Gee, Peter, you certainly like to put spin on your statements with emotion-charged words. I think I'd agree the old guy has been there too long and be put out to pasture. I think maybe a twelve-year term for pope might be nice, with mandatory retirement at age 75. I can't say I like the guy - it seems to me that he has been to the Catholic church what his contemporaries Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were to the U.S. and the U.K. Still, your statement sounds rash, maybe even a bit bigoted.

As for the "crimes" you speak of, there really isn't hard evidence outside what the tabloids print. I'm sure there is some truth in some of the allegations, but these things were hardly official acts of the Church. It's difficult to make a meaningful apology for something when the facts are unknown. John Paul II has certainly made an effort to apologize for misdeeds of the Church that are known, particularly the participation by Catholics in the Holocaust.

-Joe Offer-