The meaning of the JPII's long death

Paul Jacob at Townhall published an almost agonizingly respectful article this morning to consider the question of "papal term limits". The reason for his "treat it like a defective grenade" approach was his consciousness of the fact that he himself was not a Catholic and his suspicion that if he even hinted at any disrespect for the institution of the Papacy, then he would have several thousand Catholic suddenly-former-fans asking what business it was of his anyway?

And he poses a good question. Why not term limits?

Answer: because the length of a given pontificate is itself part of God plan for every specific pope.

I am convinced that the reason JPII's decline was so long, drawn out, and painful for himself and for those millions upon millions who loved the man, was because God wanted us to know, and wanted to reinforce the Pope's assertion, that the aged and the infirm were not disposable. Further, it was a demonstration of the fact that great good could be found in human suffering and that there were many evils far worse than a lingering death.

Parkinson's disease was an ailment which JPII shared with (of all people) American actor Michael J. Fox. Fox's response to the disease was to initiate publicity campaigns to find a cure and to personally lobby congress to fund the use of fetal stem cells (in my mind, to subsidize the practice of legal abortion and experimentation on murdered fetuses) so we could find a cure. In short, people like Fox said that the suffering caused by Parkinson's was so great that it legitimized a practice which amounted to medical barbarism.

By the very act of carrying on and functioning in his office, JPII put the lie to that claim. It was his personal Calvary, and by climbing it, he personally lived the statement that suffering can be turned toward good, and that suffering does not justify evil.

I am so glad we did not cut that off with papal term limits.