And life goes on

The Pope is in heaven and Prince Charles and his brand new wife Camilla are, too, albeit under slightly different circumstances.

The Vatican has shrunk back to size, with over three million pilgrims back in their homes, and the 250 tons of trash they left behind buried safely in the pits.

The Pope’s crypt under the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica will be open to tourists and pilgrims while the politics and proceedings at the conclave will be shrouded in secrecy (or so we think).

And just as Charles and Camilla are ending their honeymoon, the new Pope will be beginning his (with the press, that is). Prince Rainier of Monaco would have been laid to rest, and for once, the spotlight would be on him, not on Stephanie.

The Chinese are taking to the streets to protest Japan’s inclusion as a permanent member of the Security Council while Iraqis are protesting the American presence in their country with an emotional rally in Baghdad. Israeli troops shot and killed three unarmed Palestinian teen-agers, allegedly a case of mistaken identity.

Brad Pitt has been seen with Angelina Jolie and Michael Jackson is being accused of giving then child star MacCaulay Culkin more than a friendly pat.

My credit card bills are due, my friend Donna Nievera Conda has given birth to a baby girl named Samantha and the couple across the street are bickering anew (they called a truce when the Pope died).

Life goes on.

The question is, have we become better persons in the wake of what has transpired these past few weeks? Or just like scenes from a Cecil B. de Mille epic, were those magnificent scenes of kings, queens and presidents, Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists coming together as one for a great man in a great city, just visual effects? Just pomp and pageantry mixed with curiosity? Time will tell.

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Last week, most eyes were riveted on the TV screen, glued to the coverage of the Pope’s impending death, the mourning and the outpouring of emotion that accompanied his wake and funeral. I know of several friends who kept a death watch, refusing to turn off their TV sets lest they miss anything. One top Makati executive even wanted to go on leave last Friday so he could watch the Pope’s funeral uninterrupted.

And then just suddenly, the same pairs of eyes that were riveted on the furrows of the Pope’s saintly face were now transfixed on Charles, Camilla and Prince William’s unlined brow.

Special reports were no longer datelined Wadovice or Krakow, but Windsor or Balmoral.

Footage on the young Karol Wojtyla, the man who would be pope, is being replaced by footage of William, the man who would be king, and how he came to terms with his mother’s death and his father’s remarriage to the woman blamed for his mother’s misery.

I tell you, if Brad suddenly married Angelina, there would be more TV stations than police stations on this planet. Business is good.

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As we were watching the wedding of Charles and Camilla (blooming like all brides on their wedding day) over French fries, my husband turned to me and said, "You know, Charles is the true romantic."

I didn’t know whether to hit his shoulder with a French fry for, after all, here was a man who was marrying his former mistress and my husband was calling the man a romantic?

But then I am the wife who flew to adolescence on the wings of Mills and Boon and Barbara Cartland (related to Diana, by the way) novels and I acknowledge that there is true love in the man who was willing to risk all – his throne and the loyalty of his own sons – to marry the woman he loves.

I tell you, these Brits! Legend and popular conceptions have the Latinos as the most amorous lovers of all, but it is the Brits who change history for the women they love (or want, as in the case of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn).

King Edward VIII, Charles’ uncle, abdicated his throne because he could not go on without the support of "the woman I love." Some men would give up anything, even their scruples, for power. And here was a man willing to turn his back on the throne for love.

And now, Charles. Because his love for Camilla has endured for more than three decades, I give their marriage my blessings. Besides, they have been living in since the late ’90s. Time to make an honest woman out of the 57-year-old grandmother (who was once married to a Catholic, Andrew Parker Bowles), don’t you think?

So dependent is Charles on Camilla that it is said that when Diana died, the first person he called for comfort and direction was Camilla.

According to royal watcher Kitty Kelly, William and his brother Harry have realized that Camilla is the one "non-negotiable" in their father’s life and that she is good for their father. And so they have accepted her. In fact, the brothers decorated Charles and Camilla’s bridal car.

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When Diana was alive, Camilla was definitely the villain. She caused the Princess of Wales unspeakable agony.

Charles’ big mistake was not to have married Camilla in the first place and Camilla’s big mistake was not to have had the patience to wait for Charles to pop the question. But that was over 35 years ago and must the couple continue paying for their sins? They have suffered enough, even if it can be argued that they, too, have caused others much suffering.

My Catholic spiritual advisers tell me that God does not judge people the way other people do. Unlike people, God has a laser light that goes to the very heart of us. He sees what we do not. In that sense, I stop my condemnation of Camilla. And I will not wag a French fry at my husband again the next time he calls Charles a romantic.

If I were Diana looking down on earth at her sons, would I be hurt? Surely I would – that is, if I had the feelings of a mortal. But Diana isn’t mortal anymore, so she is above all that.

Pope or princess, saint or sinner, when we leave this world, we live behind a world that spins. And as the world spins, life goes on. For better or for worse.

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