Monday, April 04, 2005

The Pope Dies But Life Goes On

Leaving aside for the moment the question of just how good a pope John Paul II actually was (his policies in regard to human rights and making the church a more humane, open institution ranged from spotty to downright horrible), am I the only person who is startled and appalled by the all-pope-all-the-time news coverage on the MSM? I don't want to go back to the bad old days of Protestant Catholic-bashing, but why are the TV networks behaving implicitly as if Karol Wojtyla was the pope of all of us and thereby deserving of universal homage?

I see that President Bush is planning to attend the pope's funeral, which I understand is unprecedented. And now I hear that Prince Charles is under pressure to postpone his wedding to Camilla so as not to conflict with the funeral. WTF? Charles is an Anglican, remember. Why does he have to defer his plans in honor to a churchman from another denomination? Would a US presidential inauguration (for example) be postponed if the Archbishop of Canterbury died? Or the Dalai Lama, for that matter?

The death of an 84-year-old man is not an unprecedented tragedy demanding that the world come to a standstill. Life goes on.
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