How Pope John Revolutionised The Catholic Church

Pope John revolutionised the Catholic Church’s teachings and offered a broader insight into how we should view and think about morality, justice and world peace.

Before Pope John the Christian faith was viewed drastically different to what it is today, the church itself didn’t comment on world events, Popes were rarely seen outside the walls of the Vatican which gave the view that Popes were distant and believed they were better than everyone else. Pope John Paul was originally a ‘transitional’ Pope as the Catholic Church leaders weren’t confident in his abilities however he quickly proved them wrong when he started educating others on his beliefs that would soon become symbolic. His beliefs were having unity in the church, ecunemism and peace and justice.

Pope John started planning a council that would leave a last legacy. In 1959 he announced the creation of Vatican II and it was designed to be “a council for the Universal Church.” The council worked through 4 sessions and had 2000- 2500 members, but unfortunately Pope John sadly passed away after the first session. The council addressed issues of the church such as Non-Christians, ecunemism and Eastern Churches just to name a few. They made new rules which allowed Christians to pray with other types of christianity. The idea of the council was to help fix the way the Church was perceived by outsiders.

The council was extremely successful and can be regarded as a saviour of the church. Prior to the council many Christians shared a similar belief that they were treated like children and felt that they were viewed as irresponsible. In fact many people felt almost ashamed to say they were a part of the Christian faith. However after the councils meetings responsibility went back to the people and they were heavily encouraged to make their own choices while keeping God in mind, this united the church in a way that was never before seen. Christians alike could openly discuss their beliefs. For example the Church urges people to read the Bible in their own time and this left more of an impact then the Church expected. For example a Church in Strathfield still produces guides for those who wish to read the Bible. It also promoted unity as normally different denominations of the Christian faith were weary of another council as previous ones had done a lot of damage to the unity to the different denominations of the Christian faith except this council had the opposite effect, it encouraged communication between different denominations and even with non-believers.

Pope John also pushed the importance of ecunemism on the Catholic Church and traditions. Ecunemism is essentially the churchs pushing unity and encouraging communication between the different denominations. There had been concerns raised about the separation between them and Pope John addressed the concerns and pushed for ecunemism. He took initiative and extended an invitation to Church leaders of different denominations such as Orthdox to come to the Vatican, because of this an Orthodox member can freely and without judgement attend Catholic masses and pray with Catholics.

Masses also used to be said completely in Latin as opposed to now they can be said in any language which involves everyone. To help ecunemism develop further he created the Secretariat for Christian Unity. This group had a focus on teaching social issues such fr. Pacem in Terris (peace on earth) and Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress).

Mater et Magistra had a specific focus on politics in our lives and our rights Fr, he believed workers should be allowed to create and join unions he believed they were entitled to protect what was rightfully theirs. He also believed democracy was a good thing which was unprecedented at this time.

Pope John changed the role of the Pope, popes were seen as aloof and unapproachable but he changed that. He voluntarily visited the incarcerated and the ill, this was due to his mindset that he should be involved in the world outside the Vatican if he was going to truly influence and inspire. He was also the first pope in over a century to travel around Italy visiting regional areas and in particular Rome. He also knew the importance the media had, when he spoke to them he spoke without flamboyance this in turn completely changed the way the Church was viewed by society. The changed role of the Pope took away central power from the Vatican and it was shared across a team of people including clergys, nuns and bishops, it is still like this today. Pope John was a firm believer in the importance of peace he was dedicated to spreading peace to everyone, through his papacy he emphasised:

• Unity in the life of the Church
• Peace in the Secular Order.

John started his mission for peace through an encyclical which contained his 1acknowledgments on how socialism has benefits to mankind, this helped relations in communist Eastern Europe and relieved some of the pressure the Vatican was feeling at the time. A ecunemial council which flew in religious leaders from all different countries helped smooth over issues between Western and Eastern countries as well.

He also did something extremely uncharacteristic of the church - he spoke out about world events. During the tension between the US and the Soviet union he said the world craved peace and he also said “to all our sons… to those who believe in God and Christ and also unbelievers because all belong to His Christ by virtue of their origins and redemption”. His speech had more of an impact than he thought and although it didn’t completely stop the growing tensions it did play a part, in fact a Soviet leader stated that Pope John was a man he could work with. Even the United States president asked him to help do what he can to ease up the tension. He pleaded to them to think about the human lives that were involved and would be affected, he sent a telegram to Soviet Leader encouraging him to end the tensions. The Soviet leader felt inspired and did as he instructed saying that the telegram was a “gleam of hope”.

In conclusion Pope John the second helped the Church realise it’s shortcomings and revolutionise its teachings about morality, justice and ecunemism through his actions, he was an influential man who understood how powerful actions really were and he paved the path for Popes and the Vatican today.