Friday, March 25, 2005

In medical intervention, as in comedy, timing is everything.


You really couldn't have asked for a better stage for the hypocrisy of the religious right to play itself out than this: "Pope 'abandons self to God's will'".

A cardinal who stood in for Pope John Paul II in a Holy Week ceremony at the Vatican said the ailing pontiff was "serenely abandoning" himself to God's will.

So ... he's prepared to let nature take its course and is resigning himself to whatever comes, medically speaking, is that it? No extraordinary efforts to prolong his life? It's all in God's hands, then, is it? Whoops, maybe not:

John Paul underwent a tracheotomy to relieve severe breathing problems on February 24.

Memo to Terri Schiavo-obsessed Catholics: You have got to be feeling just a bit conflicted at the moment, no? And here's your over-the-top, idiotic, Catholic hyperbole of the week:

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said the 84-year-old pontiff linked his own suffering to that of Jesus Christ.

So, apparently, Jesus had access to the finest medical care in the world and a tracheotomy to assist him in breathing. Who knew?

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