by My Wife

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616) King Richard II, (Act III, scene ii)

April 10th, 2005

The passing of Pope John Paul II has left me with a heavy heart.

I am not Catholic, or even Christian for that matter, and I have not been for a long time. The dogmatic intolerance of the Catholic Church left me cold and bitter, but I had many other reasons for leaving as well. That being said, I must say that I truly admire anyone of enough spiritual mettle to walk the walk and talk the talk in an increasingly materialistic world.

True, I disagreed with John Paul’s stance on many things, especially abortion and birth control. On women or celibacy in the priesthood, I have no right to say anything since, as previously stated, I am not of the same faith. His dogmatic approach to the Catholic faith was, I feel, primarily a product of the times. He grew up pre-Vatican II. Old habits die hard. He probably did not handle the sexual scandals in the priesthood in the most efficient way, though I wonder how much of it he knew about in the last years, and how much of it was kept from him by the ever vigilant College of Cardinals. There are no rose coloured glasses here – he made mistakes and was not perfect. He was, (gasp) Human.

John Paul was truly, however, a man of peace. His message was one of love and compassion, which should be the core principle of any religious practice. Evidence of this deep compassion is in his forgiveness of the man who shot and severely wounded him. How many of us could do the same? If someone merely speaks to us the wrong way, most of us take offence.

My charming husband has stated that on a “self defense basis”, we monitor TBN*. One thing that has struck us both is the constant preaching about how to attract monetary wealth. “Sow your seed of $1000 and you will be blessed with thousands” is not uncommon preaching fodder. What I seldom hear from any of these people is “Love thy neighbour” or teachings about compassion. Wasn’t love and compassion Jesus’ chief message? Maybe I missed something, but I don’t recall Jesus saying anything about becoming rich by giving to the church or adding to our own stock portfolio.

But, I digress…

Pope John Paul II worked toward interfaith dialogue (he even met with the Dalai Lama on several occasions) and apologized for the Catholic Church’s indifference during the Holocaust as well as the atrocities committed over the last 2,000 years**. He was instrumental in bringing down communism in his native land. He criticized President Bush for the war in Iraq. He championed the poor. And, ironically, he is credited with the rise in devotion to Mary, the Catholic Church’s very own Goddess***.

Apart from all of this, one only needed to look at him to see the inner peace that living in the Spiritual Light can bring; the kindly eyes, the serenity of being. This is the same type of serenity you see in the Dalai Lama and the late Mother Theresa. That inner peace alone is enough to inspire someone to seek a path in which that same tranquility can be found.

In the later years, I think we were taught one of the most important lessons Pope John Paul II had to teach. Despite age, despite infirmity, he was out there every day, often traveling great distances to get his message across. In a society where we hide our elderly, and disregard the lifetime of wisdom they can impart, Pope John Paul was a highly visible presence in everyday life. He showed us that the elderly can contribute and should be given a chance to be heard. Many people said he should have stepped down, retired, or let “someone younger” take over. I applaud His Holiness for not listening. Aging is a natural process and should not be swept under the carpet. Yes, he was frustrated at times, but he was never ashamed of being “old”. His dignity in that respect was beautiful and inspiring.

Yes, I am a Pagan, but I lit my candles and shed my tears when John Paul died. I may not have agreed with many of his beliefs, but I respect someone who can live their faith every day. I respect someone who can speak up when it may not be popular to do so. I also respect someone who inspires us to be better people, to embrace our paths to the Divine whole heartedly and to work toward love and compassion.

The world has lost a bright light. As one candle is lit from another and continues to burn, may his message of peace and love continue to burn brightly and inspire us all.

* - I am NOT saying that Christians are the enemy here. Certain Fundamentalists, however, are making moves to take away rights from those that do not believe the way they do. Check out D. James Kennedy’s website sometime. Not only are these people anti-Pagan, but they have some strange ideas about Catholics as well, not to mention Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. They have every right to believe as they do – but not to shove their beliefs down other people’s throats. And that is exactly what they want to do.

** - A good start. There is still the matter of the whole mess stated by Pope Innocent VIII. If you’ve never heard of The Malleus Maleficarum, do yourself a favour and look it up. Charges of “Witchcraft” were tossed about right and left. Many villages were left without their midwives, healers and Wise Ones, but many of these people were not Witches. Women, and some men for that matter, were tortured and killed for simply having a freckle in the wrong place.

*** - Yes, I know, she is not technically a Goddess. I got corrected on that point numerous times during my 13 years of Catholic School. I had an overwhelming devotion to Mary, which continues to this day. I also now see her in images of Isis, Tara, Lakshimi and countless other incarnations of the Divine Feminine.