Frank Bruni reflects on the lengthy pontificate of JP2

Scholars and Vatican officials and analysts said in recent interviews that the amount of time John Paul had spent in office had exponentially increased his effect on both the church and the papacy itself.

Most obviously, the accumulation of years has given John Paul all the more time to fashion and refashion the Vatican and the College of Cardinals to his liking, with his own loyalists, and to curry their affection, said several Vatican officials and those who study church matters.

“To a certain extent, the discussion inside the church has been replaced by devotion to the Holy Father,” said Prof. Alberto Melloni, a church historian in Bologna.