14 JUNE 1963, Page 9

Beyond the Good

This was in marked contrast to the universal outpouring of respect and even love which followed a week or two later when it became known that the Man of Sin was dying. Not many public figures in our age have been lamented by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Moderator of the General Assembly, Mr. Khrushchev and Lord Russell, and one had the feeling (which one doesn't always have on these occasions) that the grief, respect—even the love—were genuine. All popes in modern times 'are great and good,' to quote a quite remarkably bad hymn. Some are greater and gooder than others. John XXIII was one of these.