our ailing polish pontiff

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Feb 16, 2005

"The only thing wrong with that bloody Turk was that he couldn't shoot straight!"
-- Irish Jesuit, May 13th 1981, lamenting the failure of the Pope's would-be assassin.

Lots of liberal Catholics who have heretofore not distinguished themselves by respect for the Pope or esteem for Catholic doctrine are now calling for John Paul II to resign for the good of the Church. Let's see if I can grasp their reasoning.

• The Pope has always been out of touch with the contemporary world, whence his ailments, sadly, put him out of touch with the contemporary world.


• No one pays any attention to the Pope. His illness, therefore, means he's no longer able to take a leadership role in world affairs.


• Post-Conciliar Catholics don't consult external authority but are guided by their inner religious experience, accordingly it's a tragedy that the Pope is unable to govern.


• The papacy itself is an anachronism, to be replaced by regional churchlets, thus we need a young, vigorous pope to hold the international organization together.

Remember Chaucer's personification of Hypocrisy? "The smiler with the knife under the cloak."