On April 27, Pope Francis will canonize two of his predecessors, elevating them to the ranks of the saints in heaven who may intercede for sinners here on Earth. He has praised John XXIII as a “country priest” with a heart for the faithful and John Paul II as “the great missionary of the church.” But saints are human, and both popes have mixed legacies. John XXIII, father of the Second Vatican Council, initiated reforms that angered conservatives, while their limits left progressive Catholics frustrated. If Cold War historians have cast John Paul II as democracy’s hero, spokesman for Christians silenced by the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, in other ways he stood firm against the tide of 20th-century liberalism. He condemned contraception and homosexual acts as grave sins and censured theologians who called for the church to stand up to Latin American dictators (often Rome’s allies against communism).
Benedict XVI, John Paul II’s close friend and successor, defended traditional doctrine against the “dictatorship of relativism” and seemed to fear that bold action against clergy who committed or abetted child sexual abuse would present an intolerable challenge to the church’s authority. Benedict might have performed the upcoming canonization rite himself—except that last year he became the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign his post, citing lack of “strength of mind and body.”
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