hold on to your crass
Today at lunch in the teacher�s lunchroom we were discussing the health of Pope John Paul II, what amazed me was that I know more about the Pontiff and the politics of the Vatican than the Catholic teachers.
Understanding the papacy is an important part of the education of the professional Lutheran. For good or for ill, the Pope is the public face of Christianity. We (being professional Lutherans) need to respect that and work within that construct. Many protestants have problems with the Roman Catholic Church, but I defy you to find another Christian denomination that has as an affective social ministry, larger school or hospital system, or political influence. They are the only faith that is concurrently ecclesiastic and temporal.
The Pope is very ill, but even in his illness and frailty we have much to learn from him. That they feel he should be shuffled off to the side because he is sick is disgusting. Many people feel that there is no dignity in suffering, but the Pope shows us a different path. There is dignity in suffering; a person at the end of their life is still valuable.
That Catholics cannot see this in their own leader, who has stood firm for many things � the sanctity of life being one of them � is really sad.