I'm Catholic, but a dissenting one at best. Meaning I just don't agree with many of the Church's teachings, and the idea of an angry God never sat well with me. I went to Catholic school until college, and I was always at constant odds with the priests and nuns.

Be that as it may, the passing of Pope John Paul II greatly affected me, catching me by surprise. I was amazed by the outpouring of grief, and how the world turned its eyes to Rome. He was a Pope of many firsts, the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years and the most widely travelled (more foreign trips than all previous popes put together.) And another fact that awed me - he was responsible for one of the largest human gatherings, which was 5 to 7 million people in the Phillipines. I could go on and on, but if you were interested in his life, I'm sure you watched the news specials like I did.

One of the areas of the Catholic church that did pique my interest when I was young was its technicalities and rituals. Papal Infallibility is one of those technicalities. Many people assume the Pope is always infallible - but this is not the case. He is only infallible in certain and very special circumstances. Reading through the rules of engagement for papal infallibility - it seems to be that the Catholic church is in a bind. People have criticized Pope John Paul II for his stance on women and birth control, but from what I understand, he could not contradict what has been taught before, because the beliefs are considered infallible. And that means irrevocable. He could privately dissent, but he could never voice that difference publicly.

So if you read The Da Vinci Code, and were wondering what the big deal was, that may help you understand.

Anyways, what I really meant to say is that, after all is said and done, I believe Karol Jozef Wojtyla, otherwise known as Pope John Paul II, was a great man.

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Published: (2005-04-04 15:51:48.0)