A Pontiff passes: Reflections by an American Catholic

His Holiness departed this world on Saturday, April 2, 2005 ending one of the longest pontificates in the 2,000 year history of the Roman Catholic Church. I wonder what the next 25 years will bring: women allowed to become deacons (Phoebe, a deacon, is mentioned in the New Testament and the Byzantine Rite has them) or allowing priests to marry (perhaps, parish priests may be allowed to marry provided they do so prior to ordination and do not remarry if their wife dies and maybe orders priests such as Jesuits could decide the matter for themselves). One never knows where the world will be in a quarter century.