Thanks For The Memories.

Pope John Paul II has been the pope for as long as I can remember. 25 years have passed since the white smoke came out of the Vatican declaring that he had been chosen. I remember my Mother, known in the neighborhood as "Sister Mary Holycards" was particularly impressed. He had two doctoral degrees, and spoke eight languages. Regardless if you like the guy or not, he came to the job with an impressive resume.

During his tenure as Pope, he supported the underground Solidarity movement in Poland, told people in Central America and Africa not to use birth control, and condemned the United States embargo on Cuba. He stood firm against women who sought to amplify their voices in the church, and against priests who argued that allowing them to marry would be a practical, popular solution to the current clerical freakiness going on. As someone who grew up Catholic, I know his words carry titanic weight. That said, the Catholic Church, after a brief progressive moment early in Pope John Paul's career, is ass-backwards, but I think ultimately that's exactly the posture he's sought to cultivate. Like the missionaries who first came to North America, the church operates in a kind of "anti-reality," and in itself it's a rather nice place to be. Seeing the world in terms of "darkness" and "light" excuses any terribly complex understanding of it, and allows a degree of moral exactitude that no contemplative philosopher could ever match.

All the novenas in the world do not, however, ease the suffering of overpopulated third world people, prevent some priests from dealing with their stifled sexuality in less than moral ways, or make the issue of gender equality go away. These are things that the next Pope can either deal with or ignore. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how the Catholic Church postures itself on the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of a new successor to Peter. Whatever the decision, I'm sure there's some kid in some neighborhood, who goes to Catholic School, who's mother is as hopeful for the future of the church and her son as mine was back in 1978. Whether that kid grows up to be devout or jaded based on the policies of the next Pope remain to be seen.