Pope John XXIII was expected to be a transitional pope because of his age when he was elected. Instead, he threw open the windows of the Roman Catholic Church to air out the fustiness and called the Second Vatican Council to renew the church. Sadly, it seems that the present pope and his predecessor, John Paul II, have closed a good many of the windows that St John XXIII opened and reversed much of the renewal - more's the pity.
I remember how many of us in the RCC were caught up in joyful anticipation of what was to come. Then, John XXIII died, but we still hoped that the work that he'd begun would continue. With the publication of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, our hopes were dashed.
A couple of quotes from the gentle Pope John:
Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
....
It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.
PRAYER
Lord of all truth and peace, you raised up your bishop John to be servant of the servants of God and gave him wisdom to call for the work of renewing your Church: Grant that, following his example, we may reach out to other Christians to clasp them with the love of your Son, and labor throughout the nations of the world to kindle a desire for justice and peace; through Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
I´ve always felt strongly attracted to this kind and wise man...unexpectedly I entered St. Peters on a visit and he was lying in a glass coffin for all to view--I was very moved...then I glanced up at the nearby towering Pope Pius statue and fled.
ReplyDeletePius XII was the only pope I knew until my 20s. Oooh.
ReplyDeleteTake good care of margaret. I know you will! Give each other a big hug and pretend I'm in the middle.
He was special -- and (in the Harry Potter sense) magic
ReplyDeleteMy good Baptist mother sent me to parochial school for the first two grades -- it supposedly offered a superior academic grounding. (I made excellent grades in Catechism.) And somewhere in all the papers I need to thin out, I still have a little composition we second graders were instructed to write upon the death of Pius No. 11. So No. 12, the extremely ascetic Eugenio Pacelli, was Pope for most of my youth. Angelo Roncalli was indeed like opening a window. Alas -- an interview in the German magazine SPIEGEL indicates how much hope has been lost:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,730520,00.html
If the Spirit threatens The Church, then the Spirit is the enemy.
My favorite quote of John XXIII (which I can't lay my hands on right now) was something to the effect that the Church is not a museum to be curated but a garden to be cultivated.
ReplyDeleteOh! How I miss (and cherish) his witness!
Andrew
His love and leadership is sorely missed these days.
ReplyDeleteMurdoch, I don't remember Pius XI. Pius XII was THE POPE as I knew him, but he was far distant from us schoolchildren. An ascetic, as you say.
ReplyDeleteOh! How I miss (and cherish) his witness!
AndrewPlus, me too.
Ciss B, I've questioned God about giving Roncalli only five years. I haven't got an answer, yet.