These two Popes have much in common, starting from the choice of their names upon their election. Fifty years after the death and the impending canonisation of John XXIII, comparisons are being made with Pope Francis.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, from Sotto il Monte, Bergamo, soon after his election showed he would make changes in the Church. He chose the name John, breaking a 175-year pattern of traditional names like Gregory, Leo, Pius or Benedict.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was chosen ‘from the end of the world’, achieved two new records. The first was that he was the first Pope from the Society of Jesus, once suppressed by the Pope.

The other was in choosing the name Francis. No one before him dared to be brave enough to choose the name of such a popular 13th century saint, loved for his humility, poverty, simplicity and humanity.

G. K. Chesterton in his interesting book on the saint wrote that Pope Francis is “the closet Saint to Christ Himself”.

There is a striking resemblance at first sight between John and Francis. Both were 76 when elected Bishops of Rome, a title much loved by both in preference to that of Pope.

The Cardinal electors of Roncalli wanted a short-term compromise. Many convinced themselves he would be “a good chubby Pope”. However, in less than a month after his election he turned 77 and he did not show signs of good health. In fact, he hardly lasted 54 months before he died of cancer.

Pope John surprised everyone when he announced he had to call a Second Vatican Council. As he stated, he “opened a window in the Vatican and in came the Holy Spirit”.

In this Council he wanted to assemble the bishops of the world. There had been only 20 such general councils in the Church’s history. The Second Vatican Council addressed the Church’s attention to its mission in the modern world, particularly through justice, dialogue, ecumenism, liturgy and the role of the laity.

For this mission we now have Pope Francis, who turned 77 last December. Through his words and gestures he is giving a new direction towards reform, renewal and change in implementing to the full Vatican II. When Pope John XXIII called the Council, the young Bergoglio has just entered the novitiate of the Jesuits. It is now his mission through communion with the world bishops to give new life to Vatican II.

Like Pope John, Pope Francis is a man of dialogue, collegiality and ecumenism. When Pope John called the Council, his intention was “an invitation to the separated communities to seek the unity for which so many souls are longing in these days throughout the world”.

The years he spent as Papal Nuncio in Turkey made him deeply conscious of the need for unity and also for the vernacular in the Mass. In 1960 he reached out to the Jews and after his death in 1964, Vatican II included inter-religious dialogue, also with Muslims.

Pope Francis is following in these footsteps. In addressing the diplomatic corps he appreciated “the presence of so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world” at his installation as Bishop of Rome. In a very determined manner he declared that he wants “to intensify dialogue among the various religions”, just like John and his predecessors. On top of his agenda, he placed “in a particular manner dialogue with Islam”.

Like his model St Francis of Assisi, who distanced himself from Pope Innocent III and the clergy accompanying the Fifth Crusade, Francis is going to Jerusalem to dialogue with Muslims and the Orthodox Church.

After his inauguration, he spent an hour in private conversation with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the head of the Eastern Orthodoxy. It was also an unprecedented gesture for the Patriarch of Constantinople to attend the Vatican inauguration.

During the visit to Jerusalem, he will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic fraternal embrace between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras. In all these encounters, Francis is presented as Bishop of Rome and not Pope, which is very much appreciated by the Orthodox Church.

Pope John was ‘a builder of bridges’ on many major international issues. His famous encyclical Pacem in terris was addressed to “all men of good will”. It came out at a very crucial moment, when there was great fear of a global nuclear war. Six months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, on April 11, 1963, he opened a dialogue with believers and non-believers, communists and atheists.

In the short span of his pontificate, Pope John, known as ‘Il Papa Buono’, with the Vatican Council, and his ‘bontà’ won the hearts of Catholics and non-Catholics. He also showed, as some have predicted, that he was not an ‘old caretaker Pope’.

All this brings him very close to Pope Francis, who has many of the same traits of personality. Humility, simplicity, holiness and even humour make them two of the same kind.

We can see how open Pope Francis is to dialogue and his first love are the poor, the homeless, the sick and children. A very nice gesture was his invitation to four poor men, who slept under the colonnade of St Peter’s Square, to breakfast on his birthday. Francis very much follows the Franciscan spirit in his way of life and the gift of ‘spiritual discernment’ of the Jesuits. It is this spirit from the time when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires that we are witnessing today.

Like Pope John, Pope Francis is a man of dialogue, collegiality and ecumenism

One of the most touching gestures was when we saw him on Holy Thursday bowing down before a Muslim woman prisoner to wash her feet. Also of significance is his kneeling down to receive the blessing of a celebrated Evangelical preacher, his fondness towards “our elder brothers” the Jews, his hugging of children, kissing of the sick, the telephone calls to people who write to him in distress, the use of a small car and so many other gestures which come from his very human heart.

Like Pope John, Pope Francis does not want to pontificate alone. John called the Vatican Council and Francis the eight cardinal consultors, the Synod of Bishops on the Family and the setting of various commissions, of which two Maltese form part, namely Mgr Alfred Xuereb and Joe F. X. Zahra.

Through these, Francis wants to ‘rebuild the Church’ and I am glad he wants to start from the very foundation of society, the family. He extends a loving heart towards the family, the separated and divorcees, to whom many hope he will administer the Eucharist.

John XXIII reformed the Church through Vatican II, though he did not have the time to bring about the many reforms he envisaged. His successors John Paul II, who will be canonised with him, and Benedict XVI, in a different way continued his work.

There is now consensus that Pope Francis is the closest to John XXII, as he has the determination, the courage and openness, through the Holy Spirit, to restore all things in Christ. To achieve all this he has asked for our prayers and help.

Mgr Charles Vella is the founder of the Cana Movement.