Easter octave/Friday

Today is part of the Easter octave, which makes it Sunday today. However, it is also Friday, the day that weekly commemorates the death of Jesus. As a result today is a day of both the death and ressurection.

His Holiness the Pope is at death's door today. Were he to pass on today, I would take some comfort from the day that it happens to be. The Pope has carried his infirmities as a cross, in emulation of Jesus. This day is a sign of both our mortality, and the extraordinary salvific sign of Easter. It is difficult to imagine the church without this man.

I'm listening to TV wags speculating on who will run the church if the Pope remains incapacitated. That is just silly - the Catholic church is an agglomeration of individual "particular churches" (what we call dioceses.) It is largely run by the heads of these particular churches, the bishops. With a 2,000 year legacy of canon laws, theologies, rites, and sacraments, the church could run for a decade without an active papacy. The Roman diocese even has auxiliary bishops who can provide government for Rome's diocesan affairs. This stuff is a complete non-issue.

My prayers are simply with and for the man himself. He has given so much of himself - he has helped to defeat communism in Eastern Europe, fight for peace and justice for the poor, and above all has done much to bring good relations between Catholics and Jews. He has no small legacy.