20th Century Popes

St. Pius X

• Born in 1835• Papacy: 1903-1914• Advocate of Gregorian Chants and

Eucharistic celebration• Strongly opposed modernism

Pope Benedict XV

• Born in 1854• Papacy: 1914-1922• Intervened for peace during World War I• Remembered as a “Prophet of Peace” • Revised Code of Canon Law

Pope Pius XI

• Born in 1857• Papacy: 1922-1939• Signed Lateran Treaty making Vatican

City a sovereign State• Created Vatican Radio• Created the Feast of Christ the King

Pope Pius XII

• Born in 1876• Papacy: 1939-1958• Invoked Papal Infallibility to declare

Assumption of Mary• Eliminated Italian majority of the

Cardinals• Intervened for Peace during World War II

and the Holocaust

St. John XXIII

• Born in 1881• Papacy: 1958-1963• Called the Second Vatican Council• Advocate for Dialogue and Peace• Issued Encyclical Pacem in Terris• Helped moderate in the Cuban Missile Crisis

Pope Paul VI

• Born in 1897• Papacy: 1963-1978• First Pope since 1809 to travel outside of Italy• First Pope to travel to U.S.A. and Australia• Presided over most of Vatican II• Promulgated Humane Vitae

Pope John Paul I

• Born in 1912• Papacy: August 26-September 28, 1978• Got ride of the Triple Tiara and papal

coronations• Died of Heart Attack• Known by Italians as Il Papa del Sorriso

(The Smiling Pope)

Pope John Paul II

• Born Karol Wojtyla in 1920• Papacy: 1978-2005• First non-Italian Pope in half a century• Instrumental in the fall of Communism• First Pope to visit Canada• Third longest papacy • Founded World Youth Day in 1984