Sir Chaos
Banned
Jan, your claims are not at all far-fetched, but I think, though a pope in life could be materially useful to the faithful, a Pope martyr transmit to the faithful an appropriate example of the willingness to sacrifice for a man who is the vicar of Christ on earth for his Catholics.
Still, I would not look like a fundamentalist, or anything like that, I just say that John Paul II seemed to me a man quite aware of his mission and capable to perform an act so significant even at the expense of his personal safety.
After all, as we say in Italy, "Morto un Papa, se ne fa sempre un altro".
What does that mean? "If a pope dies, there will always be another one"?