Death of Pope John Paul II filled the spiritual soul of the world

With regard to your coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II, if Christians from many churches attended, it was because they recognised his Christianity, rather than his Catholicism. Christianity will be a stronger force for good when this recognition is reciprocated by all Catholics.

That said, his death filled the spiritual soul of the world in a way no-one else has done in living memory. Everything that normally took up our interest and attention seemed cheap and trivial. The banalities of television seemed worthless and the shallow self-promotion of participants on broadcasts jarred painfully on the soul of those of us who realised what a single and committed Christian life can achieve.

It is problematic for Christians of Protestant heritage that the promotion of media celebrity culture enabled the Pontiff to become such a recognisable world figure.

The ecclesiastical structures which allowed this are not in themselves free or democratic. Thus John Paul could easily preach liberties to others which he did not himself practise.

On the other hand, his death reminded us what a sordid and distracted place the world is most of the time. The human community needs strong and even individual leadership, and the processes which admit occasional characters to that status and function can be helpful if they are humanely and inclusively applied.

Pope John Paul II managed to charm the world and reach out to all Christians at an introductory level. But at the spiritual and theological levels he rejected us. For example, his attitude to evangelicals in Mexico and South America represented the aggrandisement of Catholic doctrine above the clear work of the Holy Spirit in called and effective Christian lives.

Pope John Paul II was a great Christian leader because it was always clear what he believed and his personal devotion reinforced that. British Christian leaders do not define themselves so clearly.

I wonder what Richard Dawkins made of our response to John Paul II’s death? His bare evolutionary atheistic theories can offer no possible understanding of or explanation for the fact that Pope John Paul II was an intellectual of the same status. And I wonder what the agnostics and atheists whose thoughts often contribute to the Letters page made of it all?

The death of Pope John Paul II suggests to all that there was something greater living and working in him than mere humanity and mortality.

I met him at a general audience in 1991. His Christianity shone, alongside his clericalism.

(REV DR) ROBERT ANDERSON

East Main Street

Blackburn, West Lothian

Gillian Bowditch admits (Opinion, 5 April) that, as she is a non-Catholic, the Pope had little influence on her day-to-day life. Most of us feel the same. She then reads into the media overkill over his death a revival of interest in the kind of morality he was promoting. What nonsense.

The media’s forcing this on us indicates not a great admiration and affection for a doctrinaire and authoritarian religious leader, but a surrender to the cult of celebrity.

TERRY SANDERSON

Vice-president, National Secular Society

Red Lion Square

London