church. i mean, st. francis had a comfortable life in aziza and left it to walk barefoot and talk to the birds. this is a hugely radical saint for poverty. so, really, the whole agenda of francis was kind of set when he chose his name. and not only was it radical, it was gutsy, because the truth of it is, given and you re absolutely right, how iconic a name francis is in the catholic imagination. it evokes humility and simplicity, a love of the poor, a closeness to the people, you know, spurning ostentation and all of that. and if you are not prepared to walk that talk, then taking that name is a huge roll of the dice. yes. i mean, it was a whole program of governance in a word, but what we ve seen from francis over the first year is he s walking the talk. he s walking the talk, and i think he s very radical in spirit. now, does that translate into radicalness in change in church teaching, for example, or in the way the church is organized or
to breathe with both lungs, which he meant the western and eastern traditions, latin and greek traditions. so, it, too, therefore, is a symbol of unity and universality. yes. and in the gospel of t, doubtin thomas put his hand on jesus s wound so he wouldn t bleed, so it has to do with believing in miracles in some sense. and we ll also hear readings from the acts of apostles. catholics believe that their bishops, and certainly their popes, are successors of those early apostles that christ called to lead the church. we talk about apostolic succession, this kind of unbroken chain over 2,000 years of which all three of these popes, john xxiii, john paul ii, now pope francis, participate in that succession of tapostles. delia gallagher and john allen know exactly what they re talking about, our vatican experts just outside of vatican
causes, an italian by the name of angelo amato, three times he will present a formal request to pope francis to declare these two men as saints. and he s doing so kind of in the name of the whole church. that s the idea. yeah. and then francis, of course, will say yes, and the culminating moment, we expect well. although he is a pope of surprises. i mean, all bets are off, but we re assuming he s going to accept the request, and then he will read the formal latin formula of canonization in which he installs john xxiii and john paul ii as saints of the catholic church and instricribe their names into the roman collection of saints and from that moment, they will be saints. then what will happen is we will shift to what is basically the structurer of the standard catholic mass, as it s celebrated all around the world, with a twist, delia, that this
needed, because he was in exile by the jesuits when the pope actually brought him out and made him an auxiliary bishop there in buenos aires. so, in some respects, pope francis owes quite a great deal to john paul ii. he sure does. i m sure the other talking point in the homily is going to be the significance of divine mercy sunday. and as we ve talked about before, the idea of mercy is kind of a scarlet thread that connects these three popes. i mean, obviously, a feast near and dear to john paul ii, francis in many ways is the pope of mercy, but we shouldn t leave john xxiii out of the picture. remember the famous opening speech he made at the beginning session of the second vatican council in 1962, where he used that celebrated phrase, that it is time for the church to dispense the medicine of mercy. so, mercy is a cornerstone for each of these three men. oh, absolutely. and of course, you know, i think that john xxiii was one of those popes who had that simple touch. he was able
out of the sacristy, which is the area where priests get dressed before mass. he wants them to get out of the sacristy and into the streets. these are all three popes of the streets in the sense that, you know, they ended the kind of splendid isolation of the papacy. remember famously in the 19th century, the popes declared themselves prisoners of the vatican. well, these guys were not anybody s prisoners. john xxiii, john paul ii and francis all are men who very much know how to connect with ordinary people, which is why, of course, why we see the kind of massive turnout we re wig in the streets of rome here today. yes. and we ll just take a look now at mass, as we begin the formal part of the mass, which is in latin, with the gospel in latin and greek. it s from the gospel of john. it has to do with the doubting thomas, the famous story yeah, well, john paul ii talked about the church needing