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Francis beatifies Pope Paul VI, sends message about staying current

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, left, waits for Pope Francis, second from right, at the beatification of Pope Paul VI and a Mass for the closing of a two-week synod on family issues.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, left, waits for Pope Francis, second from right, at the beatification of Pope Paul VI and a Mass for the closing of a two-week synod on family issues.
(Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)
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Pope Francis beatified Pope Paul VI on Sunday, and appeared to send a message to his conservative bishops by pointedly honoring Paul’s attempt to make the Vatican move with the times in the 1960s.

The beatification ceremony for Paul VI in St. Peter’s Square, which was attended by 70,000, followed the closure of a two-week synod on the family, at which hard-line prelates voted to sideline moves by Francis’ supporters to welcome gays into the church and consider ways to end a ban on Communion for divorced and remarried Roman Catholics.

In his homily at the beatification Mass, Francis recalled how Paul VI had set up the first synod of bishops in 1965 and quoted him as saying that “by carefully surveying the signs of the times, we are making every effort to adapt ways and methods … to the growing needs of our time and the changing conditions of society.”

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Elected in 1963, as the baby boom generation began to relax rigid social norms in the West, Paul VI pushed on with the Vatican II council launched by his predecessor, John XXIII. The council introduced Mass in local languages, rather than just Latin, and forged ties with other religions. He was also the first pope to leave Italy in more than a century and the first to visit the United States, where he met President Johnson and decried the Vietnam War in an address at the United Nations in 1965.

“When we look to this great pope, this courageous Christian, this tireless apostle, we cannot but say in the sight of God a word as simple as it is heartfelt and important: Thanks!” Francis said Sunday.

Francis was joined at the ceremony by his predecessor, the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, who has retreated to a secluded life of prayer at the Vatican since he resigned in February 2013.

Benedict previously joined Francis in April for the canonizations of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII.

Paul’s beatification was made possible when the Vatican certified the miraculously healthy birth of a boy, despite predictions he would suffer serious birth defects, to a mother who had prayed to Paul. Should the Vatican attribute a second miracle to Paul, he will qualify for canonization and be made a saint.

Born Giovanni Battista Montini in northern Italy in 1897, Paul VI led the church for 15 years, creating a secretariat for non-Christians, making cardinals retire at 80 from the conclaves that elect popes and doubling the number of Vatican embassies around the world.

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He was the first pope to fly and the first to visit six continents, earning the nickname “the Pilgrim Pope.” He survived an attack by a knife-wielding man during a visit to the Philippines in 1970.

For the Record

Oct. 19, 5:18 p.m.: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Pope Paul VI escaped unharmed when a knife-wielding man tried to stab him in the Philippines in 1970. The pope was stabbed in the chest but survived.

Amid his moves to bring the church into the 20th century, Paul stood firm on opposition to artificial birth control, resisting growing calls to change doctrine with the advent of the contraceptive pill.

Kington is a special correspondent.

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