Popes

We have no record of why Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor. All we have is a record of the event and the fact that Charlemagne claimed he did not expect it to happen. The result is that the question is the subject of debate and differences of opinion.

I have read the view of some historians that the West was ready for the restoration of the Roman Empire, and had the belief that crowning Charlemagne emperor would facilitate this, to the benefit of all the people in Europe.

I have also read that Leo III may have believed the government of the Byzantine Empire, which never gave up calling itself the Roman Empire, was illegal because it was headed by a woman, Empress Irene. This leads to further speculation about what he intended to do with separate Roman Empires of the East and West, with the possibility that uniting them was envisioned.

And, of course, there are a number of other opinions, including the idea that Leo III merely wanted to express thanks that Charlemagne had saved him from a mob that had attacked him.
Nobody knows exactly why this is. Even so, Charlemagne was never really emperor. He was king of the Franks, a people who lived in modern day France and Germany. He lived 300 years after the true western half of Rome fell. The eastern half, Byzantium, already had a leader.

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Pope Leo X is remembered for his decadent lifestyle and for his aggressive simony, including his approach to selling indulgences, which indirectly led to the Protestant Reformation.

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Other religions and even other Christian denominations are unconcerned whether Saint Peter was the first pope, leaving that as an internal matter for the Catholic Church itself. However, scholars are concerned to establish what really happened. Francis A. Sullivan SJ (From Apostles to Bishops) says that there is a general agreement among scholars, including Catholic scholars, that the church of Rome was led by a council of presbyters until well into the second century, with no evidence of a ruling bishop. This alone is circumstantial evidence that Peter was not the first bishop of Rome, as any precedent he set as sole, monarchical bishop of the city, could be expected to be followed by the church of Rome after his death. Moreover, the author of 1 Clement, writing from Rome a few decades later, seems unaware that Peter had ever been to Rome although he wrote in general terms about Peter's suffering and death: "There was Peter who by reason of unrighteous jealousy endured not one not one but many labours, and thus having borne his testimony went to his appointed place of glory." On the most objective evidence we have, Peter probably never led the church of Rome.

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In some ways, Pope John Paul II opened the Catholic Church to the outside world. He was the first pope to leave Italy since 1809, and the first to visit the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia as pope. So one of his legacies is that the Vatican would become less insular in its view of the world. He apologised for some of the past wrongs committed by the Catholic Church, once again making the Church a little less defensive in protecting its version of history.

His legacy must also include his failure to reform the Church. Pope John Paul II became pope when the two great evils of clerical paedophilia and systemic corruption within the Catholic Church were becoming known. He had the responsibility to lead the Church out of this mire, but ultimately he failed.

John Paul II has been criticised for not recognising the full severity of the sex abuse cases until they erupted in America in 2002. It is said that he hindered the investigation into the charges of sexual immorality levelled against Father Marcial Maciel Degollado and allowed bishops to transfer paedophile priests from one parish to another instead of reporting their crimes to the authorities. John Paul is also accused of hindering Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who allegedly was attempting to prevent sex abuse.

Systemic corruption and financial malpractice were being identified at the highest levels within the Vatican, but far from showing leadership in dealing with these matters, he turned a blind eye.