My newest pen pal, His Holiness

February 28, 2005 By

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 28, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See opened an e-mail address for those wishing to send a message of closeness to John Paul II, re-hospitalized since last week at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome. The address, announced on the Vatican’s Web page, is john_paul_ii@vatican.va You know he’s just sitting there tapping his fingers [...]

Filed Under: John Paul II

The holiness of BE-ing

February 27, 2005 By

Newsweeks Christopher Dickey makes report that is so odd, I wonder why Newsweek printed it, because it seems terribly unfocused. Reporting on Pope John Paul’s seeming refusal to pack it in, Dickey writes: Even as the aged pope’s body shuts down in the late stages of Parkinson’s disease, his will to live—and to impose his [...]

Filed Under: Catholic Vocations, Catholicism, John Paul II, The Fourth Estate

Fatima and John Paul II

February 26, 2005 By

A reader named Jim alerted me to this terrific article by Joseph Bottum, who will soon be taking over editor’s duties at First Things magazine (the second time this week someone has referred me to this publication – I will have to check it out – feeling nudged by the Holy Spirit). Bottum writes a [...]

Filed Under: John Paul II

John Paul II: The Lion in Winter

February 23, 2005 By

You have to hand it to the old man. His mind, sadly encased in a disobedient body, is still hardy, and he still has something to say, no matter how the Secular Humanists of Europe and the American Left might not want to hear it, no matter how it might tick off people who are [...]

Filed Under: John Paul II

Buckley: Let the pope die!

February 11, 2005 By

William F. Buckley speaks for many, I think, in this essay wondering why, if the Pope was so near death recently, he was not simply allowed to die. That sounds colder than Buckley is meaning, of course. He relates a nice anecdote about John Paul II and then wonders about it, that’s all. I remember [...]

Filed Under: John Paul II

Wojtyla! Wojtyla! Wojtyla!

February 1, 2005 By

Somehow, I don’t think I was the only one who, seeing the wonderful, almost eerie pictures of the dove who would not leave John Paul alone, considered that it might be a sign that this transparently holy man would be soon called to heaven. I have thought for a long time that he would be [...]

Filed Under: Catholicism, John Paul II