Deo gratias pro Johannis Pauli II pontificatu

Requiem Mass this evening at 7.30pm in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh.
Tridentine Requiem Mass at 6 Belford Park, Edinburgh, tomorrow, 6pm.

Most British media coverage will doubtless not merit the paper/airtime/webspace that's devoted to it, but it is worth reading Katie Grant's column in today's Scotsman for the thoughts of a self-described 'modern Catholic in the secular West.'

'Where outsiders, and even some in our own church, saw authoritarianism, many of us saw certainty, and although he did not try to make life easy for us - no movement on birth control, no moral loopholes to slide through - we were left with one over-riding impression, which was that John Paul searched harder and more openly than almost any previous pope, not for popularity or for respect, but for truth. [... W]e knew that under John Paul II nothing was done or said without being tested, not for sectarian advantage, but to keep us on the right path to God.'

Lux aeterna luceat ei, Domine : Cum Sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.
Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine : et lux perpetua luceat ei : Cum Sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.