No Saint

Letter to Editor, The Argus (Fremont, CA)
By David M. Mandell

Well, Pope John Paul II is dead. So what.

After reading about him it's obvious the pope was no saint.

You would think with all the millions of people mourning over him, he was a saint. But he wasn't. The only good thing he did was wave his arms and hands blessing everybody.

I would say as an atheist, he was an excellent public relations man. But what did he do that was so bad?

The worst is that he banned condoms in Africa resulting in millions of babies who would die because their mothers had no milk. Banning condoms also caused thousands of HIV deaths, and left families throughout the world producing so many kids that they have to live in squalor.

Next he ordered bishops in the U.S. to oppose civil rights laws that protect gays and lesbians (including hate-crime laws), leaving them outside the boundaries of legal protection.

Then he told heterosexuals what to do: no contraceptives, no premarital sex, no oral sex, no anal sex, no masturbation, no remarriage, no divorce, no artificial insemination, no three-ways, no swinging, no sterilization, no legal abortion, no stem cell research, no women priests, and no death with dignity because you are forced to live against your wishes.

And let's not forget he didn't stop the priests from sexually abusing thousands of children.