As I was reading all the suggestions being bandied about in the press, I came to the conclusion that JPII hadn't really done much to heal the rifts between Christianity and Islam. He really didn't do much to heal the rifts between Christianity and Judaism either, though I do acknowledge the fact that he laid what may eventually be the groundwork for that with his trip.

I noticed the Dalai Lama did not attend the pope's funeral, even though his press releases say he and the pope enjoyed a warm, personal friendship. While the DL doesn't represent all the world's Buddhists by a long shot, he is the most publicly known world figure for Buddhism. Was he snubbed by the Vatican? Anyway, I'm wondering if the pope didn't reach out more to Hindus and Buddhists because of the inroads the Catholic church is making in Asia.

So what I am saying is, I don't agree that the pope really accomplished all that much in terms of his "reaching out" to other world religions. He managed to remain pretty separate from most of them, including (and especially) his main competitors, the Orthodox churches--notably the Russian Orthodox church. That could be because of his generalized pathological hatred of the Russians (a feeling shared by the majority of Poles) because of the years of occupation, but I think there must be much more to it than that.

However, I really do believe JPII did accomplish one very important thing, which will become a part of his legacy, and that was to, in some places, heal the rift between Catholics and Protestants. He of course remained remarkably silent about the Irish question, the Balkans, etc. But when it came to his breaking down barriers between the Vatican and the Protestant domination of the US government, he made some real inroads.

And before everyone leaps on their high horse and says the US doesn't have a Protestant dominated government, please. Look at the history of US presidents, Supreme Court judges, leaders of Congress. Look at the diplomatic history between the Vatican and the US. Even though we in the US don't ever talk about our country being a Protestant dominated country, that is just because it is, like discussions of class, the elephant in the living room.

So, my vote for a sure fire historic legacy is that JPII will be remembered as the pope who "opened up diplomatic relations" with the superpower US Protestant dominated state. It's amazing what politicians will do to get themselves next to insanely popular religious figures, isn't it?

Was Billy Graham at the pope's funeral?