Well its canonization time at the Vatican and Rome expects
millions of tourists to come to the city specifically for this event even
though I don’t really know why.
Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II will be officially
made into saints …canonized.
I look at the bestowing of sainthood on a person as an award
for a job well done as opposed to the usual definition of sainthood as extreme
holiness which is a little hard to define.
Pope John XXIII (one of my favorites 1958-1963) did a great
job in his few short years in office of “opening the windows” to let modernity
into the stodgy old church and believe me, it needed some fresh air.
Succeeding popes tried to close that window of openness (Benedict
XVI) but John’s initiative kept that flame alive to this very day where
Catholics continue to battle to keep the Vatican II window open against those
who want it closed.
Pope John Paul II gets great marks for closing the door on
Communism in so doing releasing millions of enslaved peoples from the grip of
the Soviet Union; this was a truly historic accomplishment.
John Paul was also from Poland which put an end to the joke:
Is the Pope Italian?
John Paul also became a rock star visiting more countries
than any other pope before him which humanized the papacy and gave it a truly
international flavor.
On the other hand, he seemed to have ignored the priestly
sex scandal even though his biographers insist he knew nothing about…really?
Bottom line is that both men deserve a star on the saint’s
walk of fame.
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