Popes I Have Known

 

I'm on my eighth pope. Leo XIV is a young man so I pray he's my last. When I first arrived on the scene, Pope Pius XII had already been on the job eight years. He had been elected to the papacy in 1939, just as WWII was breaking out. He has a controversial legacy. Some say he failed to speak out against the Holocaust. His supporters say he saved thousands of Jews from extermination. The debate is ongoing. The church has named him "venerable," the first step towards canonization.

Pius XII was not a warm and fuzzy pope. What I remember most about him is his death in 1958. We paid a lot of attention to the papacy in my Catholic elementary school. Once Pius was in his tomb in the grotto under St. Peter's, we turned our attention to the election of the new pope. When it was announced that white smoke was seen coming from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, Sister Eubestrabius said Habemus papem, boys and girls.We have a pope!

Everyone loved Pope John XXIII. He lived up to his nickname, "the Good Pope". He called the Second Vatican Council, which modernized the Catholic Church. He broke with papal isolation by sneaking out of the Vatican to visit sick children in hospitals and inmates in Roman prisons. 

He appointed the first cardinals from Africa and the Philippines. He fostered better relations with Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches and addressed past anti-Semitism. He was 76 when appointed and unfortunately died after five years in office. He was canonized a saint in 2014.

I went to a Catholic high school so we paid attention to the election of John's successor Pope Paul VI. Paul has almost as complicated a legacy as Pius XII has. He implemented the reforms of Vatican II. The Latin mass went away and the laity became more involved in the church. He was called the Pilgrim Pope for his travels around the world. He was the first pope to fly in a plane. He was also called Pope Hamlet for agonizing over decisions during the social change of the 60s and 70s. His ruling against artificial contraception was deeply unpopular and damaged the authority of the Church. He was isolated between the traditionalists who felt he was allowing too much change and the progressives who said he didn't go far enough. He was canonized as a saint in 2018.

John Paul I was elected pope on August 26, 1978. He was the first pope to choose two names. I was working in a shop in Roseau at the time when a customer told me, "Your pope is dead." He was pope for 33 days which was a shame because he probably would have been a good one. He was beatified in 2022, one step before canonization. The next shock from the Vatican was the election of Pope John Paul II from Poland. He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

On the positive side when evaluating his legacy, John Paul II was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet bloc. He visited 129 counties and spoke at the UN on behalf of human rights. He was the first pope to visit a synagogue as he tried to heal historic divides. He canonized hundreds more saints, not that there was a shortage. Among them was Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint.

During the Great Jubilee in 2000 John Paul II apologized for the sins of members of the church: the Inquisition, the Crusades, anti-Semitism, marginalization of women, racism, fracturing of Christianity, and indifference to poverty and social injustice. He left out an apology for his handling of the clerical sexual abuse scandal during his reign. This and his prohibitions of birth control, abortion and women's ordination have left him with a mixed legacy. He was canonized in 2014.

John Paul was a tough act to follow. Benedict XVI never seemed comfortable as pope. Benedict was a brilliant and holy man, but more a professor than the politician an efficient pope needs to be. He cracked down on sexual abusers in the clergy but victims said he did not go far enough. He started cleaning up the mess at the Vatican Bank left by his predecessor. The progressives in the church disliked him for his moral stances. He shocked everyone by resigning as pope in 2013. He admitted he was not up to the job and did the right thing.

Time for a warm and fuzzy pope. Pope Francis from Buenas Aries was a breath of fresh air. He lived a simple lifestyle and focused on the poor, refugees, migrants and the homeless. When he needed volunteers for the feet washing ceremony on Holy Saturday, he found them in the prisons. He was a pope the conservatives didn't like. It's too soon to say, but Francis is the kind of pope who eventually becomes a saint. Benedict also has an excellent chance, but probably after the popular Francis.

One more shock: a pope from Chicago! John Paul II lifted the Iron Curtain in Europe. Why has God now sent an American to the Vatican? Leo XIV is just getting warmed up. I hope reconciliation is on his agenda. He seems like a good guy. He'll be needing all the prayers he can get.

White smoke = New pope