John XXIII

At the conclave following the death of Pius XII, Angelo Roncalli was elected pope on October 28, 1958, at the age of 76, and took the name John XXIII. While many saw him as a transitional pope, his pontificate opened a new era marked by the spirit of aggiornamento, that is to say, a pastoral updating of the Church in the face of the contemporary world. His most significant decision was the convocation of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which he announced in January 1959 and for which he solemnly opened the first session on October 11, 1962. In it, he called upon the Church to present Catholic doctrine in a renewed manner and to work for the unity of Christians. John XXIII also left his mark on the social teaching of the Church through two major encyclicals: Mater et Magistra (1961), on development and social justice, and Pacem in Terris (1963), a great appeal for peace between peoples addressed, in an unprecedented move, to "all men of good will." Diagnosed with stomach cancer, he died on June 3, 1963, before the conclusion of the council he had inaugurated.

The reputation for holiness of John XXIII rests on the consistency between his inner life and his public action. His episcopal motto, Oboedientia et Pax ("obedience and peace"), summarizes a spirituality made of humility, abandonment to the will of God, and the pursuit of concord. His spiritual diary, published under the title Journal of a Soul (Il Giornale dell'anima), bears witness to a long personal asceticism begun in the seminary and continued throughout his life. His simple kindness and his closeness to ordinary people earned him the affectionate nickname "the good pope" (il Papa buono) during his lifetime. During the Second World War, as apostolic delegate in Turkey and Greece, he contributed to the rescue of many Jews by facilitating the issuance of visas and transit documents, a gesture of charity that marked his memory. This reputation for kindness, peace, and service to Christian unity, joined to the pastoral boldness of his pontificate, founded the conviction, shared by many faithful, of the holiness of his life, paving the way for his beatification process.

The cause for the beatification of John XXIII was based on the healing, deemed scientifically inexplicable, of Sister Caterina Capitani, a religious of the Daughters of Charity in Naples who was suffering from a severe gastric hemorrhage with a fistula and was considered terminal. After her fellow sisters applied a relic of the late pope to her wound and prayed for his intercession, she was suddenly healed in May 1966; the Medical Board of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared this healing inexplicable in 1999. Pope John Paul II proclaimed Angelo Roncalli blessed on September 3, 2000. For the canonization, Pope Francis signed the decree on July 5, 2013, dispensing with the requirement of a second miracle due to the fruits of the Second Vatican Council and the recognized holiness of his life. John XXIII was canonized on April 27, 2014, in Saint Peter's Square, during the same ceremony as John Paul II, on Divine Mercy Sunday, in the presence of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. His liturgical feast is set for October 11, the anniversary of the opening of the Council in 1962.

Saint John XXIII remains one of the most popular figures of the contemporary Church. His spiritual heritage is inseparable from the Second Vatican Council, which he willed and inaugurated, and which profoundly transformed the liturgical, pastoral, and ecumenical life of Catholicism. His encyclical Pacem in Terris continues to be a reference text for the Church's commitment to peace and human rights. His remains, initially interred in the Vatican grottoes, were transferred in 2001 to St. Peter's Basilica, where his body now rests under the altar of Saint Jerome and is the object of popular veneration. He is particularly honored in his native diocese of Bergamo and in his village of Sotto il Monte, which has become a place of pilgrimage, as well as in the Patriarchate of Venice, which he led. His memory is linked to the diplomatic service of the Holy See, to the cause of Christian unity, and to the remembrance of his actions on behalf of Jews persecuted during the war. His feast day, October 11, extends the memory of the "good pope" and the conciliar spirit he embodies within the liturgical calendar.