(1881-1963)
The figure of the good Pope John XIII beats in the History of the Church of the 20th century as a sign of kindness, of welcoming pastoral care and of conciliar renewal.
1. life
His name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. He was born on November 25, 1881, in Sotto il Monte, 12 kilometers from Bergamo, in northern Italy. He was the son of a simple, upright, Christian winegrower. In the home 13 brothers were educated, of which he was the third.
In this homely and numerous environment, a saint and a good and compassionate man were forged. His personality, captivating for his folksiness and his good humor, accompanied him throughout his life. He captivated his parishioners as Parish Priest and Bishop, and the entire world as Pope.
As a child he studied in his town, but he also worked hard in the fields and in the vineyard. He was an altar boy in his parish and there he felt the call to the priesthood. It seems that his companions called him “Angelito, the priest.”
At eleven years old, he was admitted to the Seminary of Bergamo. He manifested a precocious maturity and an admirable piety. He received the tonsure, which implied the use of the ecclesiastical habit, and he stood out for his kindness and academic achievement, and they are his responsibility.
In his “Diary of the Soul” he recalls with charm the joys of his life as a seminarian, but also the struggles he had to carry out his vocation.
In 1901 he obtained a scholarship to study at the Pontifical Athenaeum of San Apollinaris in Rome. A year later he interrupted his studies to carry out compulsory military service for clerics. He did it in the Bergamo infantry regiment. In 1902 he was already a sergeant.
In 1903 he returned to Rome, culminating his theological studies with a doctorate. And on August 10, 1904 he was ordained a priest. His first Mass was celebrated the next day in St. Peter’s Basilica.
In January 1905 he returned to Bergamo to work as personal secretary to his Bishop, Giacomo Tedeschi. He wrote a beautiful biography about such a holy prelate. The first edition appeared in Bergamo in 1916. At the same time that he was secretary, he taught History and Apologetics at the Bergamo Seminary.
He was upright and accommodating with the seminarians, who always remembered him as an excellent animator. He did some research in the Ambrosian Library and shared with its then prefect, Achille Ratti, who would later be Pius XI, research on the work and thought of S. Carlos Borromeo. He later published a work on his research in the form of “Critical edition of the acts of the apostolic visit of Saint Charles Borromeo to Bergamo”.
In 1914 he had to join the army as a sanitary, due to the universal war. He then acted as a military chaplain until 1916. In 1918 he was appointed spiritual director of the Bergamo Seminary.
In January 1921 he was called to Rome to work in the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. He was appointed by Benedict XV “Domestic Prelate of His Holiness”. He was entrusted with the mission of visiting some Italian Bishops and informing them about the reforms that the Pope intended and about his plans to finance the missions. He also made some visits to various Bishops of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France.
In March 1925 Pius XI appointed him Apostolic Visitor in Bulgaria, in whose population and authorities, mostly Orthodox, he made an excellent impression due to his flexibility and personal closeness. He created warm friendships, even though Catholics numbered only about 40,000 in the nation. For this reason he was consecrated Bishop on March 19, 1921.
He was then appointed Apostolic Delegate for Bulgaria itself, a position he held until, in 1934, he was also appointed Apostolic Delegate for Turkey and Greece. He left the Sofia residence and moved to Istanbul and in 1937 to Athens.
Those were difficult years due to the Second World War. With the support of the Holy See and in contact with the Orthodox authorities, he provided valuable assistance to many persecuted and imprisoned. He developed special relations with the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, who from Athens communicated continuously with the Vatican to fight for the salvation of the Jews of Europe who were being exterminated.
The years lived in the East allowed him to better understand the meaning of the disunity of the Churches and gave rise to a singular sensitivity towards Ecumenism.
On December 6, 1944, Pius XII appointed him Nuncio in Paris. He arrived on January 1, 1945. In the eight years that his diplomatic mission lasted, he won the heart of French society. He worked to ease the plight of the German prisoners of war.
In January 1953, at the age of 71, he was elected Cardinal by Pius XII. And he was appointed Patriarch of Venice, a small but very important diocese.
In his diary he wrote then: “In the few years that remain to me, I want to be a pastor in the fullness of the term.” Neither he nor he imagined what he still had to accomplish in the Church. The few years that he spent at the Venetian See he devoted himself to pastoral activities and contacts with ordinary people. Close in dealing with the faithful and with the clergy, he was an admirable and helpful Pastor.
2. His Pontificate
He was 76 years old when, on October 28, 1958, he was elected successor to Pius XII. He wanted to assume the name of the Apostle John, for being his beloved disciple and for wanting to show love to the flock that Christ surprisingly entrusted to him.
Many called his pontificate a “transit stage.” But the facts belied the first impressions. John XXIII was inspired to call an Ecumenical Council, which took everyone by surprise. Three months after being elected Pontiff, three months after being elected Pontiff, on January 25, 1959, the “good Pope” “the “kind Shepherd” the “friendly Shepherd” summoned all the Bishops of the world to a Vatican Council with his authority.
With kindness, energy and vitality, he persuaded everyone of the convenience of this event, making them see that the time had come for the “aggiornamento” of the Church, a term that he himself used in June 1959.
On June 29, 1959, his encyclical “Ad Petri cathedram” was published, where the aims of the Council and the hopes placed in the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church are pointed out.
On June 5, 1960, with the Motu proprio “Supernu Dei nutu”, the preparations officially begin with the appointment of 15 commissions and secretariats.
Juan XXIII followed with special interest the preparations for the Great Assembly. By his decision, a Pastoral Council was held, avoiding mere dogmatic discussions or great disciplinary controversies.
In the radio message “Ecclesia Christi lumen gentium”, of September 11, 1962, he explained to Christianity the scope of such an event, at the same time that he asked everyone for prayers and conversion of life according to the Gospel, calling on all Christians to participate. and welcome. In the Apostolic Constitution “Humanae salutis”, of December 25, 1961, the Council was convoked for the year 1962; and in the Motu proprio “Concilium”, of February 2, 1962, the start date was set for October 11.
At the same time that the Council was preparing itself with the appropriate Commissions and works, the Pontiff’s activity became more intense, without losing an iota of his serenity and smile.
In 1959 he established a Secretariat for the Promotion of the Christian Union, a subject that had burned in his heart since his stay in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. He used to say a phrase that became the motto of the ecumenical movement: “We no longer want to know who was right or who was wrong. We must say only one thing, that we have been separated for many centuries and the time has come to reunite.”
His weekly catechesis and his frequent homilies were responsible for sowing confidence or Christian optimism.
The Council began on October 11, 1962. As soon as it began, the Pope learned of his deadly illness that would soon end his life. His strength of mind was impressive, as was the clarity of his conscience in the hours of the Cross that the Lord provided for him. The sessions of the first conciliar stage ended on December 8. Before its resumption, the Pontiff died on June 3, 1963, leaving all Christians with the memory of a holy shepherd and with the cordial impression of having enjoyed for a few years a singular gift of God in the Church.
John XXIII was beatified by John Paul II on September 3, 2001. In the ceremony he pronounced these words that summed up his admirable figure: “Today we contemplate John XXIII in the glory of the Lord, the Pope who moved the world by the affability of his treatment, which reflected the singular goodness of his heart… The image of the smiling face of Pope John and his open arms to embrace the whole world has remained in the memory of all men. The burst of novelty that he brought to the Church was not in the doctrine, but rather in the manner of expounding it; Her way of speaking and acting was new, and the friendliness with which she approached ordinary people and the powerful of the earth was new.”
3. Documents and catechesis
The Pope’s interventions and documents made him go down in history as a key figure. Despite the shortness of his pontificate, only five years, his catechesis was decisive in the progress of the Church.
More than the depth of the doctrine or the arguments put forward in his weekly homilies, it was his evangelical disposition that injected a blast of freshness into the Church. His closeness and kindness constituted John XXIII’s catechetical style.
3.1. His documents However, his documents were truly a milestone in the ecclesial thought of the conciliar transition. In 1959 he published “Princeps Pastorum” on Evangelization, with an open and encouraging mood. In 1959 he also published the encyclical “Ad Petri Cathedram” (1959) on coexistence in the Church and the need for the Council that he intended to convoke.
In the Apostolic Constitution “Humanae salutis”, of December 25, 1961, he traced the lines of the Council. In 1961 he published his magisterial Encyclical on the Church: “Mater et Magistra”, presenting the Church as the guide of the peoples.
In 1962 he published the “Ecclesia Christi lumen gentium”, also on the Evangelization of the world. In 1962 he published the “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia”, on Ecclesiology. And in 1963 he offered the world the Encyclical “Pacem in terris”, which was like his testament about peace.
He also multiplied his messages and slogans, especially to educators of the faith. Precisely in the Letter to the II Catechetical Congress of Venice, on April 22, 1961, he offered one of the most beautiful definitions that have been given of catechesis. “It is the systematic and orderly teaching of Christian doctrine, revealed by God and transmitted by the Church, to be known and lived by each…