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JOHN XIII

(Sotto il Monte, 1881 – Rome, 1963) Roman Pontiff, named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (1958-1963). He was the third child of the eleven of Giambattista Roncalli and Mariana Mazzola, peasants with ancient Catholic roots, and his childhood was spent in austere and honorable poverty. He seems that he was a child both taciturn and cheerful, given to loneliness and reading. When he revealed his desire to become a priest, his father rightly thought that he should first study Latin with the old priest from the neighboring town of Cervico, and sent him there

inally, at the age of eleven, he entered the Bergamo seminary, famous then for the piety of the priests he trained more than for his brilliance. At that time he began to write his Diary of the soul, which continued practically without interruption throughout his life and which today is an irreplaceable and faithful testimony of his efforts, his reflections and his feelings.

In 1901, Roncalli went to the major seminary of St. Apollinaire reaffirmed in his intention to pursue an ecclesiastical career. However, that same year he had to abandon everything to do military service; an experience that, judging by his writings, was not to his liking, but which taught him to live with men very different from those he knew and was the starting point for some of his deepest thoughts

The future John XXIII celebrated his first mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on August 11, 1904, the day after he was ordained a priest. A year later, after graduating as a doctor of theology, he was going to meet someone who would leave a deep mark on him: Monsignor Radini Tedeschi. This priest was apparently a prodigy of measure and balance, one of those just and ponderous men capable of dazzling every young and sensitive being with his judgment and his wisdom, and Roncalli was both. Tedeschi was also interested in this enthusiastic priest and did not hesitate to appoint him as his secretary when he was appointed bishop of Bergamo by Pope Pius X. In this way, Roncalli obtained his first important position.

Then began a decade of close material and spiritual collaboration between the two, of maximum identification and total dedication in common. Throughout those years, Roncalli taught Church history, gave classes in Apologetics and Patristics, wrote several pamphlets, and traveled through various European countries, in addition to diligently dispatching matters that belonged to his secretariat. All this under the inspiration and protective shadow of Tedeschi, whom he always considered a true spiritual father.

In 1914, two unfortunate events came to disturb his happiness. In the first place, the sudden death of Monsignor Tedeschi, whom Roncalli mourned, feeling not only that he was losing a friend and a guide, but at the same time that the world was losing an extraordinary and little less than irreplaceable man. In addition, the outbreak of the First World War was a blow to his illusions and he delayed all his projects and his training, since he had to join the ranks immediately. Despite everything, Roncalli accepted his fate with resignation and joy, ready to serve the cause of peace and the Church wherever he was. He was a sergeant of health and lieutenant chaplain at the Bergamo military hospital, where he was able to see with his own eyes the pain and suffering that that terrible war caused innocent men, women and children.

After the contest, he was elected to preside over the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith and was able to resume his travels and studies. Later, his missions as apostolic visitor in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece made him a kind of ambassador of the Gospel in the East, allowing him to come into contact, already as bishop, with the Orthodox creed and with different forms of religiosity that undoubtedly enriched him. and they gave him a breadth of vision from which the Catholic Church was soon to benefit.

During World War II, Roncalli remained firm in his post as apostolic delegate, making countless trips from Athens and Istanbul, bringing words of comfort to the victims of the war and ensuring that the damage caused by it was minimal. Few  They know that if Athens was not bombed and all its fabulous artistic and cultural legacy destroyed, it is due to this apparently insignificant priest, kind and open, who did not seem to be interested in such things.

After the hostilities ended, he was appointed nuncio in Paris by Pope Pius XII. It was a delicate mission, since it was necessary to face such thorny problems as that derived from the collaborationism between the French Catholic hierarchy and the pro-Nazi regimes during the war. Using as weapons an admirable tact and a discouragement-proof conciliatory will, Roncalli managed to overcome difficulties and consolidate firm ties of friendship with a suspicious and elusive political class.

In 1952, Pius XII appointed him Patriarch of Venice. The following year, the President of the French Republic, Vincent Auriol, presented him with the cardinal’s cap. Roncalli was already shining with its own light among the great leaders of the Church. However, the election of him as pope in 1958, after the death of Pius XII, surprised locals and strangers. Not only that: from the first days of his pontificate, he began to behave as no one expected, far from the stiffness and solemn attitude that had characterized his predecessors.

One of his greatest successes as pontiff was his mediation between the United States and Russia in the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. His priest nephew, Battista Roncalli, said that at the height of the crisis he told him: It is a grave moment Let’s go to pray in the chapel. The Soviet newspaper Pravda published the message on October 25, 1962, which, on the same day, was broadcast by Vatican Radio.

The Pope said: We remember the grave duty that falls on those who have the responsibility of power. We ask you with your hand over your conscience to listen to the cry of anguish that in every corner of the earth, from innocent children to the elderly, from individuals to groups, rises towards heaven, crying out: Peace, Peace. We beseech all  men of government who do not remain deaf to this cry of humanity. This will save the world the horrors of war, the dire consequences of which no one can foresee.

The Pope’s intervention was accepted by both parties and the crisis was resolved.

On December 19, 1962, Cardinal Cousins delivered to the Pope a personal message from the Soviet leader Khrushchev, with whom he had had a meeting on December 13 in Moscow. Khrushchev’s message read: To his Holiness, Pope John XXIII. On the occasion of this holy Christmas season, please accept my good wishes for health and energy so that he may continue his efforts for the peace, well-being and prosperity of all humanity. Cousins also delivered another message from US President John Kennedy.

The Pope answered both of them, expressing his support for peace. Pope John, seeing the good dispositions of the Russian leader, dared to send Cardinal Willebrands to Moscow to negotiate the liberation of Metropolitan Josip Slipyj of Ukraine, arrested in 1945 and confined in Siberia. Khrushchev accepted his release as a sign of goodwill to Pope John. Khrushchev also agreed to his request to give the Russian bishops a free pass so that they could attend the council.

This was a precedent for other governments of communist countries in Europe to also allow their bishops from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania to attend the council.

On his 80th birthday, he received a congratulatory telegram from Khrushchev, the general secretary of the Russian Communist Party. The Pope responded with gratitude: His Holiness John XXIII thanks him for his good wishes and for his part sends cordial wishes to all the people of Russia that universal peace be increased and strengthened through understanding based on human brotherhood 160. Not everyone liked the message. They thought that he was opening the way for Russian communism and that the Pope was too condescending.

On February 28, 1963, Khrushchev’s son-in-law, Alexis Adzhubei, editor of the USSR communist newspaper Izvestia, arrived in Rome with his wife Rada. He let it be known that he was bringing a gift from his father-in-law Khrushchev to Pope John and requested an audience to deliver it. Some cardinals believed that he should not receive it, because propaganda could be made in favor of the USSR, but Pope John considered it a duty of goodwill for him. The Pope tried to break the ice and all sources agree that he told him: You are a journalist and you know the Bible and the history of creation.

The Pope broke schemes and told them about his life in Bulgaria, the beauty of Slavic music, the spiritual riches of Russia and how he saw all people as brothers without distinction of race or nationality. He spoke of his poor and peasant family

Rada also commented to him in French (in which they were speaking): We too come from a peasant family. In Russia it is said that you are a peasant. I see you have your hands like my father’s, hardened from work

Afterwards, gifts were exchanged. The Pope commented to Rada that when she was a non-Catholic lady, she used to give away a book, coins or stamps. But she said that she preferred to give him a rosary, because “it reminds me of the peace of  home and my mother who used to pray it by the fireplace while preparing food. This rosary will remind you that there was once a perfect woman named Mary …

Madam, I know that you have three children and they have told me their names. I would like you to be the one to pronounce them, because when the names of the children come from the lips of a mother, something special is always produced ”. Rada replied excitedly: “Their names are Nikita, Alexei and Iván”. The Pope explained that Nikita is equivalent to Nicephorus. Alexei is the form of Alexander and, as for Iván, he is simply Juan, the name of my father, my grandfather and the one I chose when I was elected Pope … When I return home, give a hug from me to his children, but for Iván a very special one, which I hope does not make the other brothers jealous 163. He also gave them stamps for the children, coins for Alexis and some medals for Grandfather Khrushchev

Monsignor Corrado Bafile notes: When he received Khrushchev’s son-in-law at the Vatican and was highly criticized, he told me: “Those who criticize me do not know that that audience gave me the possibility of obtaining freedom Monsignor Slipyj, to whom they gave permission to leave the Soviet Union and these days it reaches the West ”16

ENCYCLICS OF JOHN XXXIII

Pacem in terries

With a subtitle that reads: «On peace among all peoples to be founded on truth, justice, love and freedom,» it was a kind of appeal from the Supreme Pontiff to all human beings and all nations to fight together for peace amid the hostile climate generated by the Cold War

Mater et magistra

John XXIII warns that the social question has a global dimension and that just as one can speak of poor people, one must also speak of poor sectors and poor nations. The development of the story shows how the demands of justice and equity concern both the relations between dependent workers and employers or leaders, as well as the relations between the different economic sectors, and between the more economically developed areas and the less economically developed areas. developed within the same nation; and, at the world level, to the relations between countries in different degrees of socio-economic development. A fundamental problem is how to proceed to reduce the imbalance between the agricultural sector, and the industrial and services sector; and to improve the quality of life of the agricultural-rural population