You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [81]
More than just putting a new and kinder face on the Church, John succeeded in putting through a series of reforms that quite literally brought the Church into the twentieth century. During his five-year papacy John took the bull by its papal horns and issued numerous encyclicals and divinely inspired pronouncements that angered many of the conservatives who longed for the continuation of the status quo. In particular, his “Pacem in Terris” and “Mater et Magistra” invoked a deeper understanding of both theological philosophy and the role of the Church in the world today, not just its reverence but its obligation as well.
John also took seriously his title as Bishop of the Diocese of Rome. His predecessors seemed to have relegated this role to more of an honorary title than an actual appointment, and showed a marked preference toward running all of the papal affairs from the home turf of the Vatican territories. John looked upon the bishopric as an additional responsibility, and indeed an honor that enabled him to maintain a grassroots contact with his flock through frequent parish visitations, including recently incorporated parishes outside of the city limits that were nonetheless part of the diocese of Rome.
Furthermore, John traveled extensively throughout the world, commented on non-Church matters, and even convened a Second Vatican Council to help reform the Church, strive for ecumenism, and indeed open the proverbial Church doors to a more active role for the laity. He convoked the Roman Synod and established the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law. Many of the prohibitions of the past were relaxed, and the rigidity of Church ritual and dogma (such as the Latin mass) were reformed in a way to make them more parishioner-friendly and relevant to the churchgoers of today. Indeed his overall teaching turned the tide of the papal seat from that of an overseer to one of a beacon of hope enlightening the future in hopes of guiding its flock forward.
Though relatively short-lived in terms of papal reigns, John XXIII set a revolution in motion that couldn’t be stopped, and when he was succeeded by his old friend Montini (who took the name Paul VI), the objectives of the conservatives had been already skewered, leaving his successor with little choice but to carry out the divinely inspired objectives that John had already set in motion.
As a result, the short interim papacy of the placeholder pope revolutionized the Catholic Church and afforded John XXIII a place on the list of the most influential pontiffs in Church history.
You Are Running Against Whom?
You often can choose your friends. Sometimes you can pick your enemies. Just be careful whom you pick….
PAT BROWN AND THE GOVERNOR’S RACE
CALIFORNIA, 1966
Brian M. Thomsen
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown had entered public life as a district attorney, quickly ascended to the position of attorney general and in 1959 became the thirty-second governor of the state of California, with a successful term in office that included a statewide water plan, improvements in higher education, and an advocacy toward the use of computers in state government.
Politically, Democrat Brown was riding high. His advocacy of the liberal agenda and the reinvention of state government coincided with the presidential victory of Lyndon Johnson over conservative Barry Goldwater in 1962. Indeed his own gubernatorial victory over Republican challenger Richard Nixon had cemented his reputation as a political giant killer.
Ever shrewd, Brown realized that his reelection in 1966 might be problematic. The controversial subject of capital punishment had reared its head and his sixty-day reprieve of convicted murderer Caryl Chessman (who was nonetheless eventually executed) had caused some division in his base, and the beginnings of widespread unrest on the college campuses was troubling from both a civil peace