I was raised as a Lutheran, not a Roman Catholic, but just because us Lutherans didn’t see the Pope as our leader doesn’t mean we ignored events in the Catholic church. I remember when Pope John Paul died after only about a month and the cardinals elected a new one who took the name John Paul II. This was huge news here in Chicago because, get this, he was Polish. (Chicago probably has more polish people than Warsaw.)
To my teenage eyes he looked pretty old, so I expected him to die pretty soon too. But he didn’t, not even when he got shot. He just kept getting older. I’d catch a video of him and he’d be a little more stooped over than I remembered and walking a little bit slower. And I’d think any day now… Then I’d forget about it until the next time I noticed he’d aged some more. Any day now…
It feels like I’ve been watching Pope John Paul II dying all my life. At some point, I probably stopped thinking about it. But now that it’s finally happened…it’s a little surprising.
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