Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines has passed away. Though he had critics, including myself, he was - in an active sense - more instrumental in bringing down the Marcos dictatorship than Pope John Paul II was in tackling communist authoritarianism in Eastern Europe.

Rest in peace.

So the Catholic Church has lost two of its most politically-active servants this year - first Pope John Paul II and now, Cardinal Jaime sin.  He was seventy-six.
He was a social conservative who always fought to have the Catholic Church play a prominent in Filipino public life whilst his religious conviction drove him to be the people’s champion against Presidential dictatorship and corruption.  He did not respect the division of Church and State, railing people against artificial birth control whilst revelling in his role as political powerbroker.
But just like you take the good times with the bad, you do the same with people.

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