Threes

This whole thing about the Universe working in threes -- you know that thing about how famous people die in threes -- is really playing itself out this week, isn't it?

So apparently Pope John Paul II is next on the list.

I have to say, I've got some very mixed feelings about the demise of this pope.  Actually - they're not so much mixed as conflicted.

There was a time when the only person in the whole world I might have wished would die was John Paul II.  I'm not kidding.  I think he's done more to set the Catholic Church on a path back to the middle ages than any pope in the last hundred years.  Until he came along, the Church was slowly but surely become a more progressive and modern institution.  But in the course of his 26 years as pope, he brought a streak of conservativism that will affect the church for another hundred years to come.  The number of conservative, close-minded, like-thinking cardinals with whom he's stocked the College of Cardinals is staggering, and virtually guarantees that the next pope (and who knows, the pope after that?) will be every bit as backward and close-minded.

Folks like me are destined to be on the outs with the Church for a long time to come, I guess.

Now, all that having been said, here's where the conflict comes in.  I really do think that the world at large is better off without this man leading the church; but I can't bring myself to be happy about anyone being dead.  I can't wish it on anyone.  Even him.  I hope his suffering -- if indeed he is suffering through this decline -- is mercifully short if now's his time.  But it's a measure of how I've changed as a person that I can't muster anger at him anymore; I can't whip up the vitriol for him that once I could.  He is what he is, and I have to accept that.

Is it a sign of maturity that we learn a little charity and learn to pick the battles that are worth fighting, or just a sign that the fight has finally worn us down?  I dunno.  You tell me.