Many people know that St. John Paul II took the name of his
predecessor John Paul I, but do you know the origin of the name “John Paul” or
why the two Popes took the name?
St. John Paul II explained his intentions in his first encyclical:
I chose the
same names that were chosen by my beloved Predecessor John Paul I. Indeed, as
soon as he announced to the Sacred College on 26 August 1978 that he wished to
be called John Paul—such a double name being unprecedented in the history of
the Papacy—I saw in it a clear presage of grace for the new pontificate. Since
that pontificate lasted barely 33 days, it falls to me not only to continue it
but in a certain sense to take it up again at the same starting point. This is
confirmed by my choice of these two names. By following the example of my
venerable Predecessor in choosing them, I wish like him to express my love for
the unique inheritance left to the Church by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI and
my personal readiness to develop that inheritance with God's help.
Through these two names and two pontificates I am linked with the whole
tradition of the Apostolic See and with all my Predecessors in the expanse of
the twentieth century and of the preceding centuries. I am connected, through
one after another of the various ages back to the most remote, with the line of
the mission and ministry that confers on Peter's See an altogether special
place in the Church. John XXIII and Paul VI are a stage to which I wish to
refer directly as a threshold from which I intend to continue, in a certain
sense together with John Paul I, into the future, letting myself be guided by
unlimited trust in and obedience to the Spirit that Christ promised and sent to
his Church.
St. John Paul II
took on the names of these three predecessors, and he carried their legacies on
into the twenty-first century. May he pray for the Church now, that She moves forward in obedience to the Holy Spirit.
St. John Paul II,
Pray for Us!
