A remarkable, if maddening, leader
As your blogstress writes this, there is disagreement among the media as to whether or not Pope John Paul II is still alive. Even if rumors of his death are premature, no one appears to expect the pontiff to live to see tomorrow. For this writer, John Paul II has been a frustrating character--one of such great talents and obvious spirituality, yet such wrong-headed ideas with regard to the full humanity of women and the moral health of non-heterosexuals. When Karol Wojtyla ascended the papal throne, there was much excitement in the Stan family, some of whose ancestors arrived in the New World from Poland at the turn of the last century. But it wasn't just the common motherland that thrilled us: it was the man himself, who so obviously represented a departure from the tormented, vacillating leadership of Pope Paul (whose immediate successor, John Paul I, lasted all of 33 days in office before dying). Wojtyla was a poet, an actor and an athlete. When your reporter covered the pope...