PressEthic

April of this year, some of the biggest news surrounded the death of Pope John Paul II. This is valid. After all, the Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church (and several other Catholic sects) is one of the most powerful people on earth, and arguably the single most powerful.

However, as his health declined in late March and early April, each emergency was broadcast, showing not a powerful man but a frail one. The end was near, and Catholics (and Catholic-sympathizers like myself) had seen it coming for a few years. We were all waiting on that news broadcast that the third-longest reigning Pope (or did he make it to second-longest?) had passed on.

I was visiting a friend of mine, a retired Jesuit, when we were interrupted by another Jesuit. “Jim! The Pope’s dead!” the other man said, then scooted down to the next room in his walker.

Fr. Jim and I did the logical thing – we turned on the news. The headline? “Pope not actually dead,” or something to that effect. I should have seen it coming with those words.

From then until the actual death, every news channel covered the Pope’s survival. Every bodily function and every political hypothesis was discussed as the banner across the bottom of the screen reminded us: “Pope not dead yet.” It was getting to be a joke.

The worst of it was, the death was becoming something of a spectacle – and in a denomination so well-known for its ceremony, that’s saying a lot. We were waiting on the death. It was Dukakis in the tank, Bush on the aircraft carrier.

Which is sad, because it was both history and tragedy.

Now, Pope John Paul II loved media and technology, and recommended using it as a tool to spread the word of God. But “The Pope is still alive” is man’s word, not God’s.

Jesus never said to “render unto CNN.”