Heroes, leaders and such

Singel St. Dike
Originally uploaded by agentodd.

It's Sunday again. Just returned from the gym, switched on my iBook and the iTunes programme and made myself a cup of tea. I feel ultimately relaxed.
There has been a slight pause in blogging due to work trips and acting as a travel guide. My sister, her husband and my uncle visited Amsterdam which was super. We ate well and walked around the city. And also went to a way too fancy restaurant and awkwardly walked out after seeing the menu consisting mostly of oysters, had dinner in an Indonesian restaurant where they play jazz (Coffee and Jazz on Utrechtsestraat) and so on. The weather was awful but that happens.

I actually found from Flickr a picture that shows the location of their hotel. It was just in the beginning of canal Singel, on the right side of the church in the picture.

The picture gives a good lead to my other subject. I mean the biggest piece of news of the week. Of course, the death of the Pope.

As a Lutheran (a non-practising one as most Finns) I found it slightly difficult to understand what happened. I have always been in awe when I have seen on television the masses that gather to the Vatican. But the amounts of people during the last week were something completely else.

For me the most puzzling thing is the content. John Paul II has been described mostly as a humble man. I think I have to address this issue with some Catholic friend of mine. I would not see Finns grieving over the death of the Archbishop in the same way. What is the relationship of the religion, the church and Pope as its leader? Some commentaries have said that the death means an end of an era. But the end of what? Although the pope as the leader of the church is of huge importance, a religion can not depend on one man.

I do not mean to sound disrespectful. Not at all. I am just wondering innocently. Social scientists have been saying for years that personification and medialisation are main features of our time. But when it comes to religion, I would say that the relationship and role is more troublesome. Or at least is should be.

But maybe it is the Lutheran society where I come from that makes me wonder. I mean that the Lutheran church at least for me has always been a church where religion and faith are something private and personally owed. In that sense the role of the religious leaders is more strongly a role of a advisor than leader. I really have to address this issue with someone Catholic.