for the catholic church. george, this is also the first time two living popes attended a canonization ceremony so how significant is that? well, frances, let s underscore there s only one pope in the church at a time. opponent is the pope. his predecessor benedict xvi is pope emeritus. what their presence together meant plus this canonization of two men whose lives span a period from 1881 to 2005 between john xxiii and john paul ii means that an awful lot of the modern history of the catholic church was being pondered, preyed upon and celebrated here at st. peter s this morning. john paul ii and john xxiii are the two book ends of the second vatican council as father barron just said and this ceremony today reminded the church that
assistance, having sought the counsel of many of the brother bishops we declare and define blessed john xxiii and john paul ii be saints and we enroll them among the saints decreeing they re to be venerated as such by the whole church. in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. amen amen and with that applause and that declaration, that s the key portion of the ceremony. they are now saints. that is. you can hear the cheering. this is an exuberant moment, it s a solemn moment, but it s
vatican, by the way, estimated about 500,000 people have gathered in or around st. peter s square for this morning s canonization ceremony. again, john xxiii, john paul ii named saints of the catholic church in this very elaborate, colorful ceremony this morning. we re midway through the actual mass portion. pope francis.
the saints is being sung. a very beautiful moment. the two new saints are being joined to the role of saints. as the liturgy commences we invoke the great communion of saints. it s a very beautiful and mystical beginning to the liturgy. as i went through the rundown, it appears the canonization portion of the ceremony itself is rather short and simple followed by the mass. is that a fair reading of how this will go? that s right. it takes place at the very beginning. it will then be followed by the regular, you know, roman rite of the mass. but the canonization takes place at the beginning. kathleen, let me bring you in right now. a lot of discussion why these two popes together. they really represented some way different spectrums of the pope s experience. john xxiii ushered in the modern day of catholicism and john paul
one of their own. he had been to their country, he had traveled there. that s another element. certainly polish national identity is porimportant becaus pope john ii traveled there. they felt a connection with. second longest serving pope. yes. what an incredible impact that he left. you can see it here in the faces of the faithful now as this ceremony, this mass continues. faithful being offered communion now. this is always an impressive picture. we saw this, of course lester, perhaps i could go ahead, george. i was just going to say, perhaps i could offer a personal