The pope has died

I’m glad that he has died. Firstly, at least his suffering is over and he has returned back to the Father’s house. Secondly, it is time for him to let go of the chair (of St. Peter) and let another person take over the duties.

I don’t feel a great loss at the passing of this pope, for the Lord will appoint another person to lead the Church, whether for the better or for the worse, we will not know until the now pope starts his reign.

A lot of people in the world (especially the Catholics) have no idea how much this pope has done to halt the progress of the Church (halting Vatican II). The following are a few things that I can remember:

1) Women are not allowed to preach in Church, he even made it clearer during his reign although there have been Churches that broken this law and I applaud them for it.
2) The no ordination of women as priest. I'm still wondering why? What is wrong with having women priest? I believe that the Church is losing the ideas and inspirations of half of its population because of this bigotry.
3) His Pro-family stance. Of course this is a good thing but his definition of a family is the one father and mother and kids. Because of his non-acceptance of the gay population many families have been broken because a son/daughter came out of the closet. This is so "Pro-family", destroying the ones that don’t meet with his criteria of a family.
4) His unwavering stance against contraception. This really caused uproars in the world because most people are not Catholics but all because of his position as the 'moral compass' the world hears his voice. It made it more difficult for AIDS activist to educate people because most governments frown upon the preaching of condom usage but abstinence. Abstinence is good but how many people believe it? How can you preach to the world when majority of them don't believe in what you preach?


Somehow bringing the Church up to date with the progress of the world was not in his agenda. He would prefer to please the conservative people in the Church and in the ranks then to allow God's love to flow through the land. The Vatican has always had this problem of trying to put the Holy Spirit in a box but the Holy Spirit cannot be contained or controlled, too bad they just don't understand it.

"Give to Caser what belongs to Caser, give to God what belongs to God". I have realised that most preachers and leaders of the Church never follow this teaching of Christ, only one I have encountered was Mother Teressa, who in my heart is a much greater person then pope John Paul II will ever be. Her life was the Gospel and she believed in loving all regardless of race, language, class, sexuality orientation, education qualifications; something I pray that all leaders and preachers of the gospel will be one day.

When will the Vatican realise that God loves everyone and anyone. Not just the people who adhere to their own brand of morality. Too bad they never remember the times when the Church was corrupt and the times when they made mistakes*, too bad they didn't learn.

I pray that the next pope would be a champion for humans, not for popularity or power but for the belief that every human being is a child of God.

* The Church used to preach that people without white skin are spawn of the devil and unnatural. And let us not forget because of the pope's need for power and control the reformation was born.