Vatican II's Bookends

Pope Francis’s bold decisions to canonize Blessed John XXIII without the normal post-beatification miracle, and to link Good Pope John’s canonization ceremony to that of Blessed John Paul II, just may help re-orient Catholic thinking about modern Catholic history. For what Francis is suggesting, I think, is that John XXIII and John Paul II are the twin bookends of the Second Vatican Council—and thus should be canonized together.

On Jan. 25, 1959, less than three months after his election, John XXIII surprised the Catholic world by announcing that he would summon the 21st ecumenical council in history. According to some Catholic thinkers, Vatican I’s teaching that the Bishop of Rome enjoyed a charism of infallibility under carefully defined circumstances had made future general councils unnecessary. General or ecumenical councils had previously been summoned to thrash out disputed questions of doctrine; the pope could now take care of that on his own; so, no more councils.