Pope John Paul II

It appears that the Pope will die soon. You can read the AP story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e ... d=84439559

Wow.. He's dying? Aww that terrible!

Wait.. He is he? What do popes do? O.o

My friend says it is the III not the II but then he keeps on switching back... I don't know... are you positive?

This sad that he will be dying soon
He helped with the comunist to get them to try to stop.
If he dies this will be a big loss for the world.

Who is he?!?!

He is the leader of the church of the world.
The Vatican

Correction: leader of the Catholic church.

Oooh.

Aww that is crap! Wait.. He might not die. So there is a chance, though he will need to die soon. Its only a matter of time. Man, I should really know what Im talking about.. I'll just shut up now.

He probably will die because he is so old and it will be really hard for him to recover. But it will be a big loss for the catholic church. Random fact: he is the pope that has served the longest.(correct me if I'm wrong)

Definitely the II. Pope John Paul I came almost right before him.

Marching Gurl, I think you're right that he is the longest serving Pope, or he is in at least the top three. Even if he is the third longest serving Pope, that's pretty impressive considering that there's been hundreds of Popes.

I just saw on Cnn that the Italian Media is reporting the popes death but the Vatican has not offically announced it.

I think it's really sad my mum and nan have been talking about him all day and they think he was one of the best popes, and I think he is the longest serving pope. On the news they just said it's been so long only 3 people remember how to elect a pope.

Marching: I've just flicked onto sky news and they say his heart and brain are still functioning but I'm not sure if that's from the vatican

The vatican has not released anything lately so nobody really knows whats going on. But most of the news stations in the U.S. are reporting that the italian media has said that he has died, but keep in mind tht is not from the vatican. He was a truly amazing pope.

This may sound rather heartless, but I don't really care. I've never seen the Pope as doing much, except trying to hold up a dying religion.

Firestarter wrote:This may sound rather heartless, but I don't really care. I've never seen the Pope as doing much, except trying to hold up a dying religion.

If you're not Catholic, then the Pope probably does not mean much to you. But if you are Catholic, then the pope is pretty much akin to being the President or Prime Minister of your country. Indeed, for many, what the Pope says overrides anything the government says. For instance, the Pope says abortion is wrong, while the government says abortion is acceptable.

But besides that, this Pope has been tremondously important in world affairs. It was him, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan that brought down the Soviet Union, he has brokered many peace agreements, and he has traveled more than any other pope in history to spread a message of peace. As for Catholicism being a dying religion, I don't know where you get that from as Catholicism continues to grow and is the single biggest faith in the world today (there are more muslims than Catholics, but like Christians, not all Muslims share the same faith). In the United States, it is one of the few faiths that continues to grow (fueled by immigration from Latin America).

Anyways, I'm sure we'll hear a lot about the Pope's legacy in the coming weeks. And it won't surprise me if he is cantonized by the Church in the next decade.