Popes and ‘off the cuff’ statements

The canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II takes place today, April 27, at St Peter’s Basilica. Both of them are “bound together” by their love for addressing the world issues that affect many people.

Apr 24, 2014

The canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II takes place today, April 27, at St Peter’s Basilica. Both of them are “bound together” by their love for addressing the world issues that affect many people.

“Before John XXIII, the Pope was perceived as one who made pronouncements from on high; John XXIII was the first Pope to speak off the cuff, and he paved the way for a new style,” said Cardinal Paul Poupard, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

John XXIII introduced this candid and conversational style into the writing of encyclicals, by reflecting on the events of the day as “the reading of the signs of times.”

This style is peculiarly evident in Pacem in Terris, John XXIII’s last encyclical and his spiritual legacy since he died some weeks after the encyclical had been issued.

Every chapter of the encyclical starts with a statement dealing with an aspiration of men … to peace, to freedom, to dignity.

This style of Pacem in Terris was an inspiration for the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, which was something new in the history of ecumenical councils.

Conciliar documents had always been based on God, on revelation … Gaudium et spes inaugurated a new way of addressing the world, an inductive method which began from the aspirations of the human being instead of a deductive method with a basis in revelation.

Pope John XXIII paved the way to a more spontaneous way of being Pope, upon which John Paul II built, seen especially during the World Youth Day celebrations and so is Pope Francis now in his encounters with the people.

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