The "Young People's" Pope John Paul II - 1920-2005

The Lord finally took him into His House. The world is mourning. Following his well-CNN-recorded struggle, I finally got to know him beter than ever....heard things about him, well known to everybody, that I might have shut my soul for...why?, I don't know...John Paul was my 5th Pope, but now I do realize that for my children he was their only and first Pope....and he didn't die alone...some 60-70.000 of his family were present to support him on his last voyage to his Saviour...

Sebastiaan and Veronica, I would like to apologize to you for having criticized him so much, I don't know why, but I must have lived on another planet for some years. It was so moving to see all those essentially young people participating in a world-wide and international wake, to support the man who had loved them so much and now they were there for him, to pray with him, for him and to ask the good Lord to end his suffering. And so He did........

The only excuse I might have for my behaviour could be my dissapointment with the conservatism he was a champion for. I had great hopes after Pope John 23d that the world could change for the better, even in the church. But so didn't happen. Sebastiaan mostly agreed with what I said, but made it clear that "it was the wrong century Pappa!" Maybe that time will come now, maybe we will get a new Pope who will have to work really hard to obtain what this Pope achieved in his life-time. And continues to build and build....

Having fully followed the wakes of the last 2 nights, I might go to sleep tonight thanking God for this extraordinary
representative He called Home....and may he rest in peace....