The Pope's decline

News has emerged that the head of the Catholic Church is in hospital with serious breathing problems. The frail Pope John Paul II has been ill for a few days and has cancelled all his appointments. The London Times reports that "jostling for position in the next conclave to choose a new Pope has intensified during the Pope’s decline, with cardinals divided over whether to choose a Pope from the Third World or revert to type and elect an Italian pontiff".
Independent of who is king in the Vatican, Catholic Long Islander Gen X Revert hopes that Malta can make the Catholic case inside the European Union:

From Seattle Catholic comes news that the White House snubbed Rocco Buttiglione possibly to please "old Europe" on behalf of the State Department. Although this may just be Robert Novak's conjecture, it is worrisome. The EU is doing everything it can to forget its Christian heritage and to push the religion of secular humanism.

We Catholics should hope Malta can continue to fight the good fight within the EU. The small island nation is mostly Catholic and abortion is illegal. This does not sit well with the "old Europe types" in the EU but Malta so far has been able to stick up for itself. Hopefully, "new Europe" countries such as Poland will be able to remind the EU of the Catholicism that is at the heart of its history.

Pope John Paul II from Wikipedia

Information resources on the papacy of John Paul II

Pope thanks Malta over Europe from Catholic World News