National Catholic Reporter has many interesting articles on the

[bobbieinok]

events in Rome

for example,

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/conclave/pt041105a.htm

....

A week’s worth of news coverage following the death of the pope had begun to establish the two strains immediately apparent in the reign of John Paul: he was, indeed, larger than life on the world stage, someone who found a way to speak truth across lines of cultural, national and religious differences, a friend to other world religions and a tireless advocate for peace; inside the church, however, he was at best an inconsistent administrator who left a deeply divided, questioning and unsettled church.

Analysts from every point on the spectrum have said he settled for bishops who were mediocre and lacking in real leadership qualities in exchange for unconditional loyalty and the assurance that his bishops would not raise difficult questions. Those are broad categories, generally applied, so they are in some instances unfair. But it is not going too far to say that in the case of U.S. bishops many, if not most, were fearful of reactions from any number of factions in the church, as well as authorities in Rome.

One friend put it this way in describing John Paul II’s effect on many within the church: He was like the famous father whose kids know that the smiling, beneficent bearing outside the home can turn rather autocratic and severe inside.

But what he did on the outside, we all know, will inspire history for generations to come, and it can be good for us inside the church, too. It can be beneficial because he broke all the molds, he showed that there are no rulebooks for how to be pope.

more....

and articles by many others.....for example


He was the grandfather of their souls

By Joan Chittister, OSB
Rome

By the time you read this, Rome will already have buried its bishop. But as I write this, at the Vatican the last person is still filing past the bier of Pope John Paul II and stragglers are still straining to taste some part of the history of this moment.

Most interesting of all, perhaps, is that like all the family wakes I ever attended as a child, this final day of viewing has been a day of story telling.

One series of them, in particular, fascinated me. "The really interesting thing," a British journalist told me, "is that I had no press pass and couldn't get beyond the barriers so I simply stood and took pictures of the crowd." Then, clearly trying to understand what he saw, he paused a moment before he continued: "When I looked at my pictures later, I realized that I hadn't seen a person in the line who was over 25." Another pause: "What do we make of that?"


The question struck me. What do we make of the fact that so many of the young, in a culture that is youth-centered, have made such efforts to be here for the funeral of an 84 year old pope?

More than that, what do we, as a church, make of that in the face of the emphasis on youthful youth ministers. One diocese in the United States, for instance, has just fired three nun chaplains at the local Newman Center. The priest director explains the move on the grounds that they want younger ministers who can better identify with college students. They want to begin a "new'evangelization" that nuns over 50, apparently, cannot manage with the younger generation.

I couldn't help but wonder what this particular diocese would have said if John Paul II had applied for the job.

much more....