I could not help thinking as I watched the televised 'death watch' from the Vatican, of my own mother's passing. Her last few days were spent in the home of my younger sister, with the aid of a hospice care giver. The priest from her parish came to give her the Prayer for the Sick (which we used to call last rites in the Catholic faith), and even though she had been waking only occassionally she did respond with an amen a couple of times, before going back to sleep.

I'm what is commonly called a 'lapsed Catholic' attending mass only for funerals and weddings. I've never been terribly religious, even as a teenager, despite years of attending mass with my parents and my mother's best efforts. Still I can't help but feel touched by the outpouring of genuine sorrow.

This is so different from the political posturing we witnessed during the period when Terri Schiavo lay in her hospital bed.