Getting Old

Pope John Paul II died a year ago yesterday. I didn't realize it had been so long already.

UPDATE: His successor seems to be doing a very good job though.

Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.

We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceipt from truth.

Amen Padre. Too bad the guy interviewing him didn't get it:

It’s not the dogma; it’s the “culture” of Catholicism, warts and all, that attracts me. Religion now appeals to me less as a set of beliefs, than as mysteries and rituals that celebrate the miracle of life and our passages through it, deepen our spirituality, put us in a right relation to life and our fellow creatures, and point us, however ambiguously, towards the ultimate meaning of the universe. ...

Yes Christianity is about the path to the ultimate meaning of life. That much is true. But what you don't seem to be getting is that there is only one path and He has already revealed himself to us. If you are simply looking at "mysteries and rituals" you are looking in exactly the wrong place.

UPDATE2: And Benny 16 understands politics too.