Saints Alive!

Because I did my project on Pope John Paul II, I was most interested in Pope John XXIII. As the predecessor of Pope John Paul II, Pope John XXIII made it possible for Pope John Paul II's great ministry. John XXIII was only Pope for 5 years, but in those five years he started to update the Church with Vatican II. Without Vatican II, Pope John Paul II would never have been able to become to involved in the people of the Catholic Church. He also was the first Pope to leave the Vatican in over 100 years, which later allowed for Pope John Paul II to make hundreds of visits and audiences with other religions, world governments and the people. I admire Pope John XXIII; it would have been easy for him to sit back in the Vatican and do what many popes had done before him, but instead, he took it upon himself to change the Vatican and the entire Catholic Church. It probably wasn't easy to convince many church officials that things needed to change, but he did it. In many ways, Pope John XXIII made the great papacy of Pope John Paul II possible.