The Pope is Dead

Long live the Pope.

Now we'll have to see what the new pope's stance is going to be like. Will he be even more conservative, or more moderate. I know that Pope John Paul II has been rather hostile to gay marriage and abortion.

What I'm hoping is someone who, while moral and ethical, is willing to reconsider some stances by framing it in the sense of love and compassion, and recognizing tragedy as part of Christ's guide to life.

"He was a pope for much too long. While he fit an earlier time and was considered a radical in his days, as he grew older, he was left behind as the world was moving on. I'm sad for him, and glad that he has his peace.

I surmise that perhaps it was his illness that, preventing him from having any control, caused him to lash out ever more conservatively in his final days, so the whole of his mind let not in a single light, excepting love for Jesus Christ and his Catholicians in poverty."