THE GREAT LEGACY OF ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II WAS HIS DESIRE IN 1978 TO RESTORE THE GREAT DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH THAT HAD BEEN SQUANDERED IN THE PREVIOUS 10 TO 12 YEARS, 1966 TO 1978

What we have seen with Pope Francis’ papacy is a return to the period of 1966 - 1978 and the liturgical, moral and doctrinal laxity of that period. All this laxity affected the clergy first, as almost immediately following 1966 an unprecedented numbers of priests formed in the discipline of the Pre-Vatican II Church were leaving their life-long commitment to celibacy and getting married, usually to sisters/nuns in solemn vows. There was complete confusion in religious life and a flip/flop of an unimaginable proportion that stripped most women’s religious orders of the reasons why they exist. Today, the legacy women’s orders that staffed schools, hospitals and social services are gone or almost gone. They are on life-support. 

The John Jay Report indicated that these pre-Vatican II disciplined priests/bishops, once liberated from that discipline were the ones who sexually abused minors and vulnerable adults with the peak in the number of these liberated priests abusing people to be 1974, just 10 years after the smoke of Satan entered the cracks in the foundation of the Church and her great discipline. 

There was liturgical chaos led by bishops, priests and religious. In dismantling the pre-Vatican II Liturgies and experimenting in wild ways with the Bugnini Mass, they also went after popular devotions, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Rosary and all kinds of culturally based popular devotions, like the cult of the saints, novenas, Stations of the Cross and the most pernicious and diabolical, the Blessed Sacrament reserved in churches in a central place, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Processions and perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in local parishes.

Two liturgical recent events with bishops appointed by Pope Leo and I don’t blame the pope for anyone he appoints, is how their Mass of Ordination (Vienna’s) and the Installation Mass of the new Archbishop of New York were celebrated. 

Even Episcopal liturgies are in crisis with continued creativity, novel liberties and folksiness and yes an entertaining spirit. The Installation Rite of Archbishop Hicks was laughable. If someone was Rip Van Winkle, falling to sleep in 1965 and waking up in time to go to Archbishops Hick’s Installation Mass, they would wonder where in the hell they were and if in fact they were sent to hell. They would not recognize that Liturgy as Catholic and not even as Protestant. It was neither fish nor fowl. That Installation Rite in no way was in continuity with the pre-Vatican II Rite or the Actual Revised Rite that is mandated to be used in 2026! It was an entertainment mess, a spectacle in the true sense, not the spectacle that Cardinal Cupich describes as the Pre-Vatican II Mass. 

The liturgy, though,  is but one symptom of what has happened to the Church in the past 13 years with the recovery of the 1966-1978 Church. Unity can never come from the pathology of that period.

Thus Pope Leo would do well to recover what St. Pope John Paul II initiated during his long papacy and what Pope Benedict XVI, a doctor of the Church, continued:

This is from AI:

Pope John Paul II's papacy (1978–2005) was marked by a deliberate effort to reestablish an apostolic and pastoral Church rooted in tradition, orthodoxy, discipline, and hierarchy following the tumultuous post-Vatican II period

. His goal was to stabilize the Church by encouraging a "re-disciplined" institution capable of digesting the reforms of the previous two decades, rather than continuing to change them. 

Key aspects of his desire to restore the "great discipline" of the Church included:

• 1983 Code of Canon Law: He promulgated the new Code of Canon Law, explicitly stating that the Church's task is to adapt its canonical discipline to the mission of the Church while maintaining fidelity to its divine founder.
• Liturgical Sanity: Addressing the "wreckovations" and liturgical abuses that followed Vatican II, John Paul II undertook initiatives to restore beauty, reverence, and respect for the past in the liturgy. He emphasized strict adherence to norms, the proper use of Latin, and promoted traditional liturgical music.
• Restoring Authority and Doctrine: He worked to rein in theological dissent by reinforcing Catholic identity in education, notably through Ex corde Ecclesiae (1990) and Veritatis Splendor (1993), which aimed to ensure doctrinal orthodoxy.
• Hierarchical Discipline: He appointed bishops dedicated to orthodox, traditional teaching and, along with Cardinal Ratzinger, acted against proponents of "liberation theology" and dissident theologians.
• Reviving Tradition: He reintroduced traditional practices, such as the public Corpus Christi procession in Rome, which had previously faded.
• Theological Foundation: He balanced the "spirit of Vatican II" with a deep, traditional Thomistic philosophy and respect for the Church's historical continuity. 
• The promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

While aiming for this restoration, John Paul II was noted for using a "gradualist" approach—teaching, correcting, and encouraging rather than solely relying on heavy disciplinary sanctions.