False contrasts between the two new saints

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 28, 2014

How soon they forget. At the funeral of Pope John Paul II, when hundreds of people in St. Peter’s Square began shouting, “Santo subito!,” I didn’t hear dissenting voices. Certainly the huge crowds in Rome testified to the love that the Catholic faithful bore for him. But his influence was not confined to the Church. Even secular commentators recognized that the Polish Pontiff had lived a heroic life.

Yet in the days leading up to his canonization, did you detect the undercurrent of criticism directed at the soon-to-be St. John Paul II? There was criticism of his handling of the sex-abuse scandal, of course, but also broader criticism about the overall direction of his pontificate. Some analysts, including Catholic analysts, almost suggested that Pope Francis had decided to canonize John XXIII simultaneously in order to make the canonization of John Paul II more palatable—as if by raising “good Pope John” to the altars he would be deflecting attention from an unpopular decision to canonize John Paul II.

How preposterous! In the history of the human race there may never have been a man more widely admired by his contemporaries than St. John Paul II; there is surely no man whose death so universally mourned. Those people shouting “Santo subito!” were voicing a sentiment shared by millions all around the world.

So why, less than a decade later, is there this suggestion that John XXIII was a popular choice for canonization, and John Paul II less so? I attribute the absurdity to media analysts looking for a story. Dozens of outlets, in their previews for the canonization ceremony, offering a similar, simplistic line: Pope John XXIII had called the Second Vatican Council, throwing open the doors of the Church, and Pope John Paul II had slammed them shut.

This, too, is preposterous. Then-Archbishop Wojtyla was an active and influential participant in the discussions of Vatican II, who dedicated his episcopate to the implementation of the Council’s teachings. Do you remember that he, like his immediate predecessor, took the names “John” and “Paul” to honor the two Popes of the Council?

The false contrast between the two newly canonized saints is related, I think, to the equally false contrast between Pope Francis and Pope-emeritus Benedict. Conflicts make good headlines. So pundits invent differences between the “liberal” Pope and the “conservative” Pope, between the “reformer” and the “reactionary.”