Feb 28, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Catholic League president William Donohue says Newsweek should “pull the plug” on columnist Christopher Dickey after he suggested in an article that Pope John Paul II continues to impose his will on the Catholic Church by his “stubborn” will to live.
Dickey’s article in the “Periscope” section of the March 7 edition of Newsweek is titled “He Has Willpower—But No ‘Living Will.’”
In it, Dickey states: “Even as the aged pope’s body shuts down in the late stages of Parkinson’s disease, his will to live—and to impose his will on the Roman Catholic faithful—remains as stubborn as ever.” He later writes that if the Pope were to slip into a coma, “Could anyone—would anyone—pull the plug?”
“When presidents like Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt continue in office despite poor health, they are regarded as courageous, even heroic,” Donohue said, pointing out the contradictions. “What is really astonishing—and maybe Dickey could address this—is the extent to which this dictatorial pope is loved the world over.