When Pope John Paul died after just one month on the Papal throne, there were murmurings of conspiracy and murder. Personally, I think God was saying “Enough with the Italian Popes already!”

So then comes Karol Józef Wojtyła, the Polish Papa. Many of us were disappointed that he didn’t take the obvious name “Pope George Ringo,” but it soon became apparent that he was a religious rock star nonetheless.

Unlike the current Pope (Benedict XVI), Pope John Paul II was not a Nazi in his youth, but he did run errands for them. Oh well, water under the bridge. He was athletic, artistic, poetic, altruistic, and dedicated to ethics and religion.

He was as traditionally against a woman’s role in the Church as any Pope, but he scored big with many groups by formally apologizing on behalf of the Catholic Church for everything from the Crusades to Galileo’s mistreatment to supporting African slavery to the Church’s role in the Holocaust to, yes, even the official mistreatment of women.

Pope John Paul II liked to get out. He travelled the world like no other Pope in history. He spoke more than a dozen languages and charmed Catholics and non-Catholics alike. He was shot and stabbed and kept on ticking, often behind subsequent bulletproof glass in his custom-made Popemobiles.

Until April 2, 2005, that is. Paul is dead… miss him, miss him, miss him…

Hodgepodge Grumblebeak

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