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Pope John XXIII




 Blessed John XXIII, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, (1881-1963) was Pope from
 1958 to 1963.

Angelo Roncalli was born in Sotto il Monte, Italy on November 25, 1881. The
fourth in a family of fourteen, his family worked as sharecroppers, a
striking contrast to the royally born Eugenio Pacelli, John's predecessor as
pope. Roncalli was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the church of Santa
Maria in Monte Santo in Rome's Piazza del Popolo in 1905. In 1915 he was
drafted into the Royal Italian army as a sergeant in the medical corp and 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 named him
Apostolic Visitator in Bulgaria, raising him to the level of bishop with the
titular Diocese of Areopolis. He chose as his Episcopal motto Oboedientia et
Pax, which became his guiding motto. In 1935 he was named Apostolic Delegate
to Turkey and Greece. In 1944, Pope Pius XII named him Apostolic Nuncio in
Paris. When he was made a cardinal, the French president claimed the ancient
privilege possessed by French monarchs and gave him the red hat at a
ceremony in the Elysee Palace. In 1953, along with becoming cardinal, he was
made patriarch of Venice.

Following the death of Pope Pius XII, Roncalli was to his own great surprise
elected pope. He was chosen largely for one reason only, his age. After the
long pontificate of his dominating predecessor, the cardinals chose a man
they presumed because of his great age and personal modesty would be a short
"stop-gap" pope. What they did not expect was that Pope John's personal
warmth, good humour and kindness would capture the world's affections in a
way his predecessor, for all his great learning, failed to do. He visited
prisoners in a gaol, 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 manner 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 more than 500 years that a head of the Anglican Church had visited the Pope.

Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro on January 3, 1962 in accordance
with Roman Catholic teaching.

Known affectionately as "Good Pope John" to many people, John XXIII was
declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II, a step on the road to sainthood.

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