andrewducker | The Pope

On the one hand I have no feelings about the Pope - I'm not a believer, after all.

On the other hand, he was the head of a group which espoused a set of beliefs I find to be, at the very best, delusional and at the worst, actively oppressive. Which doesn't leave me glad he's dead, but does leave me with a strange disconnect from a world where his passing is major television news because the group is so large.

On yet another hand, he obviously caused all sorts of problems with his stance against abortion, condoms (especially as a prevention against AIDS) and the place of women generally.

And on a final hand he made frequent speeches against war, oppression, environmental destruction and all sorts of things I'm also against.

I know that various people have stepped up to say how much they despise him, and I suspect that we wouldn't have exactly seen eye to eye - but he did have a lot of good opinions in addition to the bad ones, and I'm not willing to join the ranks of those who focus entirely on his bad side.