The pope is dead. While eating my usual Saturday afternoon gas station hotdog on my break, I listened to radio commentators ask such insightful questions as "why was this Pope so special?" and "why did young people love this Pope so much?" The answers were as insightful as the questions.
My primary memory of this Pope's papacy is from May of 2001. I was sitting in my living room in Cairo not really watching the BBC world news when I saw a picture of the Pope entering what looked like a mosque. Sure enough, he had just become the first Pope ever to set foot in a mosque. It may not have garnered much attention in America, I don't know as I wasn't here, but it certainly seemed like a big deal in the Muslim world. He got rather ecumenical as he aged and I remember at times he was quite even handed in reminding Israelis and Palestinians of their mutual responsibility for the mess they were in.
But all was not so heart warming. (Hans Kung pulls no punches in detailing the shortcomings of PJP2 here).
And the pressing question now of course is: who will be the new Pope? The answer will impact all of us.
