{"id":573,"date":"2005-02-27T12:26:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-27T12:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/2005\/02\/27\/573\/"},"modified":"2005-02-27T12:26:00","modified_gmt":"2005-02-27T12:26:00","slug":"573","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=573","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

SILENCE IS GOLDEN: As a former Roman Catholic, I took some interest in the news this week about Pope John Paul II\u2019s tracheotomy and his failing health. Even though it won\u2019t make much difference to me what happens to \u201cThe Church\u201d given my basic disagreement with their teachings about Jesus, I\u2019d still like to see the Catholics make some progress. And John Paul II has not been a man of progress<\/span>, not in the sense by which I judge that word. So obviously, I\u2019d like to see a new pope who might bring about the kind of progress that I\u2019d sympathize with.<\/p>\n

Over the past quarter century, I think that JP2 has broadened the scope of the Church in the world, but he\u2019s done nothing to deepen it. I myself would like to see a Church in substantial agreement with the Enlightenment project of increasing human maturity and freedom via the facilities of rationality and understanding and communication. I.e., I\u2019d like to see a Church that endorses the ideals of western modernity (at least in their purest forms). Pope John the 23rd started the Church in that direction back in the early 60s, and a whole lot of people got very excited about it at the time. But after the good Angelo Roncelli died (and a good man and pope he was), the momentum was lost. Under JP2\u2019s reign, it all pretty much ground to a halt. <\/p>\n

I do realize, however, that John Paul 2 has done a lot to broaden the Church\u2019s relevance throughout the world. His brand of Catholicism has played well in a lot of \u201cthird world\u201d nations, especially in Africa. That style of religion seems pretty immature to students of the great western thinkers (of which I\u2019d like to think of myself as a member, or an aspirant anyway). But the great thinkers of the Enlightenment weren\u2019t thinking about villages in Nigeria or Vietnam. In those kinds of places, the Church\u2019s basic myths and tenants represent a big step forward in terms of establishing human dignity and meaningfulness of life. Despite the many flaws, I\u2019d be the first to admit that John Paul\u2019s form of regimented Catholicism is an improvement over crude animism, cynical Buddhism, and hard-ball Islam, both spiritually and socially. Fifth grade is still better than second grade, even if it ain\u2019t PhD-level. (To be fair, I must say that the purer forms of Buddhism and the more spiritualized manifestations of Islam are quite deep and beautiful; but what those traditions actually practice out in the run-down farms and urban slums ain\u2019t too pretty). <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I still hope that the pendulum in the Church will swing back toward \u201cdepth\u201d, even if at the expense of breadth. So, even though I\u2019m not rooting for the Pope to hurry up and die, I do agree with those who say that he should step aside.<\/p>\n

BUT . . . . . and there\u2019s always a BUT with me . . . . . . there may be something quite good resulting from JP2\u2019s long dotage. The fact that the Church has put up with a sick old man for so long does make a statement about the dignity<\/span> of humankind<\/span>. What other big organization would tolerate such a display of human weakness and decline in its leader? Sure, the Church\u2019s spokesmen try to spin it just as skillfully as anyone in the White House would, but in the end the cameras don\u2019t lie. The world is getting to see just what the end years of life look like, unvarnished. And it ain\u2019t pretty<\/span>. But the old man is still the boss, and he\u2019s still fighting for every new day. <\/p>\n

Hmmm. Perhaps heaven can wait, and so can we progress-sympathizers. John Paul and his Church are finally doing something to impress me (especially since I\u2019m getting up there in years myself, and am feeling the weakness of old-age coming on). Hey guys, I still think you\u2019re getting it all wrong on the whole Jesus thing, but maybe there\u2019s something deeper where we still share some common ground. Now that the Pope can no longer preach about how Jesus died for our sins and was raised up on the third day (given his tracheotomy), perhaps his mere presence will speak the most fundamental truth to the world. Sometimes silence<\/span> conveys the truest of truths<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SILENCE IS GOLDEN: As a former Roman Catholic, I took some interest in the news this week about Pope John Paul II\u2019s tracheotomy and his failing health. Even though it won\u2019t make much difference to me what happens to \u201cThe Church\u201d given my basic disagreement with their teachings about Jesus, I\u2019d still like to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}