The Right Pope at the Right Time

  

Monsignor Arthur Holquin, S.T.L., is a retired Catholic priest of the Diocese of Orange and retired rector of Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano.

Born in 1948, I have now lived through eight pontificates: Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis — and now Leo. Each name carries its own theological tonality, its own historical signature, its own particular gift to the Church and to the world. And each, I have always believed and church history bears out, was given to us not by sociological inevitability but by the providence of the Holy Spirit, who has a way of giving the Church the right Pope at the right time for the times in which we are living.