vatican city. i almost still said good morning. almost a million people made the pilgrimage for the canonization ceremony this morning. our vatican analyst john allen describes it as, quote, catholic mardi gras on steroids. you know who really enjoyed this? pope francis, taking to the popemobile after the canonization. riding among the crowd there. you see him waving, accepted a few items from folks in the crowd. they re saying as many as 800,000 people packed into vatican square and the surrounding streets alone. that, of course, joining the millions of faithful around the world celebrating today. this is his any the making we re watching here. let s talk about that with crossfire host newt gingrich who is in vatican city to witness today s canonization. newt, we saw it on cnn. tell us some of the things we
pope emeritus benedict and showing their continual warm relationship seems to be underscoring that message of mercy and togetherness. pope francis also breaking with tradition with this canonization ceremony as well. and as you d imagine, people on social media are tweeting their favorite quotes from the popes being made saints today. i want to show you some of those. twitter using peace and joy, quoting john paul ii. an excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded. another twitter user quoted john xxiii we must unite, not divide, for we are all children of one true god. and as we heard from john allen, another theme today is the message of unity. now, mark hart has this to say about the two popes. two courageous souls who answered the spirit s call to breathe life into cultures of death. it truly is cause for
contrast between these new saints, john xxiii and john paul xxii. conventionally, john xxiii on the left, john paul a hero on the right. i think they were put together as a call to unity. in a sense, we re seeing a festival of unity in rome today. a mirror reflection between the two living popes and the two popes that will be sainted. amara, earl? john and delia, we re using the words over and over unprecedented and historic. i want to talk to you both about aspects of both canonizations and how they are breaking away from tradition. john, you mentioned that the message is unity, but before we develop more into that, can you give us a sense of what we re going to see from here on out? what will we see in this canonization ceremony that s expected to last about 10 to 20 minutes? that s right. well, what will happen is that the vatican official who is in charge of both of the sainthood
the relic for john xxiii will be brought up by members of his family, and the relic for john paul ii we expect to be brought up by the women who received miracles because of his intercession. and john, you were mentioning just a few moments ago that there is also a message of unity that pope francis is bringing with this canonization ceremony, and i find it interesting that two popes with two very different styles are being canonized today. pope john paul ii, who was a conservative, and john xxiii, who was seen more as a reformer. what kind of message is pope francis bringing by canonizing these two popes on the same day? reporter: well, first of all, amara, my suspicion would be that francis would say the situation is more complex than just saying john paul is a conservative and john xxiii was a liberal. i suspect he would argue that these two popes had much more in
days. and then there are people who come from bergamo, which is the region of italy that john xxiii comes from. there s a dialect there, and you can hear its melodiuos tones in the streets. you talk about the devotion people show, and one of the things about being at a canonization ceremony is that it s kind of an odd mix between there are pieces of it that are very solemn and devotional, and other pieces that have the feel of a high school pep rally on steroids, because these people aren t here just to be solemn. i mean, they are also here to celebrate and do high-fives about the lives of these two figures to whom they re so attached. yeah. they ve been singing and chanting all night and lots of youth groups, but lots of elderly people as well. and i think we should mention that the music today, most of the mass has been sung, as you ve heard, and that s the sistine chapel choir, which we ve heard before, also the krakow philharmonic from poland