Food for Thought

Apr 06, 2015

Pope Francis picked 2014’s Divine Mercy Sunday as the day to canonize St. John Paul II due to the late pope’s institution of the feast.

Pope Francis also canonized St John XXIII that day, and he said the two popes were men of courage who “bore witness before the Church and the world to God’s goodness and mercy.”

He said, “They were priests and bishops and popes of the 20th century. They lived through the tragic events of that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them. For them, God was more powerful; faith was more powerful —faith in Jesus Christ, the redeemer of man and the Lord of history; the mercy of God ... was more powerful.”

In these two men who bore witness to Christ’s mercy, “there dwelt a living hope and an indescribable and glorious joy,” Pope Francis said.