, I liked the N&R's coverage. Just the right amount, and I learned things from it. Nice job.

May His Example Guide Many Generations!
John Paul II (1920-2005)
by Kevin Hannan

One remarkable aspect of the media coverage of the passing of John Paul II is the revelation that great numbers of people throughout our planet say they feel a personal loss. Quite a few individuals, myself included, preserve some personal memory of this noble man, who already is being called John Paul the Great. Over the years I participated at papal Masses in San Antonio, Texas, in Poland at Krakow and Skoczow, and in Olomouc in the Czech Republic, as well as attending a private audience for Americans of Polish ancestry in San Antonio in 1987. That afternoon in San Antonio, following the public Mass and before the evening audience with Polish Texans, crowds lined the streets of downtown San Antonio waiting for a glimpse of the unconventional Pope in his popemobile. Near the city’s historic riverwalk, I spotted the approaching popemobile, and then I jumped up on the concrete base of a nearby lightpole. I waved vigorously at John Paul as he passed me, standing erect in his popemobile, some fifteen feet away, and I had the distinct impression then that he looked directly at me, smiling, and waved back. Of course, as we’ve heard in recent days, some feeling of meaningful personal contact with the Pope was experienced by many over the years.

As I look back at a quarter century of my own life, I see that I am able to measure personal events according to the timeline of John Paul’s papacy. His election as pontiff in 1978 coincided with an important period in my personal development, as I returned to the faith in which I had been baptized. For me personally, the 1960s had meant spiritual disorientation and confusion. I rejected my ancestral faith, studied Oriental religions, and for several years clung to an obstinate atheism and nihilism. Meditations on the meaning of human history led me finally back to Christianity, at about the same time Karol Wojtyla was elevated to the papacy. His election demonstrated that a new era had emerged out of the negativism and nihilism of the 1960s. He restored stability to an institution that had, certainly in America at least, been demoralized after the Second Vatican Council.

A brilliant philosopher, John Paul II in his writings consistently instructs humanity how to apply traditional Christian teaching to modernity, that malaise tempting mankind with materialism, progress, and despair in place of the solace of faith. John Paul will be remembered for his contagious courage, so evident in his struggles with the Nazis and communists. Throughout his life he personally witnessed his deep Christian faith, as when he sought out the Turkish gunman who tried to assassinate him in 1981 and forgave him. His entire life was a witness of Christianity which cannot be defined in terms like “conservative” or “liberal.” With his death, I realize that I, like many over the years, have allowed myself to be distracted from John Paul’s witness. That prophet of our time was not heeded as he should have been.

John Paul II remains the greatest figure of my lifetime. No other human has succeeded in touching and unifying so many people of so many varied beliefs. Never has a man of such power and fame been such a sincere, tireless advocate of the powerless and the oppressed. His ministry indeed suggests proof of the biblical prediction that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church of the Bishop of Rome. Many Christians believe that John Paul II at this moment already enjoys his eternal reward. And yet for me, as well as with those millions in Poland who loved and still love him deeply, there is a tragic sense of personal loss. With the passing of Karol Wojtyla, Pope of Rome, my heart is heavy.

7 April 2005

Note: Kevin Hannan, Ph.D. is the author of several books, including My Poland: Essays on Polish Identity (2005). He has spent the past three years teaching at a Polish university and feels an especially deep solidarity with the people of Poland upon the passing of John Paul II.

The end of the world observed in the Beskid Mountains
by Kevin Hannan

Of a June afternoon
clouds unfolded
upon the Beskids.

Human movement ceased,
except the turning up
into the sky of faces.

The heavens were lit
as an icon embellished
in serpentines of fire.

The deferential splendor
of cherubim and seraphim
was revealed within that icon,

and mankind marveled.
Ancestors nodded to one another,
respectfully, with sympathy,

a long expectation fulfilled.
The center of the sky
collapsed to disclose

a golden, timeless Christ
in episcopal crown and brilliant vestments
of a Greek patriarch.

Solemn God and Man
revealed Himself.
His somber expression,

of compassion, told all of eternity.
Men became as children.
The earth turned soft

beneath a sea of tears
as tremendous anxieties and sufferings
passed forever.

Bielsko-Biala
17 June 2002