November 7, 2025

Europeans often ask and Americans do not often explain, how it happens that this great office [the presidency], the greatest in the world, unless we except the Papacy, to which any man may rise by his own merits, is not more frequently filled by great and striking men.

James Bryce (1838–1922), British diplomat, The American Commonwealth (1888), vol.1, Jay p.61

If the American presidency and the papacy are in fact the two greatest offices in the world to which a man may rise by his own merits, which presidents and popes, if any, qualify as great and striking men—considering only those popes since the time of George Washington?

I suspect that if the latter—the popes—come off better, the official explanation will be the intercession of the Holy Ghost.