"There is no hope"

[dwgm]

Watching CNN. Apparently Pope John Paul II isn't dead yet, but soon will be. Not unexpected, of course.

My daughters have never known a time when he wasn't Pope. He was elected in 1978.

Does anyone remember the first John Paul, the saintly man that was Pope for such a very short time? I dreamt of his death the night before it happened. Not a coincidence: I've had precognitive dreams a couple of other times in my life. Kinda weird and scary.

It'll be interesting to see what changes, and what stays the same.

Comments

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

I remember him only because of the big deal that JPII chose to use the same papal name as a kind of homage.

It will definitely be interesting to see what happens next... I'm not Catholic but since I teach medieval history I know a reasonable amount about the medieval church and its popes. Some were good, some bad, some indifferent, like every other human being (the latter-day doctrine of papal infallibility notwithstanding).

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

the latter-day doctrine of papal infallibility notwithstanding

Papal infallibility applies only to his ex cathedra pronouncements, of course. It doesn't mean he's sinless, or even always correct.

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

I know, but I have no truck with that doctrine regardless... :-)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't think so, being a non-Catholic. But a lot of people don't know how limited the doctrine is.