John Paul II to beatify the popes of the great councils

By Simon Caldwell THE POPES of the two great Vatican councils will be beatified by Pope John Paul II during a single ceremony on Sunday.
Baptised Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferratti, Pope Pius IX, also known as Pio Nono, opened the First Vatican Council in December 1869, during which he proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility on matters of faith and morals.
Angelo Roncalli, who adopted the name John XXIII and who came to be affectionately known as "Good Pope John", opened the Second Vatican Council in October 1962 in response to a "movement of the Holy Spirit", but died before it was concluded.
John Paul II, who was present at every session of the council, first as assistant Bishop of Cracow and from 1964 as Archbishop of Cracow, is expected to perform the ceremony before crowds of thousands of Italians and others who are devoted Pope John.
"He is the most popular pope of all," said Amelia Astrologo, who runs a religious souvenir shop in the shadow of St Peter's. "Everyone asks for him," she said.
However, while Italy prepares to celebrate the beatification of its favourite pope, the Vatican has come under heavy criticism for its decision to press ahead with the cause of Pius IX.
Besides opening the First Vatican Council, which was not completed Pius proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, fostered devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians and introduced the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the Church calendar.
But politically he was seen as a failure, loosing the papal states and in 1848 fleeing Rome while Garibaldi and Mazzini established a fiercely anti-clerical state. Pius also drew up the anti-modernist Syllabus of Errors, for which he has been attacked as reactionary.
Recent criticism has focused on his inclusion of the Irish nationalist Fenian Brotherhood as an illicit secret society which he condemned alongside freemasonry.
He has also been severely criticised for approving the seizure of a six-year-old Jewish boy who had been baptised by a Catholic maid. The boy, Edgardo Mortara, was raised a Catholic away from his family and eventually became a priest.
Last week, Seymour Reich, the chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, condemned Pius as a pope who "perpetuated centuriesold Church contempt and hatred of Jews".
In a letter to Archbishop Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, Reich said that Moilara's kidnapping was shocking even by the standards of the 19th century.
He said: "If saintliness is seen as the goodness, wisdom and courage to behave righteously and right wrongs regardless of when they occur, then Pius IX's conduct falls far short of saintliness. His papal role stands in sharp contrast to that of the saintly Popes John XXIII and John Paul II who recognised the wrongs of the past and tried to rectify them."
In contrast, John XXIII was not always popular in his own lifetime, but became legendary after his death in 1963.
An army chaplain in World War One, he built a diplomatic career after he was posted to Bulgaria, allegedly for being too vocal in his opposition to the rise of Fascism in Italy, and during the war he helped thousands of Jews to escape Nazi Europe to Palestine, while he was in a diplomatic post in Turkey.
Roncalli was seen as a caretaker pope in lieu of a realistic successor to Pope Pius XII, but he called the Second Vatican Council just three months into his pontificate, inspired by the idea of aggiornamento, a new Pentecost, where the Church would be modernised to fulfil her role in a new world order.
John's most famous encyclical, Pacem in Terris, was addressed not only to Catholics but to all "people of good will", and spoke of the genuine rights of Man based on the natural moral law.
John was also believed to have played an instrumental role in helping to maintain peace between the United States and the Soviet Union when the Cuban Missile Crisis made real the prospect of nuclear war.
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