What is the last century Pope that you empathize with the most?

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  • Leo XIII
  • Pius X
  • Benedict XV
  • Pius XI
  • Pius XII
  • John XXIII
  • Paul VI
  • John Paul I
  • John Paul II
  • Benedict XVI
  • Francis
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I like them all but Pope John Paul II is who I know the most about.

Paul VI is also a pretty cool guy. I read about how he worked to prevent a communist victory in the Italian elections. His diocese in Milan had a strong communist presence.
 
The question is “who do I empathize with the most”, not “who do I like the most”.
If I was picking a Pope I liked then I’d probably pick Pope Leo XIII followed by JPII.
But for purposes of empathy, of the list given, I empathize the most with Pope Pius XII.
He was Pope in extremely difficult circumstances, likely realized that he and everybody else in the Vatican were skating on the thin edge of death during the Hitler era, and still had to get up every day, keep the Church ship afloat, do what he could to denounce immoral behavior and help those in danger and need, and try to keep the spirits up of the many Catholics who were being persecuted. And the post-war situation also wasn’t great.

He must have just placed himself in God’s hands at all times because I can’t imagine any other way to deal with that situation.

Then when he died his body was badly embalmed by some quack and exploded during the funeral, and he has had this undeserved reputation as an anti-Semite as well. Of course, one can hope he went to Heaven and therefore is free of worry over his physical body or his reputation on earth.

The Pope I empathize with the most after him is Benedict XV because he seems to have had a hard time and St. Jacinta had visions of him crying in his office while people rioted outside. Another mystic had an unapproved private revelation of him being made to do Purgatory time praying. I just feel bad for the guy and it seems like nobody much remembers him.
 
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Tend to agree with you, tis. Pope Pius XII is the first pope I have direct memory of. Too young to remember Pius XI.
 
A few of those Popes are this century.

Can you define empathize please
 
I emphasise with Pope Pius XII, because of the scathing and unfair attacks people have launched against him when really he was in an impossible situation. He saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Jews. I remember reading that when a bishop in the Netherlands spoke out against Jews being murdered, the Nazis deported to the concentration camps 40,000 Catholics of Jewish ancestry that they had previously spared. People fail to realise what implications Pope Pius XII being more forceful would have had.

Although my favourite pope would be Benedict XVI, I do emphasise with Francis. In my opinion, he is treated quite unfairly by some. It is perfectly acceptable to criticise and disagree with the Holy Father, but the backlash he gets is really sad.
 
I emphasize w Saint Pope Pius X after reading his encyclical on the modernists. He was a prophet who predicted exactly what has transpired in Church in past 50 years.
Nor indeed will he err in accounting them the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church. For as We have said, they put their designs for her ruin into operation not from without but from within; hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain, the more intimate is their knowledge of her. Moreover they lay the axe not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fires. And having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to disseminate poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth from which they hold their hand, none that they do not strive to corrupt
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Well, the Pope you like or admire the most summing up his personal style and pontificate.
 
They were all great in their own way. But if I was limited to one, it would be Pope Saint Paul VI. He had to complete Vatican II as his predecessor had died, reestablished communications with the Eastern Orthodox and carried the Church through great changes in civilization. An amazing man, and a great Pope.
 
I’ve only been studying Catholicism for a few years but I chose Pius Xll. When I began my researches about 6 or 8 years ago I quickly discovered that everything, everything mind you, I had been told about the big bad Catholic Church was wrong. Equally true, the popular stories of Pius being “Hitler’s Pope” were also diametrically opposed to what actually took place, and in fact didn’t surface until the 1960’s, originating with a Russian stage play. Since he is the only Pope who I have read about to any great length, he is my obvious choice.
 
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I’ve always been intrigued by JPI
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I would rank him second just because of the brevity of his office. Mystery and subterfuge, real or imagined, are great attention- getters. 🙂 And because he only lasted a month, the stories that claim he was murdered will always get first notice.
 
Leo xiii because of Rerum Novarum… possibly the most important encyclical of the past 150 years
 
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