Tradcatknight: The Day John Podesta, ‘Spiritual Cooking’ Aficionado and Lover of ‘Pizza’, Met the Future "Saint", John Paul II

I am writing from Rome, where Congressman Xavier Becerra, the President’s Director of Legislative Affairs Katie Beirne Fallon, and I had the honor of serving as the Presidential Delegation to the Holy See. Yesterday, we, along with U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Kenneth Hackett and his wife Joan, attended the historic canonization Mass for Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

In different ways, John XXIII and John Paul II defined what it meant to be Catholic in the 20th century. Their influence and their example as men of humility, compassion, service, and faith provide profound lessons to people around the world.

Pope John XXIII took leadership of the Church around the time I took my First Communion, at St. Edward’s Parish on the Northwest Side of Chicago. Seventy-six years old when he was elected, there were few who imagined the former Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli as a revolutionary. But the man we know today as il Papa buono, the Good Pope, was not content to let the Church go on as it always had.

By convening the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII built a radically more inclusive Catholic Church, and he himself became a symbol of change and of the power of faith. John spoke to the faithful in simple terms, and addressed his last encyclical, Pacem in Terris — Peace on Earth — to “all men of good will.” The Second Vatican Council drove profound changes in the practice of the Catholic faith. Because of Pope John XXIII, the Mass is celebrated in vernacular languages, rather than in inaccessible Latin. Because of Pope John XXIII, the priest faces his congregation during services. These aren’t cosmetic changes. They go to the heart of how millions of people practice their faith, and profoundly impact how they feel about their lives.