GOOD POPE SAINT JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD

 

GOOD POPE SAINT JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD

This past week it was my pleasure to celebrate the optional memorial on Tuesday of Pope Saint John XXIII, who died on June 3, 1963.  He was canonized along with Pope John Paul II by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014.  Normally the date of a saint’s death – considered to be the day of his or her birth into heaven – is chosen as the feast day, but October 11 was chosen for Pope John XXIII because it is the anniversary of the opening day of the Second Vatican Council in 1962.  His short five-year pontificate is mostly known for the inauguration of the Council, which was closed in 1965 by another holy pope, Paul VI.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was ordained a priest in 1904 and was made secretary to his bishop in northern Italy, working with him in his many apostolic endeavors until 1914.  During World War I he was called to serve as an army medic and then as a chaplain for miliary hospitals.  In 1920 he was asked by Pope Benedict XV to oversee the work of the Propagation of the Faith in Italy, and in 1925 he was ordained a bishop and began a diplomatic career as the Apostolic Visitor to Bulgaria.  In 1934 he became the apostolic delegate to Turkey and Greece and dedicated himself, among other things, to works of charity and better relations with non-Catholic Christians, especially the Orthodox.  Among his works on behalf of the persecuted Jews during World War II he helped many of them escape from Europe by providing them with transit visas and other paper work.  He intervened with the royalty in Bulgaria and Romania to open the way for Jews to escape and obtained the freedom of Jews imprisoned in a concentration camp in Slovakia. 

In 1953 Bishop Roncalli was called back from France, where he was the apostolic nuncio, and was made Patriarch of Venice by Pope Pius XII.  Just five years later he was unexpectedly elected to succeed Pius XII.  It was thought that, because of his age, he would be a caretaker of the office, but shortly into his papacy he called for an ecumenical council.  Three years later he gave the opening speech to more than two thousand bishops gathered from around the world in St. Peter’s Basilica.  He explained the reason for their gathering: “The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously. That doctrine embraces the whole of man, composed as he is of body and soul. And, since he is a pilgrim on this earth, it commands him to tend always toward heaven.”  He stated that “The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another.”  There had to be aggiornamento, an “updating” in some of the practices of the Church and in her outreach to the world, so that the world might more readily receive the message of salvation.

Divine Providence did not permit Pope John to live until the close of the Council, which was presided over by his successor, Pope Saint Paul VI.  But the papacy of John XXIII had prepared the Church to face the challenges of the modern world, which had been thrown into upheaval by the War, the clash of atheistic ideologies, and the virulent advance of secularism.  The confusion and division in the Church that followed in the years after the Council was the result, in my opinion, of the poor leadership of many bishops and heads of religious orders, of speculative theologians, of confused priests, teachers and catechists, and, dare I say, of bad actors who rejected the actual teaching of the Council and focused on a so-called “spirit of Vatican II,” a creation of their own imagination.      

The Council issued sixteen documents, of which four are the most influential.  It would be worthwhile for every Catholic to be familiar with them.  They can easily be found on the Vatican website and elsewhere.  They are: Sacrosanctum Concilium (On the Sacred Liturgy); Lumen Gentium (The Church in the Modern World); Dei verbum (On Divine Revelation); and Gaudium et spes (The Church in the Modern World).  My theological formation in the seminary centered on these magisterial documents.  In my priesthood I have sought to implement their teachings in the life of the parishes where I have served, following especially the example and leadership of Pope Saint John Paul II, whose goal was to authentically implement the teachings and reforms of Vatican II.  Thank you, Pope Saint John XXIII!  Pray for the People of God on earth as we seek to convince modern man of the good news of salvation.