Two popes who differed on the Second Vatican Council become saints a half century later
Easter Sunday, the most important day of the Catholic Church's liturgical calendar may feel like a prelude to an even more spectacular celebration the following Sunday. On April 27, Pope Francis will add Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II to the church's canon of saints. The event presents an opportunity to send a message of peace and reconciliation not only to the nations of the world, but also to a church still recovering from decades of discord.
More than a million pilgrims will travel to Rome to attend the canonization ceremonies in St. Peter's Square. Hundreds of millions will watch at home or in movie theaters around the world, and the Vatican is broadcasting the images in 3-D. Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, is expected to make a rare public appearance.
The canonization comes at an important moment in church history, the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, a series of meetings held by the church's bishops in Rome between 1962-65. The double induction will inevitably remind Catholics of that epochal event, which was essential to the pontificates of both men, though in markedly different ways
Most Catholics now feel at home in the post-conciliar church, but vocal minorities continue to debate the legacy of Vatican II, and these arguments color how they view the soon-to-be sainted popes. Some conservative Catholics think Pope John acted with good intentions but ushered in an era of confusion that lingers today. Not a few progressives, on the other hand, regard the pontificates of John Paul and Benedict as a 35-year campaign to roll back the council's reforms.
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