tagryn | Funeral of Pope John Paul II

"Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." (John, 21:18, from the gospel readings at the funeral)

I watched CSPAN's rebroadcast of the Pope's funeral yesterday. Some random thoughts:

Lovely ceremony. My grandmom was especially happy to hear Latin being used a lot.

Lots of clapping and cheering, obviously the Pope was well-loved in Italy as well as abroad. Cardinal Ratzinger, the dean of the College of Cardinals, had to stop multiple times because of the chanting from the crowd. He looked a little discomfited by it. (from SROatK, apparently the chants were "Giovanni Paolo Santo" or "Saint John Paul," a call for the Pope's canonization)

Good to see the Eastern churches had a sizeable group there. Even some of the churches which have had a strained relationship with Rome had their patriarchs there (FR thread)

I suspect over the next couple of weeks in the runup to the Conclave on April 18, there's going to be a certain segment of the Church hoping that the next Pope will "return to the spirit of Vatican II." I think they're going to be very disappointed: John Paul II had a quarter-century of appointing cardinals who were in line with his apostolic thinking, so I'd be very surprised if the cardinals suddenly selected a liberal to lead the Church