When Pope John XXIII is canonized this April , the honor will be long-awaited—and richly deserved. After serving as a model priest and prelate, he became an equally beloved pontiff, convening Vatican II and articulating the timelessness of the Church’s teachings.
Among his most important statements is Ad Petri Cathedram (“To the Chair of Peter”), the opening encyclical of his pontificate. Much less known than Mater et Magistra (1961) and Pacem in Terris (1963)—Pope John’s two great social encyclicals—Ad Petri Cathedram is equally relevant as a significant window into his legacy and a constructive critique of modernity.
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