The American Spectator

Karol Jozef Wojtyla was, as you say, other worldly. He chose to serve God, not man. That always offends men, just as Jesus offended men when he was alive for the very same reason. Because he’s with the Lord, where Christians long to be, I don’t mourn the pope’s passing. But the world is a smaller, less friendly place today because of his absence. Though not a Catholic, I grieve his passing.

p>I pray that his replacement is as strong as he was and as committed to the Lord as he was. The last thing Catholicism and the world need now is a liberal, malleable pope. br> — C. Kenna Amos Jr. br> Princeton, West Virginia /p>

The left concludes that the late Pope’s comments on Iraq and capital punishment make his other comments on abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide a political “wash.” The Left concludes that he was just as much “one of them” as “one of us.”

But consider that all people, right and left, right and wrong, have their priorities, and how they prioritize their thoughts, statements and actions matters quite a lot. So when the Pope visited St. Louis, his speech, already painfully slurred by Parkinson’s, asserted the evil of abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide. He did not give American decisions to go to war or execute its most vicious criminals the same priority as mass murder of the most innocent and/or most defenseless.

p>As an American and weekly church going Catholic who supports America’s decisions to use whatever level of force is necessary against those who represent lethal threats, and to punish criminals in proportion to their crimes, I regret my judgment day will find me less than perfect in at least those regards. But for those without conscience in the matter of abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, it might be well to work on the problem in this life rather than rely on an almost infinite mercy to save them in the next. br> — Frank Natoli br> Newton, New Jersey /p> p> LAST RITES