DEATH OF A POPE

BS"D


I must echo Renegade Rebbetzin's statement about missing Pope John Paul II, now that he is gone. He worked very hard for his religion, his people. If we had such a charismatic rabbi who could turn Jews to mitzvot & non-Jews to conversion, think of where we'd be. For those of you who are tempted to make negative comments about the Pope here, please save them for blogs who invite that sort of speech.

I remember clearly when the last Pope died mysteriously after 35 days as John Paul I. His sudden, unexplained death seemed to have been a murder/coverup. Traditionally, Pontiffs are buried in the walls of St Peter's, but he was cremated the next day, despite that being against Catholocism. There wasn't even an autopsy. The whole world was on tenderhooks, awaiting the white smoke of the conclave.

Karol Wotyla travelled tirelessly around the planet in his war against atheism. May he rest in peace.

I hope the next one will be Cardinal Lustiger, the Archbishop of Paris. The child of religious Jewish parents, he was left with a Catholic family at 13 to hide during the Sho'ah. A few years later he converted to Catholicism & since then has risen to dizzying heights in the Church. Wouldn't it be interesting if it took a Jew on the throne of the Holy See to bring about Moshiach? The last Jewish Pope was 2,000 years ago. Read this about his beliefs & politics - he even sounds like a Jew. These words could have been spoken by R' A J Heschel z"l, R' Arthur Waskow, or heck, even Abby Hoffman z"l.

Best of luck to all the "Popefuls". May the next Pontiff fulfill whatever plan G@d has for him.