While there, he helped saved the lives of many Jews fleeing the Holocaust, providing them with transit visas and other vital paperwork which allowed them to leave Europe. That honor belongs to Cardinal Baldassare Cossa , one of a series of claimants to the papal throne during the late 14th and early 15th centuries, when the Roman Catholic church was bitterly divided by the Western Schism.
The split, which lasted from till , saw rival Popes elected by separate factions of the church. Pope stirs Communion debate Pope Francis breaks tradition, again Rock star Pope shakes up the Vatican Two Popes with one trusted adviser In October , with the U.
Kennedy and Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev to exercise restraint. During a message broadcast on Vatican Radio at the height of the crisis, the pontiff pleaded: "We beg heads of state not to remain deaf to the cry of humanity: 'Peace, peace! Roncalli was made national director in Italy of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He also found time to teach patristics at a seminary in the Eternal City. In , he became a papal diplomat, serving first in Bulgaria, then in Turkey, and finally in France.
Named a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice in , he was finally a residential bishop. John Lateran. Pope John took his work very seriously but not himself. His wit soon became proverbial, and he began meeting with political and religious leaders from around the world. His studies for the priesthood continued at the Seminario Romano "Apollinare" in Rome but were interrupted for a year of volunteer service in the Italian army.
He was ordained on Aug. The latter was an extremely vigorous, farseeing prelate deeply concerned about social reforms, and the young Father Roncalli, during the 9 years that he served him, gained invaluable knowledge and experience in the problems of the working class and the poor. Simultaneously he taught patrology and Church history in the Bergamo seminary. Radini-Tedeschi died in August , just as World War I was breaking out, and since his successor was a man of quite different temperament, Roncalli decided to enlist.
He served first in the medical corps and later as a lieutenant in the chaplains' corps. At the war's end Pope Benedict XV, who as a close friend of Radini-Tedeschi had come to know Roncalli, asked him to handle the arrangements for the Eucharistic Congress in Bergamo; and it was undoubtedly as a result of the way in which he organized this event that a year later he was made director of the Italian Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
This was a delicate assignment since it involved not only modernizing the society but detaching responsibility from numerous regional directors and centralizing administration in Rome. He remained in this post for 4 years, until Pius XI appointed him apostolic visitor to Bulgaria.
For this it was desirable that he hold a higher ecclesiastical rank, and he was named titular archbishop of Areopolis and consecrated to the episcopate on March 19, This was the beginning of a diplomatic career which was to last for almost 30 years and take Roncalli to many European countries.
In Bulgaria, since the state religion was Orthodox, his presence was resented by both government and Orthodox Church authorities. Yet he managed to provide spiritual leadership for the 40, Latin-rite and 4, Eastern-rite Catholics scattered thinly among the population.
In he was named apostolic delegate to Turkey and Greece, where his position was, if possible, even more precarious. During World War II, Istanbul, as the capital of a neutral power, was a hotbed of intrigue and espionage, and Roncalli provided the Holy See with much valuable information gleaned from personal contacts as well as official connections.
He was instrumental in helping many Jewish refugees fleeing from central Europe through his friendship with the German ambassador to Turkey, Franz von Papen.
In Greece his efforts were less successful, since he was of the same nationality as the occupying troops; but here, too, he worked hard to provide food, shelter, and safety for many thousands of refugees. The position was even more difficult and challenging than his earlier ones, since the nation was split by many bitter political and religious divisions resulting from the period of occupation and resistance. Roncalli labored patiently and skillfully to repair them, maintaining cordial relations with the governments that came and went in rapid succession.
Among other things he was instrumental in securing government subsidies for pupils in private schools, and he viewed with sympathy the "workerpriest" movement. On Jan. On that same day he was named patriarch of Venice and took possession of his new see on March This enabled him to be at last what he had always wanted to be, a "shepherd of souls" and during his years in Venice he was a vigorous and much-loved prelate, visiting all the parishes in his diocese and creating 30 new ones.
He erected a new minor seminary, initiated various forms of Catholic Action, and showed special concern for the poor. Pius XII died on Oct. John XXIII was 76 years old when he came to the papal throne, and his age—plus the fact that he was not widely known—led many persons to assume that he would simply be a transitional or "caretaker" pope. Inevitably his reign was brief, but in terms of its significance and its effects upon religious and world history it was perhaps the most important pontificate since the Middle Ages.
Much of this significance stemmed, naturally, from the train of events which he set in motion during the 5 years of his reign, but much of it also lay in his unique personality. Previous popes had usually been remote and austere figures; from the very outset John endeared himself to the whole world by his warmth, humor, and easy approachability.
He had an impatience with empty traditionalism and often astonished his aides by the forthright way in which he cut through meaningless formalities. For example, it had always been customary for the pope to dine alone; within a week after his election John announced that he could find nothing in either Revelation or canon law that required such a thing and that henceforth, when the mood was upon him, he would have guests in to dinner. He became the first pope in years to attend the theater by having T.
Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral performed before him in the papal apartments.
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