Martin Kettle is excellent in the Guardian today. Sorry if this sounds a little over the top but I think he’s grasped something important about John Paul II, something to remember next time Baroness Warnock or Polly Pot try to remind us that we have a duty to die at the convenience of others, or that the law should be changed to allow (at first) then provide, then perhaps insist upon, an easeful death.

That this is all happening the same weekend Terry Schiavo is being starved (or dehydrated) to death is just a co-incidence, if a macabre one:

But John Paul is also
doing more than fight for his own life. He seems to be using his
position and fame to make a statement about all lives. He is saying
that he is unwilling to be shunted off the stage before he is ready to
go. He is saying that his suffering is universal. But he is saying,
above all, that all lives are valuable, and that he is entitled to live
his life to the very end, however hard it may be.

Believers
will, of course, look for more – and find it. John Paul undoubtedly
wants the faithful to draw lessons from his agony: lessons about
euthanasia and assisted suicide, lessons about abortion, lessons about
compassion, lessons above all about faith. Some non-believers may draw
those lessons too.

But
you don’t have to embrace any of these to recognise that we are
witnessing not just something remarkable, but something rare and
instructive. All significant moments in life are hard to anticipate,
but death is the hardest of all. John Paul is allowing us to share the
enduring nature of that truth, even for a Pope. We are not just
entitled to look. It is important that we should.

Very well worth reading the whole thing, and a definite pat on the back, a cheer and applause for Mr. Kettle. I don’t often say such things about pieces in the Guardian but credit where credit is due, this is a fine piece of writing.