I found these pieces useful in going beyond the "oh, we've lost a great man" wave that's sweeping over everything in the wake of Pope John Paul II's death on Saturday at age 84.

First, The Nine Contradictions of Pope John Paul II, by theologian Hans Kung. An excerpt:

Karol Wojtyla was not the greatest pope of the 20th century but he was certainly the most contradictory .

Outwardly, he called for conversion, reform and dialogue with the rest of the world. But this was sharply contradicted by his internal policy, which was oriented toward the restoration of the pre-Second Vatican Council status quo, obstructing reform, denying dialogue within the church and absolute Roman dominance.

While expressly acknowledging the positive sides of this pontificate, which, incidentally, have received plenty of official emphasis, I would like to focus on the nine most glaring contradictions of Pope John Paul II.

Human rights

John Paul II supported human rights while withholding them from bishops, theologians and women. The Vatican has yet to sign the European Council's Declaration of Human Rights: far too many canons of the absolutist Roman church law of the Middle Ages would have to be amended first.

The concept of separation of powers, the bedrock of all modern legal practice, is unknown in the Roman Catholic church. Due process is an alien entity, as well. In disputes, one and the same Vatican agency functions as lawmaker, prosecutor and judge.

Consequences: A servile episcopate and intolerable legal conditions. Any pastor, theologian or layperson who enters into a legal dispute with the higher church courts has virtually no prospects of prevailing.

The role of women

The great worshipper of the Virgin Mary preached a noble concept of womanhood but at the same time forbade women from practising birth control and barred them from ordination.

Consequences: There is a rift between external conformism and internal autonomy of conscience. This results in bishops who lean towards Rome, thus alienating themselves from women, as was the case in the dispute surrounding the issue of abortion counselling (in 1999, the Pope ordered German bishops to close centres that issued certificates to women that could later be used to get an abortion). This in turn has led to a growing exodus among those women who have so far remained faithful to the church.

Next, An Unholy Divide, by Lynda Hurst. An excerpt:

In 1962, when Pope John XXIII convened Vatican II, he said his goal was to adapt the church to the modern world, to "open the windows of the Vatican and let in some fresh air." By implication, this so-called aggiornamento was long overdue.

But after the three-year council ended, the fresh air of modernity was to circulate only briefly before John's successor, Paul VI with his injunction on birth control, and then John Paul II (following Pope John Paul I who died 33 days after being elected) clamped the windows shut again.

They believed the church had little, if anything, to learn from the modern secular world — quite the reverse — and should remain above and apart from it.

Millions of Roman Catholics, particularly in North America and Europe, profoundly disagreed. Many disregarded what they could no longer accept, primarily the ban on contraception, and slipped into lip-service adherence. Or walked away.

But just as many others chose to stay and fight against teachings they believed were products of time and tradition, not theology. In other words, that could be changed without undermining Catholicism's core.

This "educated laity" became the bane of the Vatican's existence during John Paul's reign. But many clergy, and not just in the West, quietly agreed with the criticisms and bided their time for the next papal era.

Whether the next pope — or the one after that — is conservative or liberal is irrelevant. Analysts say the calls for reform, long simmering on the Vatican's back burner, are now on the verge of boiling over.