About Blessed John XXIII
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| Birth Name: Angelo Giuseppe RoncalliBorn: 25 November 1881, Sotto il Monte, ItalyDied: 3 June 1963 (aged 81)Ordination: 10 August 1904 by Giuseppe CeppetelliConsecration: 19 March 1925 by Giovanni Tacci PorcelliCreated Cardinal: 12 January 1953
Papacy Began: 28 October 1958 Papacy Ended: 3 June 1963 (4 years, 218 days) Predecessor: Pius XII Successor: Paul VI Beatified: 3 September 2000 by Pope John Paul II |
Elected Pope at the age of 77, on the death of the austere Pius XII in 1958, John XXIII was thought to be just a stop-gap Pontiff. He was not expected to do much, yet in four years his Ecumenical Council transformed the Catholic Church and the Papacy, giving all people a vision and hope for the future.
It was John XXIII’s determined desire for reconciliation and unity not only between Catholics and Protestants but also with Jews, Muslims and people of other faiths, that transformed the Church from what was largely an hierarchical institution into the Church of ‘The People of God’, that is, the laity and pastors, working and praying together for a deeper understanding of the Gospel and for practical ways of embracing and implementing the documents of the Second Vatican Council begun by Pope John XXIII and brought to completion by Pope Paul VI.
It is lived out in our Church communities in the liturgy, the prayer life, the Sacraments, the Councils and all the activities that make up a modern parish. Never had a Pope been so loved, so simple, so accessible, so ordinary. He died on 3 June 1963.
[/wptabcontent] [wptabtitle]His Beatification[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]His Beatification (1881 to 1963) (A Personal Insight from Fr Hugh 2000)
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in a little Italian village called Sotto il Monte, his home Diocese being Bergamo. He was born into a rural farming community which has not changed too much to this day.
Probably the most extraordinary thing to have happened in Sotto il Monte to date is that one of its sons should be elected Pope and Chief Pastor of the Catholic Church in October 1958, when he then took his new name of John XXIII. A new name meant a new pastoral ministry for Don Angelo, as his family called him.
On Sunday, 3 September during this Jubilee Year, John XXIII was proclaimed “Blessed”, which means that his holiness and his great human qualities of love, peace, reconciliation and mutual understanding were recognised by the Catholic community and by other Christians outside the visible unity of the Church. St Peter’s Square in Rome was filled to capacity on this beautiful Sunday morning, with one Italian paper reporting that 100,000 people had gathered together to celebrate the happy memories of Papa Giovanni.
It is true that there were 4 other “Blesseds” declared, but my own impression is that 85-90%, or even 95%, had gathered at St Peter’s in memory of John XXIII. On the way down to St Peter’s I was interviewed by Vatican Radio, and was able to tell the reporter very clearly why I had come to Rome!
When he was ordained a bishop in 1925, John XXIII took just 3 words for his motto:
Obedientia et Pax (Obedience and Peace). They were words which had guided him throughout his student days and his early years in the priestly ministry; these words would also guide his steps as he received different responsibilities in the Church, and in his relationships with other Christians, with Jews, with Muslims and with non-believers too.
Two very wonderful qualities remained with John throughout his long life: he remained a very simple human being, and he remained very attached to his family, to his little village of Sotto il Monte, taking his holidays there until his election to the Papacy. At the elaborate Vatican ceremony to begin his ministry in the See of Peter, in pride of place were his ageing brothers and other family members who had travelled from that little Italian village.
We 12 pilgrims from John XXIII Parish, Geneva, were delighted to be with the other pilgrims in St Peter’s for this wonderful ceremony, at the end of which people were reluctant to leave the Square. For me, it will remain one of those memorable days which I will recall often in Geneva in a Parish dedicated to his memory. His feast day is celebrated on 11 October. Fr Hugh Davoren, CSSp.
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