Not sure if this has been done yet, I haven’t seen it.
With the pontiff likely to leave the mortal coil tonight, just about everything I’ve seen and read attributes glowing praise of him from everyone asked. Jewish and Muslim leaders included.
So I’m wondering what the feelings are of Dopers about the pope.
If you want to comment on why you do or don’t like him, by all means post that as well.
To start it off, I’ll decline comment because it’s very personal to me, but I have genuine love and admiration. I trust that won’t bias anyone’s post. And I don’t intend this to just be a love-fest about The Deuce. So what do you think of J.P. II?
He’s the only pope I’ve ever known, so I can’t compare him to any others, but I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about him. Some people don’t like his positions on some issues, but I’ve never heard anyone so much as suggest that he wasn’t doing his best to lead the catholic church. I think he’s a great man, and will be remembered as such.
I actually heard a commentator start to say some scathing things about the Pope before the host of the show shut him up. I disagree with the Pope on a lot of issues (but IANAC, so who cares), I will say that he seems to be genuinely devout man, and he’s tried to improve the world. Certainly, he’s not spewed the kind of hatred from his position like Falwell, Dobson, and others have done. I worry that the man who replaces him will not be so open to change as this Pope was.
There have certainly been worse spiritual leaders, and worse Popes. I don’t agree with everything he’s said or done, but all in all I’d call John-Paul II a decent guy. I gotta admire how he kept plugging along.
I am not a Catholic, and have serious problems with Catholicism, but I respect and admire the man. I can’t imagine a better Pope, but then again he is the only one I have ever known.
I deeply admire him. He’s learned and devout. I’m Anglican-leaning-Catholic, and I’m very sad that I probably won’t be able to enter the Church in his papacy.
I think he’s been a very good Pope on the whole, upholding orthodox Catholic belief in an increasingly secular world.
He has also extended the availability of the traditional Latin (Tridentine) mass to those Catholics who prefer that rite (of which I’m one). That’s something else on his part for which I’m grateful.
Atheist, raised Protestant, and a child when Pope John Paul II became Pontiff. FWIW, here’s my take:
Pros: his astounding scholarship and learning, his polyglot achievements, his work ethic, his staunch anti-communism, his humanism, ecumenism (relatively speaking) and success in improving relations with Judaism (e.g., the apology to Jews for the Church’s historic crimes).
Cons: orthodoxy esp. with respect to social/scientific/medical/sexual issues, a tendency to adopt reactionary attitudes against Western-promulgated corporate capitalism (which, for all its faults, is in ways better than the alternatives); and his responsibility for the RCC’s bureaucratic sclerosis, esp. in the face of pedophilia scandals. Defending human dignity in the abstract is all well and good, but he’s also undermined it by condemning family planning, etc., failure to cleanse the ranks of sexual predators, and forestalling a greater official inclusion of gays and lesbians.
I’m curious to learn something about these high church officials the Pontiff has appointed on his deathbed, and just how he managed to do that, and why he waited until the last minute to do so. (Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this.) Are his appointees representative of the increasingly non-Euro and non-white rank-and-file of the RCC? Are they as conservative as he is?
I’m (unrealistically) hopeful that the next Pope will be more environmentally-aware. According to Genesis, God designated us the stewards of the planet – even as He enjoined us to “be fruitful and multiply”. It’s high time for the Vatican to reinterpret that injunction as not precluding family planning and birth control, as our numbers are severely stressing the earth’s resources and increasingly driving God’s Creation into extinction.
On the one hand, I admire JPII for his intellectual honesty, and his opposition to tyranny. On the other hand, he seemed almost oblivious to the sexual abuse scandals in the Church, and actually rewarded one of the miscreants (Cardinal law of Bostson).
He probably kept them covered… he wouldn’t want to look down on the unemployed.
He was certainly one of the most outstanding popes of the last couple of hundred years. His role in the fall of Communisim, his reaching out to other faiths, etc., have all been covered in this and other threads. Yes, he had his shortcomings, but who among us do not?
Not being a catholic I don’t have very strong feelings about him either way.
That said he is certainly a man who has led a remarkable life and he kinda made me cry (a teensy bit! In an atheist way!) when he came out to see his “flock” (?) over Easter. He was obviously very ill but also very concerned about his people. The fact that he tried to speak and stayed at the window meant a lot to many catholics I’m sure.
He seems to have always been a man with faith, strength and conviction. I may not agree with some of what he has said but I would never doubt he said what he believed and he believed what he said.
There have been times when he seemed to speak to those outside his church in a calm, rational and sensible way, in a way that helped try to calm and sooth things.
To me he is a good man who genuinely cares about many people, not just catholics.
I’m an Atheist with rather negative feelings towards religion of late.
I admire Pope John Paul II because he seems to me to be an honest, devoted and humble man who has always followed his concience and done what he believes is right (whether or not I agree is irrelevant). In particular, I’ve been impressed over the last few years as his health deteriorates to see that he still puts his people before himself and does his utmost to make public appearances despite the personal toll it must have on him in his state of ill health. I have nothing but admiration for Pope John Paul II even though I don’t agree with almost anything that he stands for. A true gentleman, and by all appearances, a genuinely kind and compassionate man.
I think, even given my horribly jaundiced viewpoint on such matters, I’d give JPII a big thumbs-up for many of his achievements, some of the most significant having been started before he became the Pontiff. The last decade-or-so especially, not so much. I know he was ailing, and I know his condition rather restricted him to a more contemplative role, but things took a decidedly darker turn during this phase of his Papacy. Perhaps he was far more conservative and dictatorial than I appreciated during his heyday, and percpetion just caught up with reality.
I wouldn’t care at all either way, except a big chunk of my family was or is devotedly Catholic (although as the oldest generation passes, many of them sooner than later, that will change considerably). Especially during the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese (of which Maine is a portion), the disappointment with the leadership on the part of many friends and family was palpable. And even some of the oldest felt the celebate-men-in-gowns thing needed to be retired long ago. I think some of them actually thought when they were younger JPII might be the one to make some sensible changes, and help bring back some vitatity to an ossifying clegry. That didn’t happen.
Strongly negative. He’s pushed the RCC even stronger into Marianism, made every Tom, Dick and Harry into a Saint, highly conservative, etc. He will also have to answer to corruption issues such as supressing the investigations into a Polish-based (but with a lot of American ties) order that’s done a lot of bad things. Rome is getting further and further out of touch with its membership.
And that’s just the mild stuff compared to covering up the sexual abuse scandals.
