Pope's Death

You know I was thinking only last night that old John Paul can't have long to go... well good luck to him, but to be honest he's not exactly having the best quality of life in the condition he is.

I was wondering more along the lines of programming... would BBC1 go to news, how much? What sort of coverage are the BBC planning for example.. there must be some sort of plans?

There are plans, but I doubt there would be much coverage.

Obit procedures have been massively toned down since Diana (as was seen with the Queen Mum). And as the UK isn't a Catholic Country the coverage was always going to be minimal - just as much as any other big news story.

Some of you are very impolite... (I feel a great desire to use stronger words).

How can you make a joke out of an old man's possible death?
Even if you are not religious.
I'm really disappointed.

There's any number of responses I could have to that, which mainly deal with my objections to his belief that what the Catholic Church believs IS RIGHT, whether you believe in it or not, but that's not for this forum.

But that's for Metropol I believe. If you want to complain about the poor tone of some of us heathens, raise it there.

I quite agree. I'm not a religious person at all, but you'd think people would have more respect for others. Irrespective of whether it's the Pope, a 75 year old mugging victim from York, or a 37 year old BBC journalist with cancer, it's simply in very poor taste to make fun of those facing death, or who have indeed sadly passed.

I wouldn't expect to see this kind of tasteless mockery in the Ivan Noble thread, and I'm disappointed to see those whose opinions I have previously respected (if not always agreed with) resorting to such low standards for a laugh in this thread. It doesn't matter if you view him as the evil master of Catholicism, or as a revered religious figure - he's still a frail old man facing death, and regardless of your religious views, it's very sad if you think that's worth a laugh.

Having read through the thread I don't see anything particularly terrible that anyone who is not overly-sensitive could take offence to. As far as I can see this is an early outbreak of Diana-syndrome - enforced grieving which demands we should all be terribly gutted, whether we care or not.

I'm afraid people discuss terrible things with humour - it's how you get through the day. If you were to take things deathly seriously all the time you'd kill yourself.

As far as I'm concerned, I have no time for the Pope, or anyone else who tells me how to live my life. That's my choice. It's your choice to be unhappy with his condition. I would simply say that this is a TV presentation forum, and that we are raising points regarding TV presentation of the breaking news event.

I am not going to be forced into a Queen Mother-esque forced mourning parade, so should you be upset by anyone's attitude, or wish to raise any points regarding the disgraceful attitude to the Pope's alleged near-death, feel free to raise it on Metropol. This will be (barring any comebacks) my last comment on this matter on this forum.

Actually, dear, if you'd deigned to read my comments more carefully, you would have noticed that I wasn't demanding that you force yourself to "mourn" simply because he's the Pope. I was simply pointing out that regardless of who it is, I still feel people should have respect for those facing death. Regardless of who he is, he's still an ill old man, and it costs nothing to be respectful and mindful of his condition.

Similarly, if you were in such a condition, facing serious illness or death, I wouldn't hold against you the fact that you are a ***** by mocking you and making tasteless jokes, regardless of how little I think of you. It's just respectful.

Yeah but this is a man who's done almost as much damage to the world as Hitler, so we'd be better off without him.

By his insistence on Catholics not using condoms he's sentenced millions to death through AIDS.

I agree and im a catholic yet i dont care if he dies or not.. me and my famiy have not particulary been his greatest fan. I'm not being rude either so dont start spewing all over the place please, its just the way I feel about him.

I love the title of this thread "Pope Rushed To Hospital" ... it's such a journalistic cliche - people suddenly taken to hospital are hardly likely to be taken very very slowly are they.
All the channels will have the Pope Obit stuff ready to go if he should die. Also like the Queen Mother it's a case of "Old Man Dies" - not a massive shock to anyone really.

It's like obits in the local press - "died suddenly". How can you die any other way? You're alive one moment and dead the next - you can't be anything inbetween.