BRITAIN
Mirror
THE passing of His Holiness The Pope is, in one way, none of the business of those who are not Roman Catholics.
If you do not believe that he was the anointed Vicar of Christ on Earth, and the holder of the Keys of Peter, you need not worry yourself at the thought of his Maker having subjected him to a long and painful and embarrassing dotage. (Even so, he fared better than his predecessor, who was un-chosen by Heaven only a few weeks after being anointed.) ...
It's easy to see why Pope John Paul might have wanted to pump up the morale of his flock with this mass production of holiness.
Under his stewardship, the most appalling scandal of all - the institutional rape and torture of children - was allowed to spread and also to be denied. One of those most responsible for the cover-up, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, was hastily removed from American jurisdiction and given a sinecure at the Vatican.
Posted by kshaw at April 4, 2005 05:00 AM