If the Pope had been liberal, would he be getting THIS MUCH coverage?

The Pope is the spiritual leader of a group of roughly one billion people. It's a pretty big freaking deal.

me at all, only God is. The church (and any church) is a man-made institution, not God-made, no matter what any of them claim to be.

are completely misguided. A pope is not God, he is a man, and to view the Pope as a spiritual leader is to be completely misdirected in one's religion. Mother Theresa was constantly telling people, "Love God, not me"

They're called "protestants".

every dictum sent down by the Vatican and I'm not a Pope-worshipping Catholic, doesnt' mean that I'm not a Catholic. I guess by your standards I'm not a Catholic, but I don't feel any need to conform to your standard of Catholicism.

But I am a student of world religions, and its pretty damn hard to claim to be a CATHOLIC if you don't hold the pope in higher regard then you've demonstrated. Like a poster before me said, they have a name for people like you, its Protestant.

is quite important. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
882: "The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful."402 "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."

891: "The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals."

...presuming to tell a member of another religion what they "have" to believe is, IMHO, the height of arrogance.

Tell me, Wolsh, are you Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform? If either of the latter, how would you feel if a Christian started posting on the board that, not being Orthodox, you were not a real Jew?

:crazy:

and if a Christian who had facts on there side, told me i wasn't a "real Jew" then so be it.

The difference here is that Catholicism does not have the branches that Judaism has at the moment. There is no branch of Catholicism that allows someone to not view the pope as a spiritual leader. It would be like claiming to be a Jew, while following the new testament instead of the Torah. It just doesn't make sense.

whether you agree or not with his stance (I tended like the man, but not care for his views on gay right and reproduction, among others), he is the Big Cheese of the Catholic Church. It's one thing when Terri Schiavo or Laci Peterson get a lion's share of the media spotlight; the Pope is another. His life and death are extremely important in the grand scheme of things.

The father of our Church, the father of our faith, our "Heavenly" father and our earthly one all rolled together.

There are 1 billion Catholics on this planet and while some of our own citizens in the US don't know who their leadership is, all Catholics know the Pope.

Yes, any pope who died, especially one who served for 26 years, would get this much coverage.

.

much more so than even some liberal senators/congressmen and women in this country!

RIP Karol.

That's where the bias is coming through.

...he was liberal on secular political issues, where he really had very little power to effect change.

In matters of the Church itself, where he did have the power, he was conservative across-the-board. Most of what he actually accomplished was to move the Church in a conservative direction, or at least to block any moves in a liberal direction. That's why this aspect of his life is getting most of the coverage, IMHO.

Think of the coverage Reagan got and he was only the president of the U.S. and for only 8 years.

...especially since it overshadowed the demise of a TRULY great American, Ray Charles.

Opposition to the Iraq war, the death penalty, religious reconcilliation, freedom of speech, and a committment to fight poverty.

Third longest serving Pope in history and arguably the most popular.

And for the record, he wasn't a fan of capitalism, was anti-war, and against capital punishment.

... his views on poverty, the death penalty, social justice...
as well as reactionary on just as many issues....

communism, how he helped capitalism, how he helped to restore a sense of morality, how he stood by his socially conservative views on many issues, such as the role of women in the Catholic church, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and on and on.

He almost got killed for that stand but he didn't retreat.

I have no links, but my understanding is that he believed a spiritual rebirth would occur in former communist countries which would eventually spread to the west and its many evils.

(aside from the reactionary views you mention he was also deeply concerned about the conspicuous consumerism and other excesses of the west)

Which is pretty astounding.

Otherwise, it's like that falling tree in the forest.

most media outlets worship one philosophy ... what stories will lead to the biggest profits? Truth and social importance be damned!

He was just him. Think many people on the right respect his positions on war, the death penalty, or poverty? Think many people on the left repect him concerning birth control or abortion or ordination of women priests?

rest of Bush's crimes.

The Pope was a spiritual leader of Catholic Church and a world statesman, and his death is being covered by media world-wide

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our Democratic leaders.

People get so wrapped up in the 'reproductive issues' that they fail to look at what else the Church teaches. The Church is militantly liberal in many, many areas.

many many years ago

...sung in tune and beauteous, compared to what we heard this week from the "Christian" circus outside Schiavo's hospice.

Sorta like God is rescuing the very word "Christian" before the world.

But he became less liberal over the years. While I commend him on his stance on the death penalty, his condemnations of the Iraq war and Abu Ghraib, his stance on women's rights was deplorable. When he became Pope, women could no longer serve on the altar. Nuns who taught me were upset at the direction of the Church. The rights and dignity of 51% of the population are not a 'convenience', and the majority of American Catholics tended to disagree with the stance on women.

May the Holy Father rest in peace.

Absolutely

Glad we agree on this one :D

you know, the issues that involve people living and dying.

In fact, I think it's because of the good things he's done IRT the fall of communism, apologies to the Jewish people, etc. that have made him so well=known around the world. Like him or not (and I'm not a major fan), he made a big mark on the world, and was a major figure.

Now, what the conservatives DO with his death and the aftermath... that's going to be pander-city. I think he presents another useful opportunity for a few groups of people to make their agendas public.

actually he would probably get more.