While I once devoted an entire post to my anger over the Church's staunch opposition to the use of contraceptive devices, I have to respect the passion that the late Pope John Paul II infused in his campaign against it, which was almost as passionate the way he railed against Communism. I haven't changed my mind in the least about contraceptives just because he's dead, but he was easily the biggest and most formidable adversary in the world of contraception proponents everywhere, and we must all take pause.
It is certain that blogs everywhere are chock full of reflections on the passing, and life, of Pope John Paul II. Personally, I am certain that not only Catholics, devout or otherwise, or members of the clergy have found things to say about this man and his impact on the world. I am certain that Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and members from almost all denominations of all religions have thought of something, whether not they've seen fit to post their thoughts online.
And this, I think, will forever be JPII's legacy. According to what I've read, and what I've seen in my lifetime, he was, more than any other pontiff in the history of the papacy, a pope for everyone, not just us Catholics. The way he reached out and touched as many lives as he did, whether or not these were of the Catholic faithful, is something which, I believe, no pope after him, or any religious leader, for that matter, is likely to do, at least not in this lifetime.
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