John Paul II Square
French Archbishop of Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-trois holds a copy of a street plate on the square in front of Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris September 3, 2006 after a ceremony to rename the esplanade after the late pope John Paul II. The decision was voted through the Paris council in June, and required a dispensation for the city's general rule that five years must pass after the death of prominent personalities before public places are named after them. REUTERS/Charles Platiau (FRANCE)
Unfortunately all of the stories covering this event concentrate on the protesters.
About 200 demonstrators staged a sit-in near Paris' Notre Dame cathedral Sunday protesting the inauguration of a new John Paul II Square because of the late pope's stance on AIDS and contraception.
City legislators and members of the Green Party and the AIDS activist group Act-Up were among the protesters sitting and lying down on the pavement as Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe led a ceremony formally renaming the square.
"Delanoe is honoring an assassin," some chanted, saying John Paul's opposition to condoms, along with other forms of contraception, was responsible for hundreds, even thousands of deaths to AIDS and other diseases.
Delanoe, joined by Paris Archbishop Andre XXIII, honored the late pope as a "messenger of peace."
"Was there another pope before him who had as much courage to talk about the Church's mistakes about the Holocaust, about the treatment of blacks, about the Crusades, about the wars of religion?" Delanoe asked.
Known as 
What? Is someone going to go after Blessed Mother Teresa next?!
Actually what would be the harm in waiting? Good John Paul the Great is still going to be remembered and respected five years from now. In history-heavy Paris it's easy to paste one name on top of another; no doubt a lot of squares and street are four- and five-deep in names.
What's the Green Party got against John Paull II?
Ribbit, ribbit...
I love how you can protest absolutely anything now, with no particular moral or intellectual reasoning.
Delanoe is honoring an assassin
Once upon a time, you used to have to kill someone yourself to be considered an assassin. If JP2 had been encouraging HIV+ people to be promiscuous, I'd concede to stretching the definition, but they always seem to leave out that part.
Is someone going to go after Blessed Mother Teresa next?!
Stephanie,
Penn & Teller went after her on their "BS" show a while back. Their rationale for Blessed Theresa's motivation is about the most diabolical thing I could think of, so I'd recommend avoiding it.
I wish someone would instead go after him for his prayer days at assisi where as catholics worship buddah and allow our Lord on the cross to be covered to suit the wishes of the rabbis in attendance. I dont know but when I have entered a synagogue at various events, I placed a yarmulke on my head out of respect, so amazing how this man would stop at anything to bring all faiths together, even at the expense of Our Lord on the cross
Hope this does not qualify for a "nasty" post but this is what I and millions of Catholics really feel. He was a modernist and the one or two things he actually did not give into, though I am sure his successors will as is evidenced in Minnesota, is female ordination and contraception. Then we can be just like the Protestants
I always felt a sense of urgency on JPII's ecumenical approach as if there's not going to be time to bring everybody into the Mother Church.
As for these AIDS activists, I have always wondered about these individuals who go: "gee, I'm going to participate in sodomy but I will not wear a condom because the Pope says so". Come to think about it, this line of thinking comes from the same people who think a criminal will go: "I'm going to rob this convenience store but will not use a gun because it would be illegal to get one."
I love how they call him Andre XIII (although I know thats what his last name means) as if he's the guy from Outcast or something.
This is the usual media trope:
Supposedly arch-conservative uncharismatic pope gets 1 MILLION people to see him in Valenica (not the biggest city in Spain) and that equals the death of Catholicism in Spain
Meanwhile 200 people come out in the biggest city in France and call the late pope a murderer and this is apparently newsworthy enough to make all the wire services.
What's the Green Party got against John Paull II?
Posted by Panda Rosa email at September 3, 2006 08:47
A word of explanation needed here : the French Green Party started as your normal Euro pro-ecology party. Over the years, though, it has turned into a hip lefty club for people who don't want to vote Socialist. They are, to put it bluntly, the essence of political correctness. They stood for an end on cannabis ban. They stand for gay marriage (a Green mayor in the Southwest even went as far as staging one, but eventually the courts declared it void). And the list goes on. But their merciless and utterly petty internal struggles (almost unrivaled in French politics) are the stuff of many a joke and cartoon over here.
Would anyone expect them not to take the oh-so-fashionable stance about Church-and-AIDS ? And fail to side with the nutjobs at Act-Up ?
From the other side of the pond,
François
Wait -- so what's the relationship between Andre XXIII and Andre 3000.