Tales from Small-Town Saskatchewan: The Pope

The day after the Pope died, Jim asked me, "You're a Catholic, how do you feel about it?" I responded pragmatically, 'he was very old and sick,' 'he did great things, but everybody dies,' etc. But then, the next morning, I found myself weeping emotionally after reading a glowing tribute to him in the newspaper.

It reminded me of when we were teenagers, and one of my sister's friends told us about visiting her grandmother in Fox Valley. She was watching the Pope on T.V. when they got there, with tears in her eyes. When they asked her why she was crying, Grandma said with her Hungarian accent, "Eet ees so good to be Catoleek!"

I think he had an emotional effect on many of us, whether we struggle with change within the Church or not.