What percentage of these people are active church goers? Do you think they attend every Sunday? – or keep the practices of the Catholic church?

the catholic culture, especially abroad, is very different from LDS culture in the US. at least from my experiences in chile, i came to see catholicism as a culture–an identity almost as strong as one’s ethnicity–that was not dependent on how much one attended mass or followed cultural norms (i would almost compare it to judaism in this way).

And two, how many people would come to pay their respects to President Hinckley – if he died. I’m sure there would be some, but how many people would travel the equivalent of going from Poland to Italy to see his body!!?? I heard that they sent SEVEN special trains from Poland to Rome just to cover the masses of people coming! Doesn’t anyone else think this is odd?

he was the third-longest reigning pope in the history of the catholic church. he is receives much of the credit for liberating poland from soviet communist oppression. he is, arguably, the most internationally famous pole in history. and he was so loved by the people there that he considered breaking with tradition and having his funeral there, only to decide against it later on.

i suppose it’s odd–amazing really–that these people have so much simple love for this man that they would make the long, crowded trip to pay their respects. would people do it for president hinckley? it’s really hard to compare the two in this respect. first, there are 100 times more catholics in the world than mormons. second, while president hinckley has been around a long time, he hasn’t been the top LDS leader for nearly as long as john paul ii has led catholics…only about 2/5 as long. he hasn’t been as visible to the media in his life (mormons don’t get that much airtime, even on larry king) and he probably won’t get the same amount of media coverage in his death.

not to diminish the things that president hinckley has done! but when the pope talks, the media listens. when president hinckley talks, KSL listens. he does and says great things, but the media gets to pick which stuff is “news”.

additionally, the pope always wore a funny hat and outfit. people want to come for that. president hinckley, on the other hand, just wears a suit & tie.

and finally, lots of europeans either don’t have jobs, or have tons of vacation time available to them at work because they live in a quasi-socialist nation. in america, we’re capitalists, so we’re on a little tighter schedule.