First Day Without John Paul II

I've decided not to have a post titled "RIP John Paul II (1920-2005)" because it is pointless. Everybody knows that Pope died and everyone who has read this blog regularly probably knows that I disagreed with the late pontiff on many issues.

That doesn't mean that I'm not saddened by his death and unmoved by the global eruption of emotions created by that event.

But I'm also worried that the global bereavement will, at least in short term, create an atmosphere in which any kind of legitimate criticism of late Pope and his policies is going to be discouraged. Or, which is even more dangerous, it could create false sense of world being much nicer place than it really is.

Some Croatians who believed in that had rude awakening in Skopje, Macedonia this afternoon. RK Zagreb, Croatian handball team, was playing European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final game against home side of Vardar. The game was aired by Croatian state television. Home side's fans, of course, couldn't resist the opportunity given by minute of silence and they booed at the mention of Pope's name.

So, late Pope might have really strived for peace and multi-cultural coexistence, but he nevertheless left a lot of work to be done.