Bob Dylan and the Pope

I thought I posted this Saturday and never checked - turned out blogger was misbehaving.
Eamonn Fitzgerald posts 2 of my favourite Bob Dylan songs in relation to the Pope's death -It's not dark yet and Knockin' on heaven's door. I think my all time favourite Dylan song Ring them Bells is very relevant to the Pope's passing.

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams,
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
Cross the valleys and streams,
For they're deep and they're wide
And the world's on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride.

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow,
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know.....

Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they're breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong.

And it is in the distance between right and wrong that Pope John Paul II stood steadfastly, fighting for truth and goodness with courage and compassion for many many years.

Sts Leo and Gregory the Great were called so by popular appeal - crowds of the faithful shouted "magnus" at their funeral. Unfortunately I'm just back from Rome and cannot return so soon, but I hope that this shout, over a thousand years old, will ring out as loudly in St Peter's Square as "Vive La Papa" or "Giovanni Paulo" have done in recent years. I will certainly be shouting it here in Dublin at my television screen.