The Pope of "exquisite openness" and the Pope of "the family"

from April 27 coverage article by Jim Yardley in New York Times dot-com: Many people also came from John Paul’s native Poland, where he is a hero for his fight against Communism. “It’s a very special day for every Pole, in particular for young people for whom John Paul II meant a new history, for our country and for Europe, as well,” said Lucasz Novak, 38, who came from northeastern Poland on a seven-day tour of holy sites in Italy. “For Poland, it’s a holy moment,” he said from St. Peter’s Square, as he used his smartphone to listen to a live broadcast of the celebration on Vatican Radio’s Polish channel. “For Catholics all over the world, it’s a holy moment. We could not not be here.” For Francis, who has emerged as a major global figure after only a year as pope, the canonization ceremony offered a stage to underscore his broad agenda of trying to bring together different Catholic factions as he prepares for two major meetings in which prelates are expected to address some of the most contentious social issues facing the church. In the days before the ceremony, however, Vatican officials had sought to dispel the political subtext of the event — that the two former popes are icons to different constituencies within the church, and that by canonizing them together, Francis was making a political statement as well as a religious one. John XXIII is a hero to many liberal Catholics for his Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s, which sought to open the church to the modern era. John Paul II is a hero to many conservative Catholics — not only for his anti-Communist heroism and personal charisma, but also because of his resistance to liberalizing elements of the church. By pairing their canonizations, Francis sought to de-emphasize their differences, many analysts said, in the service of trying to reconcile divisions within the church and finding consensus as he prepared for the meetings, known as synods, centered on the theme of family. In his homily, Francis described John XXIII as the pope of “exquisite openness,” while he called John Paul II “the pope of the family.” He said that both themes were especially relevant as the church had embarked on a “two-year journey toward the synod.”