Oddly enough, during the pope's funeral, I was reminded of Princess Di and Mother Teresa many times.
  • Charles had to delay his wedding to Camilla by one day in order to attend the pope's funeral.
  • Mother Teresa died one day before Diana was buried.
  • The coverage of the two mothers' deaths flowed into one another. Who had died? The mother of the princes? The daughter of the Church? The consort to the Prince (of England? of the Church?)? They seemed to become one entity.
  • My entire dance career was punctuated on either side by "Th e Queen of Hearts'" short-lived marriage to Charles.
  • Pope John Paul "fast-tracked" Mother Teresa towards sainthood after her death. I once read that she was the last "traditional saint" and that Diana marked the beginning of the postmodern saint.

What then is the difference between the sainted "Queen" of the Church and the Princess of the People?

Who is this "Mother Di"? Is she the "ultimate clone" in which, as Wolfgang Schirmacher notes, everybody was able to find themselves? A dying mother? Giver of life and death all in one strange hybrid?