WI: A Healthier Pope John XXIII

Pope John XXIII was unexpectedly elected Pope on the 28th of October, 1958. It is widely believed that he was chosen as a 'stop-gap' Pope, an individual who would only hold the position for a short period to give the Church time to groom a successor. It was expected that he would do almost nothing in office and act as a mere placeholder for the next Pope. This particular assumption was proven completely false when he called forth the Second Vatican Council.

Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer on September 23, 1963 and died a few months later. He did not live to see the Council's conclusion in 1965.

What if the Pope did not develop stomach cancer and lived until 1967?
 
Veterum Sapientia

Pope John XXIII was unexpectedly elected Pope on the 28th of October, 1958. It is widely believed that he was chosen as a 'stop-gap' Pope, an individual who would only hold the position for a short period to give the Church time to groom a successor. It was expected that he would do almost nothing in office and act as a mere placeholder for the next Pope. This particular assumption was proven completely false when he called forth the Second Vatican Council.

Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer on September 23, 1963 and died a few months later. He did not live to see the Council's conclusion in 1965.

What if the Pope did not develop stomach cancer and lived until 1967?

This is an interesting WI but not easy to answer. My read on John was that he was the quintessential political pope that wanted to bypass theological issues. Essentially he wanted the Second Vatican Council to do the theological heavy lifting for him. Therefore we should avoid the cliche that had he lived longer he would have permitted artificial contraception, allowed priests to marry and moved towards admitting women to the priesthood.

On the issue of the liturgy I think he would have been more of an incrementalist than Paul. In interesting contrast to his ultraprogressive image, before the council John issued an Apostolic Constitution called Veterum Sapientia that strongly defended the importance of Latin in the Church! And John was less than enamorate of Bugnini.
 
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