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Article: How does the Catholic Church follow John Paul? It doesn't After such a long pontificate, the cardinals will not want to elect too youthful a successor, says Clifford Longley
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- April 3, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The Catholic Church was for a long time in awe of its superstar
Pope, a man who fulfilled more than the wildest hopes and dreams of
the cardinals who elected him one humid autumn afternoon in 1978. The
papacy was in a severe trough at the end of the reign of Pope Paul
VI, and in severe crisis hardly a month later when his successor,
John Paul I, failed to wake from a night's sleep.
Paul VI seemed to have lost confidence in himself and his office
after the rough ride that his encyclical on birth control, Humanae
Vitae, received in 1968. His successor, John Paul I, had done little
more than smile and wave warmly - and was widely said to have
humanised this venerable institution just by doing ...