Popes John Paul II, John XXIII canonized in

Vatican City
Ann Marie Jakubowski | Sunday, April 27, 2014
On Sunday, the legacies of four popes combined in St. Peters Square when John XXIII and John
Paul II were canonized by Pope Francis in a Mass attended by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Vatican Radio estimated that around 800,000 people flocked to the St. Peters Square area
Sunday, making it the largest event in Vatican City since Pope Franciss 2013 election.
Timothy OMalley, director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, said because the canonization
of popes is a rare occassion, the celebration of two in a single ceremony was unique.
Theres a special joy in this ceremony of John Paul II being canonized, because he canonized
the greatest number of saints by far, more than anyone else before him, OMalley said. He had
a very deep commitment to the lives of the saints, and so its fitting that hell be canonized now
and join their ranks.
OMalley said John XXIIIs canonization was prompted by the whole Church asking for him to
be recognized as a saint and to celebrate his feast day.
John XXIII has been Blessed for a long time but when youre beatified, youre not put
automatically on the universal calendar of the Church, he said. Dioceses asked to celebrate his
feast, showing that John XXIII has become universally important, and thus his canonization is a
recognition that the whole Church already perceives him as a saint.
The dual papal canonization took place on Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast day very important to
John Paul IIs spirituality but while the Polish pontiff had more connections to the specific
date, OMalley said the decision to canonize the two together is significant.
John XXIII was someone who set forth the Second Vatican Council, and John Paul II had such
a force on implementing it in the way that he did, OMalley said. Theres a way in which both
popes are taken up into this [date].

Pope Francis celebrates Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City on April 20.
The pontiff led a dual papal canonization ceremony in the Vatican on Sunday, recognizing the
sainthood of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII.
John XXIII led the Church from 1958-1963, succeeded by Paul VI and John Paul I. John Paul II
was pope from 1978-2005, then Benedict XVI led from 2005 until February 2013, and Francis
was installed March 13, 2013.
OMalley said all four popes were interested in the relationship of the Church to the modern
world and sought particular ways to deal with that.
You can see John XXIIIs calling of the Second Vatican Council as a promulgation of the
Churchs openness to the world, he said. And with Pope John Paul II, in some ways he was
responsible for the fall of communism in Poland. When he went to Poland in the earliest days of
his papacy, it changed the world.
He said as a scholar, Benedict has used his writing and explanations of the faith to engage
seriously with the world, even writing a letter as a very serious response in a spirit of love
and charity to an atheist who critiqued his book Introduction to Christianity. OMalley said
Francis also has sought to actively engage the world with Catholicism.
I think you can say that they all have different understandings of the world but all of them
are serious about the Churchs engagement in the world, he said.
OMalley said he had no doubt that the legacies of John XXIII and John Paul II have shaped
Notre Dame and its mission.
John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council, and perhaps nothing has done more to shape the
Universitys mission and identity than its understanding of its relationship to the world, he said.
As far as John Paul II goes its a remarkable thing to think that basically from the late 70s to
the year 2005, every student who came to Notre Dame knew John Paul II as Pope, the only Pope
theyd had.
So that means a great deal of religious life, religious philosophy, the things that we study in the
classroom, Catholic Social Teaching it was shaped by John Paul II. Which means that a great
deal of the religious intellectual life here on campus has been formed by that pope.
Notre Dame is different because these two popes existed, just as the whole Church is.