johaneriksson.se

Hundreds of thousands of people have come to Rome to mourn the loss of Pope John Paul II and millions and millions around the world miss him deeply.

I am not a religious man, and the words and deeds of the pope didn’t interest me that much during his time in the Vatican. Now that he is gone my feelings towards him are mixed.

John Paul II did a lot of great things. Born in Poland he saw the terrors of both nazism and communism – the two great evils of the 20th century. His role in the fall of the Soviet Empire was important; his visit to Poland in 1979 set the wheels in motion and is one of the finest moments in the history of the Catholic Church.

He also condemned the anti semitism that the Church had previously always embraced and did a lot to reach out to people of the other large religions in the world. Hopefully something the next pope will continue to do.

His traditional views on homosexuality and the use of contraceptives does not go down quite as well, on the other hand – especially not in a time when the HIV virus seems likely to bring down a thunderous strike on the poor people in Southern Africa (and in other places too).

His view on abortions is unmodern but consequent, and in this particular issue one should perhaps remember that the pope devoted himself to the realm of ethics, not legislation. Though there is a connection, these two things are not the same.

All in all the world at large benefits from a thinking pope, and John Paul II seems to have been that. Not because his opinions were always agreeable – often they were not – but because a thinking pope forces people to personally consider the ethics of different issues and make up their own minds. And that is always a good thing.