A changing of the guard

It’s heartening to note that Catholic prayers for the speedy  recovery of the 84-year-old Pope John Paul II appear to have been answered. We are glad that the Pope is in stable condition and appears to have again foiled the international media’s umpteenth attempt to start a death watch.

At best, such media-initiated exercises can be very educational, not only in terms of the colorful sidebar stories that appear around the time of a papal election but in terms of the real worth of a world leader and his times. The Cable News Network did a commendable special report on John Paul’s papacy when he was taken ill sometime in 2002.