Pope Paul VI

An overview

A man of many virtues, Pope Paul VI spent his pontificate plagued by attacks from all sides. Liberals condemned him on Humanæ Vitæ and for not reforming the Church and its curia further. Conservatives within the Church condemned him as too liberal and for "destroying the Tridentine Mass". Other conservatives on the far right condemned him as an anti-pope (an illegitimate and invalid pope, a claim that had not been made against a reigning pope for centuries). It was claimed by some conservative Catholics that the real Pope Paul was kept drugged in the Vatican while an actor "played" his role publicly. Even today there are websites devoted to comparing pictures of Pope Paul in the 1960s and the 1970s to "prove" that the Holy Father seen in public in the latter decade was not the real Pope Paul at all but an Italian actor put in his place by leading liberal cardinals as a political decoy. Few however give such theories any credence.

Related Topics:
Tridentine Mass - Anti-pope - 1960s - Political decoy

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[[Image:P6orthodox.jpg|right|thumb|Pope Paul VI meets Patriarch Athenagoras of

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Constantinople in 1964]]

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Pope Paul presided over a Church in transition from the pre- to the post-Vatican II eras. That transition witnessed the most fundamental revision of Roman Catholic liturgy in centuries, a changing priesthood (marked by a wave of priests leaving the priesthood in the easier method provided by Pope Paul), a changing world in which non-marital sex became widespread, as did the legalisation of abortion and homosexuality and the liberalisation of divorce laws. Towering over Paul VI's pontificate remains Humanæ Vitæ and its teaching on sexuality, which some regard as an inspiring statement of Christian sexual morality, while others regard it as a colossal blunder that saw the Church opt out of the modern world and retreat to a nineteenth-century world that on sexuality at least was more in touch with the papal absolutism of Pope Pius IX than the collegiality epitomised by Vatican II.

Related Topics:
Nineteenth-century - Pope Pius IX - Collegiality - Vatican II

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Whatever the reality, the negative public response to Humanæ Vitæ deeply wounded Pope Paul, who, according to close friends, withdrew into himself and became increasingly critical of, and alienated from, a world he saw as being conquered by evil. It was noteworthy that after Humanæ Vitæ in 1968 he issued no further encyclicals for the rest of his reign. At one point, Paul even said that he understood why Saint Peter went back to Rome—it was to be crucified.

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Pope Paul VI died of a heart attack in Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence, in August 1978 following a long illness.

Related Topics:
Heart attack - Castel Gandolfo

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On May 11,1993 the diocesan process for the beatification of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI was initiated by Pope John Paul II, placing him on the path towards possible sainthood.

Related Topics:
May 11 - 1993 - Beatification - Servant of God - Pope John Paul II - Sainthood

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