Death Watch

Note: You may want to read the related blog entry found here first. This was also posted at GIGO-Soapbox.org.

Death Watch

For some, he is an anachronism. He preaches a medieval religion to empty pews. In recent years, he is often described as the frail and ailing pontiff, Pope John Paul II. Yet surprisingly for some, God is not dead and He is more popular than the Beatles. And despite his deficit in the legion department, the pope was instrumental in overturning communism in Eastern Europe.

Pope John Paul defies conventional wisdom. In his column, "Bigger Than the Nobel," David Brooks notes that the pope fails to win the Nobel Prize because "[t]he project he is engaged in -- still engaged in -- defies their categories." The pope goes against the current wisdom by preaching against the use of artificial contraception and abortion. It is perhaps too cynical to suggest that because of these and other unpopular views, the western media are suggesting that the frail pope resign. I suggest that it goes deeper than that.

What caught my eye in Brooks' column was this: "So when John Paul II went to Poland and Cuba early in his papacy, he told the crowds, 'You are not who they say you are.'" It's easy to imagine Orwell's totalitarian boot crushing the face of humanity, and how the pope's message was a tonic which dispelled that vision. But John Paul II not only turned on the fatal flaws of socialism, but also on the flaws of capitalism. This is not to say that John Paul is opposed to free markets since his message transcends the choice of economic systems. Even democracy, though it be a laudable system, is lacking.

The problem in the west is the modern tendency to assign value in a utilitarian manner. It's fine when evaluating widgets for purchase or a person's skills when hiring, but it cannot be done this way when evaluating the worth of human life.

In the collective minds of those in the western media, they just can't see the point of an ailing pontiff attempting to maintain an impossible schedule. They don't see the value. John Paul II has been deemed "obsolete" in pretty much the same way that business executives determine that an old fashioned production line is no longer cost effective.

In a homily, Father Raymond Suriani has tied a Twilight Zone episode, "The Obsolete Man," to the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians. A librarian is declared obsolete by a chancellor of some future and oppressive state, and the obsolete man is condemned to death. The reply to this dysfunctional system comes from the words of St. Paul. Everyone is a member or a potential member of the body of Christ.

And while the chancellor's uniform in that Twilight Zone episode reminds us of the Nazi uniform, William Federer documents that the gas ovens of that evil regime were preceded by the efforts toward euthanasia in the soft Weimar Republic. And so Terri Schindler-Schiavo was declared obsolete not by a chancellor wearing the appropriately symbolic Nazi-like uniform but by a judge wearing judicial robes. Terri's feeding tubes were removed last Wednesday by order of the court. Father Ray's episode, "The Obsolete Nursing Home Resident," need not be presented as an episode describing some future time.

In Terri's case, the actual term for obsolete is persistent vegetative state. After winning a large malpractice award in the courts to care for Terri, Terri's guardian and husband, Michael Schiavo, asked the courts to remove her feeding tubes based on her alleged oral wishes (given while Terri was well enough to do so). Given that her guardian and husband now has a child from a live-in girlfriend and stands to inherit Terri's malpractice money should she die, it should at least raise some doubts about whether Terri's best interests are in mind. But Michael obtained the legal services of a right-to-die lawyer who convinced a Florida judge to remove her tubes. Stripped of the right to defend herself, a weak member of our society is being steamrolled over by what Pope John Paul rightly calls the "culture of death."

Pope John Paul has not heeded the calls for his obsolescence in a nursing home. Not because he fears the result but because as the head pastor (not the CEO) of the Church he heeds his own advice, "You are not who they say you are." He believes in the Savior who has raised us all up, and he follows Him by carrying the cross of his ailing body. John Paul II will preach the "Gospel of Life" until the Lord calls him home.