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Protesting half staff flags :

• Flag order spurs controversy | The president's order to fly flags at half- staff in honor of Pope John Paul II is rated appropriate by the ACLU, but schools have received complaints from parents (The Denver Post)
• Flag shouldn't be lowered for pope, group says | An anti-religion group is denouncing Gov. Jim Doyle's executive order to lower flags to mark the death of Pope John Paul II (The Capital Times, Madison, Wi.)
• Half-staff flags for pope questioned | A Madison secular organization is protesting Gov. Jim Doyle's order to fly flags at half-staff at public buildings all week to remember Pope John Paul II (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wi.)
• Some in France criticize pope observance | Secularists criticized the French government Monday for lowering flags to half-staff out of respect for Pope John Paul II, calling it an attack on the country's century-old separation of church and state (Associated Press)

Protestant Brittan & the pope :

• Anglicans ponder passing of their identity and power | As the funeral of John Paul II nears, some suggest that the English response to his death has shown that "Protestant England is dead" (The New York Times)
• The strange death of Protestant England | Who would have thought the death of Rome's supreme pontiff would interfere with the marriage plans of the next Supreme Governor of the Church of England? (Mark Almond, The Guardian, London)
• Protestant identity threatened, says Jensen | The decision to postpone the wedding of the Prince of Wales to make way for the funeral of Pope John Paul II is a "strange turn of events" that chimes the demise of a sole Protestant identity in England, says the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Last time I looked, Britain wasn't Catholic | Why has this Anglican country gone all Pope-crazy? (Vicki Woods, The Telegraph, London)

Opinion :

• Criticizing John Paul II | Yet another thing the mainstream press doesn't understand about the Catholic Church (Hugh Hewitt, The Weekly Standard)
• The pope and hypocrisy | We pay him no tribute if we lower our flags to half-staff and send a grand presidential delegation to his funeral, when at the same time we avert our eyes as villagers are slaughtered and mutilated in the genocide unfolding in Darfur (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times)
• How much more can we take? | This is the third pope who's passed away since I became a lapsed Catholic. Time flies when you no longer live your life holding to the beliefs of a church based on fear and real estate (Barry Crimmins, The Boston Phoenix)
• A papacy of spirit | If John Paul stood for one large thing, it was primacy of the spiritual over the material (E. J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post)
• Passing of a worthy pastor | His firm fidelity to God's truth strengthened orthodox belief in almost all religions (John O'Sullivan, The Washington Times)
• Be not afraid | What Pope John Paul II taught us (Larry Kudlow, National Review Online)
• Yes, the Pope was gifted. And heroic. But he was no saint | For a Protestant like me, the repeated assumption that John Paul is now in heaven cannot be sustained theologically (Ron Ferguson, The Herald, Glasgow)
• A model of moral strength | The world, and not just the Catholic world, has lost a leader and a servant like few it has ever seen. Pope John Paul II modeled faith, courage and forgiveness — three qualities I will always associate with this pope (Franklin Graham, USA Today)

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April (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49