“1. Pius XII
2. John Paul II
3. St. Pius X”
These are my top three, though I have a hard time deciding if in that order. I mean, Pius X is a Saint! So aren’t we sort of compelled by heaven to choose him? Not really, but still…not putting the Sainted Pope at the top makes me a little uneasy. Then John Paul II was clearly Great…but I knew him as a contemporary, and there were things like the Koran incident etc…history will see whether we judge him personally for the confusion in the Church of the time.
I ultimately voted Pius XII. He was my kind of Pope.
I know we shouldn’t idealize any period of history, that if we do so we are only lying to ourselves…but when it comes to the Church…I idealize the late forties and early fifties…(as well as the late 1800’s.)
It’s when, to me, the Church seemed to strike the proper balance between exclusion and inclusion, sacred and profane, faith and reason, complexity and simplicity, new and old…when she seemed the most unconflicted, noble, comfortable, and firmly sure of herself.
Other people may think other balances are correct, but Pius XII papacy is a time in the Church I idealize. And while I do not doubt John Paul II was a great man and good pope…I really dont particularly care for the turmoil that the Church went through during it.
Not that it was his fault…I suppose I voted for the “Best Papacy” instead of the “Best Pope”…and for me the Best Papacy (though not necessarily best pope) was that of Pius XII.
If I were to rank the others…I would probably put Paul VI at the bottom. No offense to the Venerable Paul…he was a good guy, and whenever I start getting too steamed about the tumult in the Church brewed up in his reign I remind myself that HE was the one who issued Humanae Vitae, and that significantly redeems him in my eyes…but the turning over of the papal tiara and all the confusion over the New Order…
Benedict is so little known and reigned so short I probably would put him second to last.
When if comes to John XXIII and Pius XI, however, I have a very hard time deciding who was better. Pius XI is not well known, but he had a long reign (through the twenties and thirties) and did a LOT…especially to combat fascism and racist ideologies. I did a major report on him for school, and he, I think, is the most Underrated Pope of the century…
Then again, everybody loves John XXIII, even if you hate what came after the Vatican II council. One thing I’ll say for the Blessed John…he definitely was NOT one to give up the tiara. He wore traditional Papal garb often, and did not change the mass itself much (which Pius XII actually did, like the Holy Week changes of 1955)…