POPE JOHN PAUL II

(Interpretation of his eminence rendered with deference)

Karl Josef Wojtyla · born 5/18/1920 in Wadowice, Poland, 30 miles southwest of Krakow · elected Roman Catholic Pope in 1978 · opposed abortion/birth control, capital punishment, female priesthood · opposed gay marriage, nuclear weapons, suicide/assisted suicide · opposed worker oppression · supported celibacy and chastity · died 4/2/2005

A pope for all seasons if not everybody's pope and there were reasons -- resistance to change, for example; insistence on continuity in perpetuity of settlements reached long ago by the white male hetero, a group significantly honored by his presence, albeit. Nonetheless, such settlements covered matters of deep relevance to all members of the human race and family. Still, he was sure and graceful and funny, with the soul of a poet and perfectly cast as the worldwide evangelist. In fact he seemed to revel in this role for a Pole and the passage and acceptance of the circle beginning from the end of everyday and ending with applause for yesterday's shift unto tomorrow. A pope for the least of all the people if not a pope for all of God's people, his figure rising in powerful evidence to keep both eastern and western beasts at bay and falling back with paternal ease and equanimity on the obsolescence of violence without vindication and the stubborn defense of history. Yet he spoke with confidence and learning and holiness to the great and the small. Return to the hospital? No, he thought not and instead reached out and through the faithful and beyond all others unable to break away from the strength of the dramatization as though some unbroken ring sealed him to living and dead, sinner and saint, waiting for two lights to dim and watching one final performance through to the never wavering and certain curtain call.

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