Elder Abuse? A Woman's Perspective on the Pope

The morning TV news brought footage of Pope John Paul II in Pompeii. He looked so frail and out of it, I had to turn away from the television set. He reminded me of a man I knew eight years ago. The former minister lived in the room next door to my father in the nursing home. The gentle and kind man suffered from late-stage Parkinson's Disease, the same ailment hounding the pope.

I offered to walk with him to chapel one morning, just a hall away from his room. It took us an eternity to get there. When I see Pope John Paul II now, I don't see the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. I see an 83-year-old man in need of intervention.

At a dinner last night with some Catholic women we talked about how we would feel if the pope were an uncle in our own family. If other family members were forcing the sick uncle out in public, due to some weird power thing, we would intervene, because it's a form of elder abuse. We worried that no one is playing that role of guardian in the pope's life now. He seems surrounded by men who have to prop him up and keep him in the public eye for their own means and ends.

It sounds very irreverent, but maybe the shock value is worth it. In 1989, a tastless movie, Weekend at Bernie's, was popular. Two young men pretend their boss, Bernie, is alive. He isn't. The two guys prop Bernie up in lifelike positions and cart him places. Very tacky.

Sad to say, I think of that movie when I see the pope in public now.