Death Watch Ends

The Pope is dead.

Why do I feel nothing? I was raised Catholic. Why do I feel nothing?

There is a part of me which began to be very angry when NBC read the statement by Bill Clinton, speaking to what a great man Pope John II was and how his legacy was his fight for dignity and equality for all people.

This was a man who called homosexuality "evil."

I don't want to base my feeling, or non-feeling, on one issue, but how can you fight for dignity for "all people" when you point the finger of condemnation at one segment of the population and call them "evil."

One may point out that he was pointing to "homosexuality" and not "homosexuals," but that gets back to the "love the sinner, hate the sin" argument--and that implies that one segment of the population does not have the right to live as God made them.

The pinnacle (or nadir) of the John Paul II papacy has to be the notorious Halloween letter, issued in 1986, which declared gays and lesbians "disordered," "self-indulgent" individuals who "threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people." So much for pastoral outreach.

This was also a man who directly or indirectly allowed a wave of pedophilia to live within the church.

And so I feel nothing. I want to feel something, but I feel nothing.