groan

It's a good thing that we set clocks forward today; that means I slept until 6 a.m. instead of getting up at 5 (after going to bed at 1). Good for me!

I'm a bit sore today from schlepping books from one end of the house to another. I'm so pathetic. It only takes 3 trips before my lower back is hurting so much I have to sit down and rest it for a bit before making 3 more trips. But now the furniture is all empty and hopefully Ned will stop by today to help move the two big pieces into the living room so I can start washing walls in preparation for PAINTING.

Checking out some background information on the pope, and came across this entry. None of this, of course, will come out during the mourning period, or beyond. But it's nice to have a balance of the very bad things that have come out of the Vatican in the past 27 years as well as all this saintly stuff that is being presented on television.

I'd forgotten, for example, that no Catholic hospital can pass out birth control information or perform tubal ligation. I'd forgotten that safe sex education in countries where AIDS is rampant is forbidden. I'd forgotten that Cardinal Law, who permitted pedophiles under his rule to be shifted from parish to parish was given a place of honor, where he lives at the Vatican. I'd forgotten how many times he said that gay people are "evil" or "intrinsically disordered."

The man was not without many, many faults, shortcomings, and short-sightedness. It will be interesting to see whether his replacement is like-minded or if his replacement actually lived in the 20th century.