Paul VI's anniversary was this weekend.

It was June 23, 1963 when Giovanni Montini ascended the Throne of St. Peter as Pope Paul VI. I came to the conclusion a while back that this man might have been the most hated guy of the entire decade of the 60s. On the one hand, you had the Catholics who were outraged by his laxity in dealing with the post-Conciliar madness that gripped the Church. On the other hand, you had heretics who despised him for his interventions during Vatican II which thwarted some of the more extreme measures sponsored by the progressives. Not to mention that little ditty known as Humanae Vitae.

Personally, I feel a great deal of pity for him. His time as pope was mostly a disaster. If you read some of the books that discuss him, he just seems to be a guy in waaaay over his head. The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber actually describes him as breaking down and weeping openly upon discovering the deceits being practiced by the progressives at Vatican II. We should be praying for him.

I'm already into the shpiel he gave on the promulgation of the Pauline Mass. I'll be doing some further digging into what we saw from Paul VI over his 15 year pontificate with a big blowout on the anniversary of Humanae Vitae in July. Stay tuned.