Balancing act: Two Beatified Popes were very different

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A new chapter in saint-making history was written Sept. 3 when Popes John XXIII and Pius IX were beatified in a single ceremony.

The joint beatification marked an intersection in the lives of two very different figures, and the contrast was apparent as Rome prepared to host hundreds of thousands for the outdoor liturgy.

At religious shops near the Vatican, photos and prayer cards of John XXIII were being snapped up, and bookstores filled whole display tables with new volumes and videos on ``Papa Giovanni,'' the pontiff who convened the Second Vatican Council and set in motion a series of modern church reforms.

``Everybody asks for him. He's the most popular pope of all,'' said Amelia Astrologo, who runs a religious souvenir store in the shadow of St. Peter's Square.

Two Italian TV specials were being prepared to honor Pope John, highlighting his humble beginnings, his sense of humor and his social conscience.

Pius IX, on the other hand, remained uncelebrated in Italy, despite his impending step toward sainthood. Best known for trying to hold on to temporal power, for overseeing the proclamation of papal infallibility and for castigating modern thinking with his ``Syllabus of Errors,'' he has not enjoyed widespread popular devotion.

Several shop owners said they've never carried prayer cards of him and that no one's ever asked for one, either.

At the tomb of John XXIII on the lower level of St. Peter's Basilica, a crowd of about 40 people waited in line to kneel and pray. Flowers had been laid before his tomb, a practice that has been going on since his death in 1963.

On the other side of Rome, at the Basilica of St. Lawrence, the tomb of Pius IX was under lock and key in August, as workmen tried to solve a mildew problem.

The common wisdom about the pairing of these two ``blesseds'' is that it's a balancing act, an effort by the Vatican to move forward two sainthood causes that individually might provoke political opposition in the church.

For many, John XXIII is still seen as the guiding light and Pius IX is remembered as a holdout against modernity.

Ironically, however, Pope John favored Pope Pius' sainthood cause and considered him a truly holy man, according to Pope John's former secretary, Archbishop Loris Capovilla. In 1961, in fact, Pope John spoke at a general audience about the possibility of seeing Pope Pius canonized one day.

If Pius IX was known in some circles as the last ``pope king'' of the 19th century, John XXIII is still remembered by many as the most human of pontiffs to reign in the 20th century. During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, he seemed to be the voice of the people when he pleaded for superpower peace. When Time magazine named him ``Man of the Year'' at the end of that year, it said his ``warmth, simplicity and charm'' had won the hearts of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world.

Pope Pius reigned for almost 32 years, the longest pontificate since the days of St. Peter, spanning a period of intense church-state tension in Italy.

Pope John, elected at age 77, ruled for less than five years. He was chosen as a transitional pope, yet he ended up recasting the church's relationship with the modern world. It wasn't just Vatican II, but the way Pope John exercised his authority -- as he put it, he wanted to be known as a ``good shepherd'' defending truth and goodness.

He was the first to break free of the Vatican city-state in a systematic way, making more than 140 trips to jails, orphanages, churches and schools. He wrote groundbreaking encyclicals, including ``Mater et Magistra'' on Christianity and social progress and ``Pacem in Terris'' on the need for global peace and justice.

He let it be known that the church was not afraid of science or its discoveries, and he sparked an ecumenical revival by reaching out to separated Christian churches.

After Pope John died during Vatican II, some participants wanted to proclaim him a saint by acclamation, thus giving the world a sign that the church did not consider him a ``dreamer.'' That idea was shot down by the Roman Curia, and Pope John's sainthood cause slipped into the Vatican's painstakingly slow process of verification and documentation.

In linking the beatification of the two popes, Pope John Paul may want to highlight a certain continuity between the First Vatican Council, which was called by Pope Pius, and Vatican II.

But that risked being overshadowed by yet another contrast between the two papacies. Jewish organizations have recently criticized the Vatican for promoting the cause of Pius IX, who, in what is viewed as a supreme act of religious intolerance, in 1858 approved the seizure of a baptized Italian Jewish boy from his parents and arranged for his forced education in the church.

A century later, John XXIII met with U.S. Jews at the Vatican and told them: ``I am your brother. ... We are all sons of the same Father.''

For the church, sainthood goes beyond personality traits and papal policies. When these two popes are beatified Sept. 3, perhaps Pope John Paul II will offer some insight into how such different figures can both be deemed universal models of holiness.

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