I'm Not Catholic...

(Here is another half-finished piece that I'm blowing out due to time constraints...)

I have some thoughts on the Pope's passing.

Pope John Paul II was uneven at best. His big moment was supporting the Solidarity movement. Standing up to the Soviet Union was impressive. On the other hand he was Polish and those were his bretheren. There were lots of other movements that John Paul ignored. The growth of radical Islam for example. Or the Somali warlords. Or Castro. Or any other tin pot dictator in the last 3 decades.

Church membership increased 250 million but he has a net loss of priests and nuns. Of course, membership in the US and Europe has dropped precipitously while growing in undeveloped parts of the globe. Education has a way of eroding faith. Of course the third world doesn't have the coffers of industrialized nations so those child molestation lawsuits will start adding up.

Speaking of child molesting, that's another thing the Pope mishandled. Instead of making a public statement and firing the Boston ArchDiocese's Bernard Law, he gave the guy a promotion.

As rampant poverty effected more than half of the global population, which surpassed 6 billion during his reign, the Pope stood adamantly against any form of contraception. I can understand the abortion arguments but contraception? Within a marriage? That's ludicrous. Sure, we can forget about fish on friday because the globe's exploding population ate them all.

Despite Jesus healing the sick the Vatican under John Paul II had no programs to curb AIDS, because condoms and sex education could be used for contraception.

Neo-cons loved John Paul because he was 'conservative.' But in usual neo-con fashion they overlook some basic facts that blow their theories out of the water. The Pope was anti-communist, I guess that's good. But he was also anti-capitalist. The Pope believed that material greed, the grease behind capitalism's wheels, was inherantly evil and against the teachings of Jesus. I'm guessing that the Pope was a Socialist.

All in all I guess he was relatively good, just not great. But I'm looking forward to seeing what the next Pope brings to the Vatican.

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Currently I'm listening to Devil`s Food (Alternate Version) (Bonus Track) from the album "Welcome To My Nightmare" by Alice Cooper