Sorry to hear about your Gradmother, Davy.......you have my sympathies (and I\'m sure those of us all).
Oh dear......I really DID want to stay out of thos one..................
Whilst I totally agree.....there\'s nothing worse than the PERSONAL grief at the loss of a family member (been through that many times myself), I can understand (to a degree) the outpouring of PUBLIC grief at the death of the Pope.
I\'ve got absolutley NO religious beliefs or persuasions......infact I fully agree with Bribones in that \"religion\" and NOT dictatorial aspiration has been the cause of the mjority of wars, throughout history.
However, to the millons upon millons of Catholics he was THEIR \"leader\" and to many non-Catholics he was seen as a great statesman.
I know it\'s difficult to understand ( I have trouble with it myself), but those who DO have strong religious beliefs, do so \"fully\" and \"utterly\".
In that regard, I can see how his death has come to bring out quotes such as you have mentioned, Davy.
However, I also believe that many of those who crammed into St Marks Square weren\'t there for any \"religious\" reasons, but soley for the spectical, for the sake of being able to say \"I was there\", for the sake of tourism, if you like. I would suspect that there were a good number of those there who had no religious beliefs, whatsoever.
There was a piece on TV recently about how \"we\" the public AND the media seem to have adopted a \"grieving culture\". They questioned the growing \"popularity\" of strangers leaving roadside floral tributes to those killed in road accidents and the seemingly ever - present black armbands worn and minutes silences held during sporting events.
Sad to say, but it appears that a great many people feel the need to grieve and feel a sense of personal loss ........why is that??
In my view, such actions dilute and belittle those occassions when there IS large scale personal grief or rememberance.
And THAT\'S why I wanted to stay out of this one.
