I only wish...

I had this many people at my funeral



Of course, I'm nowhere near eligible for election as the Pontiff nor the sainthood.

I got up this morning at the bright time of 0h-three A.M. To quote Robin Williams, "What's the 'Oh' stand for? Oh my God, it's early". The last time I got up this early to watch an event on TV was in 1981 when Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married. Ironic isn't it that he'll be getting married again tomorrow.

As for the Pope's funeral, it really was beautiful and amazing. To see all these people peacefully gathered was something I don't think I will ever see again. The service itself was also a tear jerker and the homily (we don't have eulogies) was brilliant. I posted it below, but one of the best parts was the final paragraph:

"None of us can ever forget how in that last Easter Sunday of his life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his blessing urbi et orbi. We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that he sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will guide you now to the eternal glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

I think the Italians and everyone who attended today's services should be commended. I think I will always regret not going to Rome this week as this was definately a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Rest in Peace, Your Holiness.


Text of the homily read, in Italian, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, during the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II. Translation provided by the Vatican:

"Follow me." The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock. "Follow me" — this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the key to understanding the message which comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality — our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude.

These are the sentiments that inspire us, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, present here in St. Peter's Square, in neighboring streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome, where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to Heads of State, Heads of Government and the delegations from various countries. I greet the Authorities and official representatives of other Churches and Christian Communities, and likewise those of different religions. Next I greet the Archbishops, Bishops, priests, religious men and women and the faithful who have come here from every Continent; especially the young, whom John Paul II liked to call the future and the hope of the Church. My greeting is extended, moreover, to all those throughout the world who are united with us through radio and television in this solemn celebration of our beloved Holy Father's funeral.

Follow me — as a young student Karol Wojtyla was thrilled by literature, the theater, and poetry. Working in a chemical plant, surrounded and threatened by the Nazi terror, he heard the voice of the Lord: Follow me! In this extraordinary setting he began to read books of philosophy and theology, and then entered the clandestine seminary established by Cardinal Sapieha. After the war he was able to complete his studies in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. How often, in his letters to priests and in his autobiographical books has he spoken to us about his priesthood, to which he was ordained on Nov. 1, 1946. In these texts he interprets his priesthood with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord. First: "You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last" (John 15:16). The second saying is: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). And then: "As the father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love" (John 15:9). In these three sayings we see the heart and soul of our Holy Father. He really went everywhere, untiringly, in order to bear fruit, fruit that lasts. "Rise, Let us be on our Way!" is the title of his next-to-last book. "Rise, let us be on our way!" — with these words he roused us from a lethargic faith, from the sleep of the disciples of both yesterday and today. "Rise, let us be on our way!" he continues to say to us even today. The Holy Father was a priest to the last, for he offered his life to God for his flock and for the entire human family, in a daily self-oblation for the service of the Church, especially amid the sufferings of his final months. And this way he became one with Christ, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep. Finally, "abide in my love:" the Pope who tried to meet everyone, who had an ability to forgive and to open his heart to all, tells us once again today, with these words of the Lord, that by abiding in the love of Christ we learn, at the school of Christ, the art of true love.

Follow me! In July 1958 the young priest Karol Wojtyla began a new stage in his journey with the Lord in the footsteps of the Lord. Karol had gone to the Masuri Lakes for his usual vacation, along with a group of young people who loved canoeing. But he brought with him a letter inviting him to call on the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski. He could guess the purpose of the meeting: he was to be appointed as the auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. Leaving the academic world, leaving this challenging engagement with young people, leaving the great intellectual endeavor of striving to understand and to interpret the mystery of that creature which is man and of communicating to today's world the Christian interpretation of our being — all this must have seemed to him like losing his very self, losing what had become the very human identity of this young priest. Follow me — Karol Wojtyla accepted the appointment for he heard in the Church's call the voice of Christ. And then he realized how true are the Lord's words: "Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it" (Luke 17:53). Our pope — and we all know this — never wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself, he wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment, for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience how everything which he had given over into the Lord's hands came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of literature became an essential part of his pastoral mission and gave his new vitality, new urgency, new attractiveness to the preaching of the Gospel, even when it is a sign of contradiction.

Follow me! In October 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla once again heard the voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: "Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep!' To the Lord's question, `Karol, do you love me?' the archbishop of Krakow answered from the depths of his heart: "Lord, you know everything: you know that I love you." The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who ever heard him preach, knows that. Thanks to his being profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ's flock, his universal Church. This is not the time to speak of the specific content of this rich pontificate. I would like only to read two passages of today's liturgy which reflect the central elements of his message. In the first reading, St. Peter says — and with St. Peter, the pope himself — "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all" (Acts of the Apostles 10:34-36). And in the second reading, St. Paul — and with St. Paul, our late Pope — exhorts us, crying out: "My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved" (Philippians 4:1).

Follow me! Together with the command to feed his flock, Christ proclaimed to Peter that he would die a martyr's death. With those words, which conclude and sum up the dialogue on the love and on the mandate of the universal shepherd, the Lord recalls another dialogue, which took place during the Last Supper. There Jesus had said: "Where I am going, you cannot come." Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied: "Where I cam going, you cannot follow me now: but you will follow me afterward." (John 13:33-36). Jesus from the Supper went toward the Cross, went toward his Resurrection — he entered into the paschal mystery; and Peter could not follow him. Now — after the Resurrection — comes the time, comes this "afterward." By shepherding the flock of Christ, Peter enters into the paschal mystery, he goes toward the cross and the Resurrection. The Lord says this in these words: "`....when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go; (John 21:18) In the first years of his pontificate, still young and full of energy, the Holy Father went to very ends of the Earth, guided by Christ. But afterward, he increasingly entered into the communion of Christ's sufferings; increasingly he understood the truth of the words: "Someone else will fasten a belt around you." And in the very communion with the suffering Lord, tirelessly and with renewed intensity, he proclaimed the Gospel, the mystery of that love which goes to the end (John 13:1).

He interpreted for us the paschal mystery as a mystery of divine mercy. In his last book, he wrote: The limit imposed upon evil "is ultimately Divine Mercy" ("Memory and Identity," p. 60-61). And reflecting on the assassination attempt, he said: "In sacrificing himself for us all, Christ gave a new meaning to suffering, opening up a new dimension, a new order: the order of love. ... It is this suffering which burns and consumes evil with the flame of love and draws forth even from sin a great flowering of good." Impelled by this vision, the pope suffered and loved in communion with Christ, and that is why the message of his suffering and his silence proved so eloquent and so fruitful.

Divine Mercy: the Holy Father found the purest reflection of God's mercy in the Mother of God. He who at an early age had lost his own mother, loved his divine mother all the more. He heard the words of the crucified Lord as addressed personally to him: "Behold your Mother." And so he did as the beloved disciple did: he took her into his own home;" (John 19:27)

_ Totus tuus. And from the mother he learned to conform himself to Christ.

None of us can ever forget how in that last Easter Sunday of his life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his blessing urbi et orbi. We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that he sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will guide you now to the eternal glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

His Holiness, My Buddy

Yessir, that's right, JP was my buddy. Or at least that's what Uncle used to call him since I'm one of the few Catholics left in the family. I don't think you have to be Catholic to appreciate what he did for this world, however, gere is a great article about John Paul II and his contribution to our world as we know it (you political pundits out there will enjoy this as well.) It's kind of long, but read it if you can.

I do, however, take exception to the idea that John Paul II was a conservative. In most of our views, he was a liberal because he was constantly being told to reverse most of the doctrines of the Second Vatican Council that met in 1963, but he refused stating the new dogma was needed to ensure we move forward into the 21st century.

I think, too, that enlight of what we have discovered - or rediscovered - regarding Jesus, Mary Magdalene, John, and others that the Pope could have softened a bit on his views regarding women in the Priesthood and most definately, the issue of contraception, especially in the AIDS infected third world. In this sense, it's not so much about contraception as immunization.

I haven't been able to write much about the loss of the Pope, because he's the only Pope I've ever known (I was nine when he was elected.) John Paul was definately a lion in a lamb suit.


> > Gary North's REALITY CHECK
> >
> >Issue 435 April 5, 2005
> >
> >
> > WHAT I LEARNED FROM JOHN PAUL II
> >
> > I shall leave it to other columnists to comment on the
> >profound impact of John Paul II on our times. I am content
> >to confine myself to comments on what I learned from his
> >ministry.
> >
> >
> >THE INESCAPABLE INFLUENCE OF THE UNPREDICTABLE
> >
> > Robert Burns's phrase about the best-laid plans of
> >mice and men often going awry is illustrated better by John
> >Paul II's career than anyone in my era. Only one other
> >figure comes close: Deng Xiao Ping. The best-laid plans
> >can come to naught in an amazingly short period of time.
> >
> > The year 1978 was a year of expected caretakers. In
> >March, Deng Xiao Ping had become the undisputed leader of
> >Communist China. At age 74, he seemed old: probably a
> >caretaker. The National People's Congress decided to go
> >with a safe bet: age.
> >
> > Pope Paul VI died in early August. He had overseen
> >the transformation of the Roman Catholic Church. The death
> >of John XXIII in 1963, after Vatican II had begun, left to
> >Paul VI the task of overseeing the sessions and
> >implementing them. This he did. The Church changed more
> >under his administration in 15 years than had taken place
> >in the previous 500 years -- maybe 1,000. It moved
> >decisively in a liberal/modernist direction.
> >
> > The election of John Paul I took place in one day of
> >the Conclave in late August, 1978. There is no doubt in my
> >mind that a Conclave that brief indicates pre-Conclave
> >agreement regarding a short list of candidates before the
> >cardinals were locked in their room (which is what
> >"conclave" means). John Paul I was to be a caretaker Pope.
> >He immediately took the names of his two predecessors,
> >indicating his commitment to extend Vatican II. Thirty-
> >three days later, he died.
> >
> > There are lots of really choice conspiracy theories
> >about his death. My favorite has to do with the secret
> >Masonic brotherhood, P2, and its connection to the
> >unfolding Bank Ambrosia scandal. Do I actually believe he
> >was murdered? There is insufficient evidence to persuade
> >me. (The standard book on this non-standard theory is
> >David Yallop's "In God's Name." The fictional account is
> >the novel by Malachi Martin, "Vatican.")
> >
> > Whatever the cause of his death, no conspiracy theory
> >has come close to explaining the outcome: the election of a
> >Polish Pope and what followed next.
> >
> > The Conclave that elected John Paul II took three
> >days. There are no notes published after a Conclave.
> >There are no leaks during it. Silence prevails. So,
> >theories about what went on are without verifiable support.
> >The duration indicates that there had been a short list.
> >Wojtyla was probably on the previous short list. I say
> >this because there had been little time for pre-Conclave
> >politicking. The cardinals had barely arrived home by the
> >time John Paul I died.
> >
> > Wojtyla took the name John Paul II. This was the
> >equivalent of calling Wilt Chamberlain "Wilt the Shrimp."
> >
> > Consider the next 14 months after John Paul II's election
> >in October.
> >
> > In December, Deng announced the agricultural reform
> >that transferred land ownership to farmers. That marked
> >the beginning of the capitalist revolution in Red China.
> >He lived long enough to implement his economic reforms. He
> >died in 1997. We see the results of that revolution in
> >every Wal-Mart and in every report on the U.S. trade
> >deficit.
> >
> > January, 1979: the Shah of Iran abdicated and fled
> >Iran. Khomeini took over.
> >
> > On May 3, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister
> >of Great Britain. She was to serve longer than any Prime
> >Minister in 150 years: 11 years. Under her administration,
> >much of the system of government-owned monopolies was
> >privatized.
> >
> > On June 2, John Paul II arrived in Poland and began a
> >series of public meetings that drew millions of visitors.
> >This was the beginning of the end of Communism in Poland.
> >The Solidarity movement began within a year. Poland's ex-
> >Communist tyrant, Gen. Jaruzelski, later said that this was
> >the central event in the toppling of Communism in Central
> >Europe. Gorbachev, when out of power, agreed.
> >
> > Late June: OPEC announced a 50% hike in the price of
> >oil. Jimmy Carter went into defensive mode economically.
> >
> > November 4: Iranian mobs captured the U.S. Embassy in
> >Tehran. Jimmy Carter went into defensive mode militarily.
> >
> > In December, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
> >This marked the beginning of a decade of bloodletting that
> >culminated in 1989 with the withdrawal of Soviet troops
> >and, within two years, the disintegration of the USSR.
> >
> > None of this was remotely visible in October, 1978.
> >
> > So far, I haven't mentioned Ronald Reagan.
> >
> > We know the phrase, "seize the moment." Pope John
> >Paul II not only seized the moment, he seized the next
> >quarter century. For someone officially in charge or an
> >organization that large, seizing a quarter century is no
> >small accomplishment.
> >
> >
> >NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE
> >
> > Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was the other figure of the
> >twentieth century who rivaled Pope John Paul II in undermining
> >Soviet authority by the power of his words. He, even more
> >than the Pope, made painful and embarrassing any support of
> >the Soviets by Western intellectuals, too many of whom had
> >become early admirers of Stalin and then his successors
> >until "The Gulag Archipelago" finally undermined them in
> >the mid-1970s. He wrote of his decade in the Soviet
> >concentration camps that this experience saved him. The
> >camps took everything material away from him. He had
> >nothing left to lose. Outside the camps, victims of
> >Communist oppression clung to a few possessions and
> >conformed in order to keep what little they owned. By
> >being stripped of everything, Solzhenitsyn said, he avoided
> >this fate.
> >
> > By the time Wojtyla was 21, every member of his
> >immediate family had died. The Nazis had invaded Poland
> >when he was 19. He began as a student for the priesthood
> >in a clandestine seminary. He was ordained in 1946, to
> >begin life under the Communists. He was in opposition from
> >the beginning.
> >
> > He was trained by a consummate anti-totalitarian,
> >Stefan Wyszynsky (pronounced, ironically, "Vishinski" --
> >just like the Soviet foreign minister), the primate of
> >Poland, who became a cardinal in 1953 and was immediately
> >put under house arrest for over three years. Wyszynsky
> >served as president of Vatican II in 1962. Wojtyla learned
> >how to survive under a rival bureaucracy that also claimed
> >universal authority, eschatological inevitability, and the
> >infallibility of its supreme council.
> >
> > He had no family to terrorize, no possessions to
> >confiscate. "What's a tyranny to do?" He went into
> >opposition and remained in opposition until there was
> >nothing left of worldwide Communism to oppose.
> >
> > The nothing-left strategy is not open to most men most
> >of the time. But it is what is required of a dedicated few
> >in times of moral confrontation. Mentally, you have to
> >surrender it in advance in order to preserve any of it in a
> >time of life-and-death confrontation. Jesus said: "He that
> >findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life
> >for my sake shall find it" (Matthew 10:39).
> >
> > Of all Catholic nations that had been in opposition to
> >totalitarianism longest, Poland was it in 1978. So, when
> >the Conclave chose Wojtyla, it chose the man most suited
> >for a long-term confrontation.
> >
> > The Western media have identified his strategy of
> >resistance with respect to Communism. This strategy was
> >also visible in his open confrontations in Latin America in
> >the 1980s. His opponents were priests who had joined the
> >liberation theology movement. That movement sank on the
> >Good Ship Marx after 1991, to the dismay of seminary
> >professors, Protestant and Catholic, around the world.
> >
> > We do not yet know the outcome of his strategy of
> >opposition with respect to his steady, quiet, non-headline-
> >grabbing undermining of the social liberals in the Church's
> >hierarchy.
> >
> >
> >STICK TO YOUR KNITTING
> >
> > John Paul II was the second-longest reigning Pope
> >after Pius IX (1846-1878), the Pope of Vatican I (1870).
> >
> > Under his reign, he appointed well over 100 cardinals.
> >Of the 117 eligible to vote (those under age 80), he
> >appointed all but three.
> >
> > In his 1987 book, "The Jesuits," former Jesuit Malachi
> >Martin discussed Romanita. Romanita is the ability to
> >outlast your competition. There are always factions in any
> >bureaucracy, and there is no bureaucracy with a longer
> >tradition or more factions in the West than the Roman
> >Catholic Church. The faction that provides the longest-
> >lasting survivors in any battle wins the next phase of the
> >war.
> >
> > Pius IX was a conservative. Until John XXIII reversed
> >this tradition, it held firm. Yet it was visibly on the
> >defensive within a decade of the death of Pius XII in 1958.
> >
> > I have little sense of the details of John Paul II's
> >philosophy. As for his theology, it is clear that he
> >upheld traditional Catholic views regarding the virgin
> >Mary. This outlook was the product of his years in Poland
> >and also the assassination attempt. He had moved
> >unpredictably just before he was shot, looking more closely
> >at a Sacred Heart emblem worn by a little girl. (This is
> >reported in Martin's book, "The Keys of This Blood.")
> >
> > Everyone knows his social views: no female priests, no
> >abortion, no contraception devices, no homosexuality.
> >Also, it should be added, no war. On abortion, he voiced
> >his opposition to the policy of Clinton. On war, he voiced
> >his opposition to the policies of Clinton and both Bushes.
> >
> > Year after year, appointment after appointment, he
> >wove a tapestry of traditionalism. It will take a
> >concerted effort on the part of liberals to reweave this
> >tapestry. In the seminaries, they have more than a
> >foothold. They have control. The Pope did not
> >excommunicate entire seminary faculties. To get a sense of
> >what I am talking about, click here:
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/4jw7h
> >
> > He did not resign, although the American media kept
> >running interviews with liberal Catholics who thought he
> >should. He grew old and infirm before our eyes. He did
> >not hide what was happening to his body. He was reduced at
> >the end to silence, unable to speak in any of the eight
> >languages he spoke. But he did not hide from the cameras.
> >
> > If ever there was a man whose career said "No
> >retirement," it was his. He stayed on the job until the
> >end. It was not a bitter end, but it was painful.
> >
> >
> >WHEN YOU'VE GOT IT, USE IT
> >
> > Has any man worked the mass media better, longer?
> >
> > He got in front of the cameras, and there he stayed
> >for 26 years.
> >
> > One interviewee revealed that when the Pope first met
> >with members of the press, when the interview was over, he
> >stood up and walked around the room full of reporters to
> >shake hands. This was unheard of. They had expected to be
> >allowed to file past him, one by one.
> >
> > He had a unique skill. He exercised his ability as
> >Pope to go directly to the people -- the first Pope in
> >history to do this internationally. He made 103 trips
> >outside of Italy to some 120 countries. No other figure
> >has ever toured a reported 120 countries in front of TV
> >cameras.
> >
> > No one has ever drawn the crowds that he did. So, the
> >media had to show up. So, the crowds kept getting larger.
> >By 1995, an estimated seven million showed up to see him in
> >Manila -- the largest crowd in man's recorded history.
> >
> > He had a unique ability to capture attention. He used
> >it for all it was worth.
> >
> > The media reported that he had been an amateur actor
> >early in his career. This was not said in derision.
> >Another former actor, also known for his ability to handle
> >the media, received more criticism for his similar
> >background. In both cases, the public responded favorably.
> >
> >
> >CONCLUSION
> >
> > Deng, an old man in 1978, was not expected to do much.
> >The twenty-first century already looks back at what he did
> >and marvels.
> >
> > Brezhnev, a doddering old man in 1979, launched a war
> >in Afghanistan that brought down the USSR a decade later.
> >This caretaker failed to take care.
> >
> > John Paul I, another expected caretaker, did not
> >remain on the job long enough to fulfill his expected role.
> >
> > The Shah of Iran, a caretaker of Western oil, did not
> >stay on the job.
> >
> > Pope John Paul II knew that a resistance strategy was
> >suitable in 1978. He publicly issued traditional
> >encyclicals, while maintaining absolute mastery of the
> >media -- a skill also possessed by Mrs. Thatcher and Ronald
> >Reagan.
> >
> > What blindsided liberals after 1978 was the ability of
> >conservatives to commandeer the media to extend their
> >agendas. Liberals had long assumed that their control over
> >the media was unbreakable. They believed that they could
> >set the agenda. The best-laid plans. . . .
> >
> > In each case, what had been expected by the various
> >establishments did not come to pass.
> >
> > I am reminded of the words of my teacher, Robert
> >Nisbet, in the closing words of a June, 1968 essay in
> >"Commentary."
> >
> > What the future-predictors, the change-analysts,
> > and trend-tenders say in effect is that with the
> > aid of institute resources, computers, linear
> > programming, etc. they will deal with the kinds
> > of change that are not the consequence of the
> > Random Event, the Genius, the Maniac, and the
> > Prophet. To which I can only say: there really
> > aren't any; not any worth looking at anyhow.
> >
> >

>
>


--

I'm Outta Here!!!!!

Holy Shit. After almost eleven years, I am leaving the Depatment of Housing. It's amazing and I still don't think it has hit me yet. I'm actually the luckiest person on the planet since I will be staying at Tech (and keeping my retirement), but I'm working for the absolute nicest person on the planet AND he got me a 7.5% pay increase.

My only trouble now is how do I keep from telling the assholes in this deparment to kiss my ass blue?

What the hell is it going to be like not to be stressed all the time?