John Paul Ringo

I got into painting popes and stuff about twenty years ago, when I fell in love with a Venetian (or at least, a Veneto) aristocrat, (or at least, the daughter of a rich industrialist - a bit like that Berlusconi fellow who makes the colourful sweaters).

That happened just as a new Pope ( John Paul I (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. I, Italian: Giovanni Paolo I - "Il Sorriso di Dio" (God's Smile)., born Albino Luciani) was elected, and was murdered in a few weeks.

JP1 came from Veneto, and was much appreciated in north-eastern Italy. He was also a little bit too progressive for the College of Cardinals. So somebody did him in. After 33 days in office.

So they elected a new one, and Karol Józef Wojtyła took over.

He was a great guy, who kissed the ground of every country he ever went to, and invented the Popemobile.

But, besides being a lovely man, he was also a bit of a dumb conservative, and kept the Roman Catholic Church on a strait'n'narrow path for more than a quarter of a century.

During all that time, he faithfully followed Pope Montini's regressive path, and ensured the Holy Roman Catholic Church's irrelevance to the problems of the world today.

The Roman Catholic Church, that could be an enormous force for good, following the examples of Pope John XXIII, and the short-lived John Paul I, was lost forever.

My old painting of John Paul Ringo Superman is getting a bit mouldy now. I've done my best to clean him up, but it just doesn't work.