Pope John Paul II has been given the last rites

Pope John Paul II has been given the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church as his health deteriorates, a Vatican source tells CNN.

I seem to be the messenger of death today.

While I disagree profoundly on core issues, I think the Pope is a decent man of integrity. I hope he'll be allowed to leave peacefully. On the other hand, I'm very interested in the course the Catholic Church is about take now.

There's a famous quote of John Paul II. stating that life has to adopt to the doctrine, and not vice versa. It seems most likely that the next Pope will be even more (!) conservative than John Paul II, with German Cardinal Ratzinger to be the most likely choice. In the age of religious and political polarization, hatemongers like him will not help the cause of humanity.

In my oppinion, Ratzinger is the archetype of a Grand Inquisitor, kindling with deep-rooted sentiments of hatred and intolerance. For example, here his views paint a dark picture Islam.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has criticised what he sees as a tendency among Islamic leaders to identify politics and religion, insisting on the importance of respect for religious freedom.

Speaking to the Italian daily Il Giornale, the cardinal argued that Christianity brought an entirely new idea into the world's history by making a "distinction between the emperor and God".

With the rise of Islam, he continued, a substantial portion of the world returned to the earlier identification between the political world and the religious world, with the belief that "only political power can make men moral".

Btw, visit his "fanclub" and you'll notice a a link to terrisfight.org.

I bet 2 bucks that there are quite some conspiring meetings in the Vatican at this very moment. Politics, as usual.