Karol Wojtyla, more commonly known as Pope John Paul II died today at the age of 84. While I am not Catholic or religious at all, I respect the man for his unwavering principles. He wanted to help people above all else and this can be seen when he was critical of many countries (including the USA) for not doing enough for their poor. While I disagree that a country should help everyone, his intentions were noble and he did a lot more good than harm in his 26 years as Pope. He also helped to end Communism in Eastern Europe especially in his home country of Poland going so far as to threaten resignation if inhumane acts there did not cease.
It will be interesting to see who takes his place. Many people believe it will be an African or Latin American successor, since these areas currently house the most devout Catholics. At any rate, I hope that the new Pope makes some changes in the original version of Christianity such as getting rid of the celibacy requirement for priests (which would hopefully mean there would be less child molesters there) and allow women to serve in high offices (since we are all equal, after all). And maybe changing some stances (such as proclaiming that condoms are useful in preventing AIDS instead of focusing on abstinence only programs).
No matter what happens, the coming weeks should be interesting to watch at the Holy See.
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