Remarkable rundown of popes, bishops, and cardinals in the last 75 years, recounting how it was often a bishop or cardinal’s duty to go against papal policy as regards dealing with rulers.

All popes have their favorites in the US. However, papal favor is not equivalent to wise pastoral leadership.

Not, notably, for two Poles, for instance:

The single greatest churchman of the 20th century, save for his “junior” partner, a certain Karol Wojtyła, was the soon to be beatified Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Warsaw, who battled the communists as Primate of Poland for 33 years, 1948-1981. He found himself at odds with Vatican policy for much of that time. First, under the Venerable Pius XII, when senior Roman officials thought that he was too accommodating, and then later, under St. Paul VI, when the Vatican thought him not accommodating enough.

Oh, that paragraph began with the sentence, “Historically, Archbishop…