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Pope John Xxiii - This article deals with the 20th century pope John XXIII. There was also an antipope who used the name John XXIII
The Blessed Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, (November 25, 1881 – June 3, 1963) was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from October 28, 1958 until his death. Angelo Roncalli was born in Sotto il Monte (province of Bergamo), Italy, on November 25, 1881. The fourth in a family of fourteen, his family worked as sharecroppers, a striking contrast to his predecessor, Eugenio Pacelli, who came from an ancient aristocratic family, long connected to the Papacy. Roncalli was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the church of Santa Maria in Monte Santo on Rome's Piazza del Popolo in 1905. Ten years later, during World War I, he was drafted into the Royal Italian Army as a sergeant, serving in the medical corps and as a chaplain. In 1921, Pope Benedict XV appointed him the Italian president of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In 1925 Pope Pius XI appointed him as apostolic visitor to Bulgaria, also naming him for consecration as titular Bishop of Areopolis. He chose as his episcopal motto Obedientia et Pax (Obedience and Peace), which became his guiding motto. In 1935 he was made Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece. In 1944, during World War II, Pope Pius XII named him Apostolic Nuncio to Paris. In 1953, he was named the Patriarch of Venice, and, accordingly, raised to the rank of cardinal. As a sign of his esteem, President Charles de Gaulle of France claimed the ancient privilege possessed by French monarchs and bestowed the red hat on the now-Cardinal Roncalli at a ceremony in the Elysee Palace. Of his time in France, John later related in a humorous account that when a woman in a daringly low-cut dress arrived at a reception which he was attending, the people assembled in the room did not watch the woman, but rather, they watched him to see if he was watching the woman.
Pope John's Coat of Arms
Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was, to his own great surprise, elected pope. For the longest time, Archbishop Montini, Archbishop of Milan, was the leading candidate. Though he was named to head one of the most ancient and prominent archdioceses in Italy, Pius had refused to elevate Montini to the rank of cardinal. As a result, Montini was shut out of the following election, and the cardinals in the conclave considered him not to be available—in spite of canon law that said any Roman Catholic male could be chosen. After the long pontificate of John's dominating predecessor, the cardinals chose a man whom they presumed, because of his advanced age and personal modesty, would be a short "stop-gap" pope. The Cardinals reasoned that by the time this "stop-gap" Pope died, Montini would probably have been raised to the Cardinalate, and be available for election. In fact, it was one of Roncalli's first acts as Pope to raise Montini to that rank. What the cardinals and the rest of the church did not expect was that Pope John's personal warmth, good humor and kindness would capture the world's affections in a way his predecessor, for all his great learning and personal holiness, had failed to do. While Pius would look slightly away and up from the camera whenever his photograph was taken, John would look directly at the camera and smile. He undertook the first official act of a Pope off Vatican property since 1870. It was to visit prisoners, telling them, "You could not come to me, so I came to you." When the first lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy, arrived in the Vatican to see him, he began nervously rehearsing the two methods of address he had been advised to use when she entered: "Mrs. Kennedy, Madame" or "Madame, Mrs. Kennedy". When she did arrive, however, to the amusement of the press corps, he abandoned both and rushed to her saying, "Jackie!" Nor did Pope John's radicalism stop at his informality. To the astonishment and horror of aides, he called an ecumenical council less than ninety years after the controversial Vatican Council. While his aides talked of spending a decade in preparation, John planned to hold it in a matter of months. From the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, came changes that reshaped the face of Catholicism: a new Mass, a new ecumenism and a new approach to the world. He met the Most Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for about an hour in the Vatican on December 2, 1960. It was the first time in 400 years, since the excommunication of Elizabeth I, that Canterbury had met with the Pope. Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro on January 3, 1962 in line with a 1949 decree by Pope Pius XII forbidding Catholics from supporting communist governments. Known affectionately as "Good Pope John" to many people, John XXIII was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II, the next-to-last step on the road to sainthood. He is also honored by many Protestant organizations as a Christian reformer. Both Anglican and Lutheran denominations commemorate John XXIII as a "renewer of the church." Modern conspiracy theories Many conservative Catholics—those who disagree with Vatican II—have derided Pope John's influence in this area, seeing in him the beginnings of a movement away from the true faith. Many who follow the teachings of Our Lady of Fatima also believe that Pope John deliberately withheld secret prophetic information revealed by an apparition of the Virgin Mary. http://www.crc-internet.org/dec97.htm This is perhaps the basis for internet reports in the late 1990s about the supposed discovery of Pope John's diary where he received prophetic insight into the future, including the return of Jesus in New York in 2000. http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/pope.html Although Pope John did have a diary (Journey of a Soul, ISBN 0225668955) there is no evidence to suggest that he received apocalyptic visions of the future. http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Nov1996/feature1.asp External links John XXIII John XXIII John 23 John 23 John 23
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