Resist the urge to see Pope John XXIII as a liberal and John Paul II as a conservative, writes James Martin. Like all saints, the two defy easy labels.

Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council on Oct. 11, 1962. Three years of preparatory work had set the stage for an extraordinary five-hour pageant, as 2,500 Catholic bishops, each vested ...

Perhaps by recalling the dual identity that John XXIII—the same pope the woman at St. Peter’s Square was so fond of in 1963—used to describe the Church: mater et magistra, mother and teacher.

Father Califano indicated that Pope John XXIII, known as the “good” pope, also had faults and “used to worry too much about things.” But, he added, the late pope also “had a sense of ...

As John XXIII commented, “[W]e must think of human society as being primarily a spiritual reality.” For the Pope, such a perspective would include the recognition of God, but also imply such ...

Pope Francis’s devoted faithful will likely soon be hollering for the late, humble, huddled-masses-loving pontiff to be fast-tracked to sainthood, experts said Tuesday.

Pope John XXIII, who died 50 years ago Monday, was a pastor and a father to the world, Pope Francis told pilgrims.

VATICAN CITY, June 3 -- The disinterred body of Pope John XXIII, the much-loved pontiff who initiated radical changes in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s, was wheeled through St. Peter's ...

Pope John XXIII inaugurated the Second Vatican Council, which began in 1962. Pope John didn’t live to see the end of the council, dying of cancer in 1963. He was known as the Good Pope and had a ...

It was June 13, 1960, when a distinguished French Jewish historian, intellectual and educator named Jules Isaac met St. John XXIII in a Vatican audience.

It is a great irony that the just-canonized, truly saintly Pope John XXIII did a great deal of harm to the Roman Catholic Church when, with the very best of intentions, he called for a Vatican ...

Vatican City, Apr 15, 2014 / 03:03 am. While Pope, Bl. John XXIII began a dialogue with the Soviet Union that led to the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain during the pontificate of his successor ...