Was the Pope More Loved than Feared? 

Was the Pope More Loved than Feared?

The widespread respect and even reverence for JPII has become very obvious. Yet there is a widespread suspicion that many of the young people who are so excited about him have no intention of following his teachings. John Derbyshire has pointed out that the decline in church attendance has continued in the West during all the Pope's years in the papacy. (Dramatic link from Instapundit). Maybe the hope of the Church is in the Third World, but Derbyshire suggests that what goes on there is always a mixture with powerful strands of paganism.

Is there really a kind of cultural Catholicism at work? Not going to church, much less confession, women on the pill, not wanting to be too different from everyone else, yet a kind of fierce loyalty to distinctive Catholic traditions?

Just questions--but they take me back to Sinead O'Connor again.