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Roncalli met with Domenico Tardini to discuss his new appointment, and their conversation suggested that Tardini did not approve of it. One curial prelate referred to Roncalli as an "old fogey" while speaking with a journalist. Roncalli left Ankara on 27 December on a series of short-haul flights that took him to several places, such as Beirut , Cairo and Naples. He left for France the next day to commence his newest role.
Among his efforts were:.
We are conscious today that many, many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes so that we can no longer see the beauty of Thy chosen people nor recognise in their faces the features of our privileged brethren. We realize that the mark of Cain stands upon our foreheads.
Across the centuries our brother Abel has lain in blood which we drew, or shed tears we caused by forgetting Thy love. Forgive us for the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we know not what we did. On 7 September , the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation launched the International Campaign for the Acknowledgement of the humanitarian actions undertaken by Vatican Nuncio Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli for people, most of whom were Jewish, persecuted by the Nazi regime.
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has carried out exhaustive historical research related to different events connected with interventions of Nuncio Roncalli in favour of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. Until now, [ when? In , the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation submitted a massive file the Roncalli Dossier to Yad Vashem, with a strong petition and recommendation to bestow upon him the title of Righteous among the Nations. After he played an active role in gaining Catholic Church support for the establishment of the state of Israel.
His support for Zionism and the establishment of Israel was the result of his cultural and religious openness toward other faiths and cultures, and especially concern with the fate of Jews after the war. He was one of the Vatican's most sympathetic diplomats toward Jewish immigration to Palestine, which he saw as a humanitarian issue, and not a matter of Biblical theology. Roncalli received a message from Mgr. Montini on 14 November asking him if he would want to become the new Patriarch of Venice in light of the nearing death of Carlo Agostini.
Furthermore, Montini said to him via letter on 29 November that Pius XII had decided to raise him to the cardinalate. Roncalli knew that he would be appointed to lead the patriarchy of Venice due to the death of Agostini, who was to have been raised to the rank of cardinal. On 15 March , he took possession of his new diocese in Venice. It was around this time that he, with the aid of Monsignor Bruno Heim , formed his coat of arms with a lion of Saint Mark on a white ground. Auriol also awarded Roncalli three months later with the award of Commander of the Legion of Honour.
Roncalli decided to live on the second floor of the residence reserved for the patriarch, choosing not to live in the first floor room once resided in by Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, who later became Pope Pius X. On 29 May , the late Pius X was canonized and Roncalli ensured that the late pontiff's patriarchal room was remodelled into a the year of the new saint's papal election look in his honor. With Pius X's few surviving relatives, Roncalli celebrated a mass in his honor. His sister Ancilla would soon be diagnosed with stomach cancer in the early s.
Roncalli's last letter to her was dated on 8 November where he promised to visit her within the next week. He could not keep that promise, as Ancilla died on 11 November at the time when he was consecrating a new church in Venice. He attended her funeral back in his hometown.
In his will around this time, he mentioned that he wished to be buried in the crypt of Saint Mark's in Venice with some of his predecessors rather than with the family in Sotto il Monte. His journal was specifically concerned with the funeral and the abused state of the late pontiff's corpse. Roncalli left Venice for the conclave in Rome well aware that he was papabile , [a] and after eleven ballots, was elected to succeed the late Pius XII, so it came as no surprise to him, though he had arrived at the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice.
Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini , the Archbishop of Milan , a possible candidate, but, although he was the archbishop of one of the most ancient and prominent sees in Italy, he had not yet been made a cardinal. At the time, as opposed to contemporary practice, the participating Cardinals did not have to be below age 80 to vote, there were few Eastern-rite Cardinals, [b] and some Cardinals were just priests at the time of their elevation.
Roncalli was summoned to the final ballot of the conclave at 4: He was elected pope at 4: After the long pontificate of Pope Pius XII, the cardinals chose a man who — it was presumed because of his advanced age — would be a short-term or "stop-gap" pope. They wished to choose a candidate who would do little during the new pontificate.
Roncalli gave the first of his many surprises when he chose "John" as his regnal name. Roncalli's exact words were "I will be called John". This was the first time in over years that this name had been chosen; previous popes had avoided its use since the time of the Antipope John XXIII during the Western Schism several centuries before. Twenty-two Johns of indisputable legitimacy have [been Pope], and almost all had a brief pontificate.
We have preferred to hide the smallness of our name behind this magnificent succession of Roman Popes. After his election, he confided in Cardinal Maurice Feltin that he had chosen the name "in memory of France and in the memory of John XXII who continued the history of the papacy in France". After he answered the two ritual questions, the traditional Habemus Papam announcement was delivered by Cardinal Nicola Canali to the people at 6: A short while later, he appeared on the balcony and gave his first Urbi et Orbi blessing to the crowds of the faithful below in Saint Peter's Square.
That same night, he appointed Domenico Tardini as his Secretary of State. Of the three cassocks prepared for whomever the new pope was, even the largest was not enough to fit his five-foot-two, plus-pound frame, which had to be let out in certain places and only to be held together with great effort by bobby pins. When he first saw himself in the mirror in his new vestments, he said with an apprising and critical look that "this man will be a disaster on television!
His coronation took place on 4 November , on the feast of Saint Charles Borromeo , and it occurred on the central loggia of the Vatican. He was crowned with the Palatine Tiara.
His coronation ran for the traditional five hours. Following his election the new pope told the tale of how in his first weeks he was walking when he heard a woman exclaim in a loud voice: The following day, he visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison , where he told the inmates: I was hemmed in on all sides: During these visits, John XXIII put aside the normal papal use of the formal "we" when referring to himself, such as when he visited a reformatory school for juvenile delinquents in Rome telling them "I have wanted to come here for some time".
The media noticed this and reported that "He talked to the youths in their own language". In international affairs, his "Ostpolitik" ["Eastern policy"] engaged in dialogue with the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. He worked to reconcile the Vatican with the Russian Orthodox Church to settle tensions between the local churches.
The Second Vatican Council did not condemn Communism and did not even mention it, in what some have called a secret agreement between the Holy See and the Soviet Union. He began a policy of dialogue with Soviet leaders in order to seek conditions in which Eastern Catholics could find relief from persecution. He interrupted the first Good Friday liturgy in his pontificate to address this issue when he first heard a celebrant refer to the Jews with that word.
He also made a confession for the Church of the sin of anti-semitism through the centuries. Far from being a mere "stopgap" pope, to great excitement, John XXIII called for an ecumenical council fewer than ninety years after the First Vatican Council Vatican I's predecessor, the Council of Trent , had been held in the 16th century. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini , who later became Pope Paul VI, remarked to Giulio Bevilacqua that "this holy old boy doesn't realise what a hornet's nest he's stirring up".
He wrote about human rights in his Pacem in terris. He wrote, "Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to be looked after in the event of ill health; disability stemming from his work; widowhood; old age; enforced unemployment; or whenever through no fault of his own he is deprived of the means of livelihood.
In regards to the topic of divorce , John XXIII said that human life is transmitted through the family which is founded on the sacrament of marriage and is both one and indissoluble as a union in God, therefore, it is against the teachings of the church for a married couple to divorce. He wore a number of papal tiaras during his papacy. On the most formal of occasions would he don the Palatine tiara he received at his coronation, but on other occasions, he used the tiara of Pope Pius XI, which was used so often that it was associated with him quite strongly.
Like those before him, he was bestowed with an expensive silver tiara by the people of Bergamo. John XXIII requested that the number of jewels used be halved and that the money be given to the poor.
Maintaining continuity with his predecessors, John XXIII continued the gradual reform of the Roman liturgy, and published changes that resulted in the Roman Missal , the last typical edition containing the Tridentine Mass established in by Pope Pius V at the request of the Council of Trent. He also canonized a small number of individuals: His final canonization was that of Vincent Pallotti on 20 January He gave the Gaudet Mater Ecclesia speech, which served as the opening address for the council.
The day was basically electing members for several council commissions that would work on the issues presented in the council. Pope John XXIII did indeed appear at the window and delivered a speech to the people below, and told them to return home and hug their children, telling them that it came from the pope.
This speech would later become known as the so-called 'Speech of the Moon'.
The first session ended in a solemn ceremony on 8 December with the next session scheduled to occur in from 12 May to 29 June — this was announced on 12 November The diagnosis, which was kept from the public, followed nearly eight months of occasional stomach hemorrhages, and reduced the pontiff's appearances. Looking pale and drawn during these events, he gave a hint to his ultimate fate in April , when he said to visitors, "That which happens to all men perhaps will happen soon to the Pope who speaks to you today. Both men applauded the pope for his deep commitment to peace.
Khrushchev would later send a message via Norman Cousins and the letter expressed his best wishes for the pontiff's ailing health. This conferred upon him the title of Servant of God.