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2 oo ^ rwn f w Sou Diocese of Savannah hern (>oss Vol. 80, No. 30 Thursday, September 7, 2000 Catholic Schools —see pages 6-7 $.50 PER ISSUE z u Tapestries with images of Pope John XXIII and Pope Pius IX hang from Saint Peter's Basilica September 3. Pope John Paul II beatified the two popes along with three other churchmen during a ceremony that drew some 80,000 people. By John Thavis Vatican City (CNS) t a jubilee liturgy that followed weeks of con troversy, Pope John Paul II beatified two very different popes: the universally popular John XXIII, who convened the Second Vatican Council, and Pius IX, who the pope said was “much loved, but also hated and slandered.” Celebrating Mass September 3 in Saint Peter's Square in front of about 80,000 people, the pope also declared as “blessed” French Father William Joseph Chaminade, founder of the Society of Mary religious order; Abbot Joseph Columba Marmion, an Irish-French Benedictine; and Italian Arch bishop Tommaso Reggio, known for his service to the young and poor. The ceremony brought together supporters of the five figures from every continent, who applauded as the pope pronounced the beatification decrees and as tapestry portraits of the new blesseds were unveiled. But the majority of the huge crowd— including pilgrims from Asia, South America and Africa—was there for Pope John XXIII. “He opened up the church and gave it life,” said Vietnamese Sister Maria Le, who has read the late pope’s spiritual writings in recent years. Father Eduardo Kirombo, a Burundian priest who was a boy when Pope John died, said he is still known throughout Africa as a “man who lis tened, a man of the Holy Spirit, a man who trusted in God’s work.” In a sermon interrupted several times by warm applause, the pope said Pope John had conquered the world with his simplicity of soul, his wisdom and his direct approach to people. The renewals he set in motion with Vatican II did not affect the church’s doctrine, but the way of expressing it, he said. The pope said Vatican II was a “prophetic intu ition” of Pope John, opening a new page in the church’s history and a “season of hope” for the whole world. In apparent response to those who have ques tioned the joining of the beatifications of Popes Pius and John, the pope said the two figures were more similar than commonly thought, especially on a spiritual and human level. He noted that Pope John thought highly of Pope Pius and wanted him beatified. Addressing recent criticisms of Pope Pius, the pope made it clear that beatification, as the main preliminary step toward declaring someone’s saint liness, was a judgment on that person’s spiritual virtues, not on the “particular historical options he carried out.” The saints are not exempt from human “limits and conditionings,” he said. (Continued on page 3)