Ever since the installation of Angelo Roncalli as Pope John XXIII in 1958, the successors of St. Peter have established a pattern: pope as disruptor, followed by pope as caretaker.
John XXIII declared his disruption less than three months after his election, calling for the Second Vatican Council on Jan. 25, 1959. Pope Paul VI then became a caretaker of John XXIII’s mandate upon his election in 1963.
Pope John Paul I showed signs of a disruptive papacy but died barely one month after his election in 1978. Pope John Paul II took up the role of disruptor with a papacy aimed at reinstating orthodoxy as opposed to Vatican II reforms. Pope Benedict XVI was then elected in 2005 to continue guiding the church in that direction.
Elected in 2013 following Benedict’s retirement, Pope Francis was accurately summed up by Michael Higgins: The Jesuit Disruptor.
Every disruptor performed some caretaking, of course, and every caretaker created some of his own disruptions. But the pattern is a useful framework to consider the recent history of the papacy and to imagine its immediate future. It’s too soon to know for sure, but early indications are that Pope Leo XIV will caretake the disruptions initiated by his predecessor, and perhaps initiate some of his own.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Vincent F. Rocchio, where this article originally appeared.
