During these weeks after Easter, we have journeyed with the early Church, first through its tenuous beginnings in Jerusalem, then spreading to the Jewish communities throughout the Mediterranean. We have witnessed the conversion of Saul, his being renamed as Paul, and how Paul took the Good News to the non-Jew gentiles, even to the fringes of the “civilized” world. We have seen that even in the earliest days, an African helped Jesus carry his cross to the crucifixion, and how the Ethiopian eunuch came to take Christianity to the African continent. We even know that when Paul first visited Antioch, there was a man present known as Simeon, a man from the region of the Niger River in West Africa.
But along with the growth came “organizational” problems. The Jewish Christians argued that since Christianity grew from the Jewish religion (Christ was a Jew, after all), that the gentiles welcomed into the new Christian church should abide with Jewish traditions. One of the most onerous traditions was the requirement that all men be circumcised. That is an easy thing to accept if the circumcision is done when the boy is a baby, but it is quite a different requirement to have a grown man submit to it! And what about the dietary requirements? Should not the new Christians also follow Jewish laws in respect to what they ate? We see in Acts that the Church leaders met several times to come to a consensus on what exactly was required for you to become a Christian. In the readings for today we hear the Church Fathers declare, “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit, and of us, not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right.” (Acts 15: 7-31)
Now let’s take a Quantum Leap (I loved the original TV series by that name!) to the modern Church of my lifetime. Over the next 8 days, we will visit the lives of our eight most recent Popes and see how they have shaped the Church in which we now live.
On October 28, 1958, the cardinals, assembled in conclave, elected Angelo Cardinal Roncalli as pope. Many electors regarded him, because of his age and ambiguous reputation, as a place keeper pope, little realizing that the pontificate of this 76-year-old man would mark a turning point in history and initiate a new age for the Church. He took the name of John XXIII in honor of the beloved disciple, but also because it was the name of a long line of popes whose pontificates had been short.
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the third of thirteen children, was born on November 25, 1881, at Sotto il Monte (Bergamo), to a family of poor sharecroppers. He attended elementary school in the town, was tutored by a priest of Carvico, and at the age of twelve entered the seminary at Bergamo. A scholarship from the Cerasoli Foundation (1901) enabled him to go on to the Apollinaris in Rome where he studied under (among others) Umberto Benigni, the Church historian. His studies were interrupted when he was conscripted for service in the Italian Army but returned to the seminary, completed his work for a doctorate in theology, and was ordained in 1904. Continuing his studies in canon law he was appointed secretary to the new bishop of Bergamo, Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi. Angelo served this social-minded prelate for nine years, acquiring first-hand experience and a broad understanding of the problems of the working class. He also taught apologetics, church history, and patrology.
With the entry of Italy into World War I in 1915 he was recalled to military service as a chaplain. On leaving the service in 1918 he was appointed spiritual director of the seminary and found time to open a hostel for students in Bergamo. It was at this time also that he began the research for a multi-volume work on the episcopal visitation to Bergamo by St. Charles Borromeo, the last volume of which was published after his elevation as pope.
In 1921 he was called to Rome to reorganize the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Nominated titular archbishop of Areopolis and apostolic visitator to Bulgaria (1925), he immediately concerned himself with the problems of the Eastern Churches. Transferred in 1934 to Turkey and Greece as apostolic delegate, he set up an office in Istanbul for locating prisoners of war. In 1944 he was appointed nuncio to Paris to assist in the Church’s post-war efforts in France and became the first permanent observer of the Holy See at UNESCO, addressing its sixth and seventh general assemblies in 1951 and 1952. In 1953 he became cardinal-patriarch of Venice, and he expected to spend his last years there engaged in pastoral work. He was correcting proofs of the synodal Acts of his first diocesan Synod (1958) when Pope Pius XII died, and he was called to Rome to participate in the conclave that would elect the next Pope. Little did he expect that he, himself, would be that next Pope.
In his first public address, Pope John XXIII expressed his concern for reunion with separated Christians and for world peace. In his coronation address he asserted “vigorously and sincerely” that it was his intention to be a pastoral pope since “all other human gifts and accomplishments—learning, practical experience, diplomatic finesse—can broaden and enrich pastoral work but they cannot replace it.” One of his first acts was to annul the regulation of Sixtus IV limiting the membership of the College of Cardinals to 70; within the next four years he enlarged it to 87 with the largest international representation in history. Less than three months after his election he announced that he would hold a diocesan synod for Rome, convoke an ecumenical council for the universal Church, and revise the Code of Canon Law. The synod, the first in the history of Rome, was held in 1960; Vatican Council II (more on that tomorrow) was convoked in 1962; and the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code was appointed in 1963.
His progressive encyclical, Mater et Magistra, was issued in 1963 to commemorate the anniversary of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. Pacem in Terris, advocating human freedom and dignity as the basis for world order and peace. He elevated the Pontifical Commission for Cinema, Radio, and Television to curial status, approved a new code of rubrics for the Breviary and Missal, made notable advances in ecumenical relations by creating a new Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity and by appointing the first representative to the Assembly of the World Council of Churches held in New Delhi (1961). In 1960 he consecrated fourteen bishops for Asia, Africa, and Oceania. The International Balzan Foundation awarded him its Peace Prize in 1962.
Since his death on June 3, 1963, much has been written and spoken about the warmth and holiness of the beloved Pope John XXIII. Perhaps the testimony of the world was best expressed by a newspaper cartoon showing the earth shrouded in mourning with the simple caption, “A Death in the Family.” He was canonized, along with our Patron, St. John Paul II, on April 27, 2014. His feast day is October 11.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!