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Pope St. John XXIII.
October 11 is the memorial Day of Pope St.John XXIII (1881-1963). The day is commemorated in memory of the opening of the Second Vatican Council on October 11, 1962.
The man who would be Pope John XXIII was born as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli in the small village of Sotto il Monte in Italy. He was the fourth of fourteen children born to poor parents who made their living by sharecropping.
Roncalli graduated from university with a doctorate in theology in 1904. He was ordained a priest thereafter.
In 1905, Roncalli was appointed secretary to Bishop Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi. He continued working as the bishop’s secretary until the bishop died in August 1914.
The world was teetering on the brink of World War I. Italy was eventually drawn into the war and Roncalli was drafted into the Italian Army as a stretcher bearer and chaplain. He was eventually discharged from the army in 1919. Roncalli was appointed President of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith by Pope Benedict XV.
In February 1925, Roncalli was sent to Bulgaria as the Apostolic Visitor to that country. Later, he was appointed apostolic delegate to Turkey and Greece, and made Archbishop of Mesembria.
In 1935, racial tensions and anti-Jewish sentiment began to explode into actual acts of violence against the Jews and other ethnic minorities. During his tenure as Archbishop, Roncalli saved thousands of Jews, enough that he was named a “Righteous Gentile” following the war.
In late 1944, Roncalli was appointed as the new Papal Nuncio and sent to France to negotiate the retirement of bishops who were involved with the Nazis.
In 1953, Roncalli was appointed Patriarch of Venice and the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca.
Roncalli’s papal predecessor died on October 9, 1958. The College of Cardinals eventually settled on Roncalli as successor.
As Pope John XXIII, he immediately began to change the culture in the Vatican. On Christmas 1958, he resumed the papal practice of making visits to the community within the official Diocese of Rome. He visited the sick, the poor, and prisoners. He apologised for episodes of anti-Semitism within the Church carried on by some of his predecessors.
His most influential decision was the call for an ecumenical council which would be known as Vatican II Synod. As a result of this council, many practices of the classic Church would be altered with a new emphasis on ecumenism and a new liturgy.
By late 1962, Pope John XXIII was diagnosed with stomach cancer.
In his last months, he offered to negotiate peace between the Soviet Union and the United States, then at the height of the Cold War. John XXIII was the first Pope to be honoured by the Time Magazine as Man of the Year.
On June 3, 1963, Pope John XXIII died in his bed at age 81.
Pope John XXIII was canonized on April 27, 2014, alongside Pope John Paul II, in a historic ceremony presided over by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
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