Two Popes: Francis and John Paul II

Popes Francis and Benedict have often been compared and sometimes contrasted, especially in regard to Catholicism's internal government.  However last week we had two articles that compared Francis with John Paul II on the world stage of international affairs.

Pope Francis, globe trotting pope

The most impressive part of the article is the graphic comparing the trips of the Popes by areas of the world. While JP2 traveled widely, he slacked off during the last decade of his pontificate more and more concentrating on Europe.  Benedict traveled mostly inside Europe.  In other words for over two decades Popes have not been globe trotters. Francis has resumed a pace and a scope more comparable to the early JP2, and he has largely ignored Europe. 

The WAPO article cannot resist characterizing his journeys as looking to change the church, however Francis like JP2 is interested in Evangelization, the Gospel having an effect upon the world.

In the blast zone, NO to Nukes

"Over Francis' nearly eight years on Peter's Chair, a critical emphasis of his pontificate on the wider scale has been a concerted effort to burnish the Holy See's "soft power" ........what the marked increase in papal advocacy has wrought is that, to a degree last seen at the zenith of John Paul II after the fall of Communism, when The Man in White speaks, the world's leaders pay attention."

Rocco then pivots to a not unrelated theme, the inculturation of the Gospel. John Paul II may have brought Catholicism together as a world wide organization. What Francis is attempting to do is make the Gospel relevant to each country through inculturation and emphasizing the importance of Bishops Conferences and synodal government at all levels. 

My comments:

1. The media is mistaken at treating Francis only as a personality, failing to take into account the larger sociological forces that are at work.

2.  One of the those larger sociological forces is Latin American Catholicism. Through the Latin American Bishops Conference, Francis became very experienced in dealing with bishops beyond his own country; he brought them together in their most recent mission statement. Francis was in effect a leader of the largest and one of the most vibrant areas of Catholicism. 

3. Catholicism is definitely on its way to becoming a religion of the South rather than the North, and of third world rather than first world countries. Francis is governing from that perspective rather than a European-North American perspective. 

4. Francis as Pope is facing the problems of the World: climate change, migration, income inequality not just the internal problems of the Church. Unlike the case of the Holocaust, future historians will not be wondering if the Pope could not have done more. 

5. John Paul II greatness did not consist of his internal governance of the church, rather it consisted of his impact upon World politics.