Poll: How do you feel about the Pope's death?

He died the day I went in for confession for my research paper. I think that's what pushed him over the edge.

refer to my post in "Do you pray?" which sorta kinda went into this a lot... it's here
hope that link works...i'm very html challenged. if not, use this:
http://fruhead.com/mod/discuss/view.php?post_id=52355&cat_id=6223
Yes! link worked, at least for me. yay.

While I never looked to him for moral guidance, and while I disagreed with him on most social/sexual issues, I respected him for speaking out against war and capitalism, and for meeting with leaders that other leaders shunned, like Castro and Arafat.
Obviously the poor man was suffering and it is good that he is finally at peace.

Personally, I think it will be exciting to see them choose the next Pope. With the white smoke and the doves and everything.

that's one thing that's amazing to me ... that so many people, including most people i know, have only known this one Pope.

i still have suspicions about John Paul I's death, for heaven's sake.

i'm too much distanced from my Catholic upbringing to really actively mourn John Paul II -- i can't find much to mourn when people have had a good livespan, accomplished much, have clearly been suffering, and are in a position of acceptance towards death.

i too disagree(d) with much of his "moral" agenda where it intertwined with gender and sexuality, but i never for a moment doubted that he was motivated by a desire for justice and a regard for all humanity. and i can respect him for that, even as i disagree with his hidebound sexual views and the way in which he acceded to the church's more conservative internal-political aspects. more than most people in public life, i think he truly sought a moral consistency in his doctrines, and where we disagreed it usually was *I* who was being inconsistent, not he. (of course, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," according to Emerson. :) )

i have concerns about the election and rule of the next Pope, especially given how much John Paul II (and, i suspect, his handlers these past few years) orchestrated the college of cardinals to try to make them fall in line with the tenor of his papacy. but we'll just have to see how that plays out, won't we?

I started on the other end, I think . . . I have only grown closer to my Catholic faith as I have come to know John Paul II better through his writing and speaking.� I, too, used to say that he was medieval or anti-woman and that the Church needed to "get in line" with modern realities.� But I found that if I started at the idea that this Pope loved people -- men and women alike -- and his moral and ethical teachings were actually quite beautiful and empowering rather than limiting or ignorant.� I always remember reading the remark from the chair of the United Nations Conference on Women after meeting him:� "If more people thought as he did, we wouldn't need to have these conferences."

And so I'm very sad and very joyful at the same time.� I, like so many, grieve because I feel as though I've personally lost something -- but I couldn't put my finger on what.� At the same time, I am so happy to know now that such a hard and well-traveled journey is finally over and he can rest.� I'm grateful for his mind and his extraordinary example . . . I'm grateful too for his efforts despite extraordinary pain (and, I suspect, shame) to express solidarity with all of those who suffer oppression -- physical, political, or spiritual.

... "I've become obsessed with the ritual, pomp, and morbidity?"

I've coined a term for everything that's going on: popetivities.

I bet you won't see the film, the Pope must Die(t) on TV anytime soon. Does anyone else know it? It is the disappointing sequel to the wonderful film Nuns on the Run. They both star Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane [Hagrid from the HP films].

You're the only other person I've ever heard mention that film.� I watched the Pope Must Diet in Miami with some friends a few years ago.� It was very good, thought not as good as Nuns on the Run

Heh. I've seen the movie too. Didn't like it, but I saw it.

why sad? he lived to 84, accomplished a fell of a lot and was suffering.

while i didn't agree with his stance on a number of issues, he was a part of a lot of incredible changes during his time as pope.

Is it a loss to catholicism? no. during his prime he was a gift but for him to have lived longer would have only prolonged his suffering and left the church without an effective leader.

and so my opinion is to celebrate the good things he was a part of and to be thankful for that, but to also appreciate that he is now resting, whatever form that rest might take, and no longer struggling.