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Pope Francis approved John XXIII for canonization on June 3, 2013, the 50th anniversary of his death. Bl. Pope John XXIII will be canonized on April 27, 2014 alongside Bl. Pope John Paul II in a historic ceremony to be presided by Pope Emeritus Benedict and Pope Francis.
Nominated titular archbishop of Areopolis and apostolic visitator to Bulgaria (1925), he immediately concerned himself with the problems of the Eastern Churches. Transferred in 1934 to Turkey and Greece as apostolic delegate, he set up an office in Istanbul for locating prisoners of war.
John XXIII was a pope in the Roman Catholic Church. The popes are the leaders of the church. He was pope from 1958 to 1963. John XXIII was one of the most-popular popes of all time.
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Saint John XXIII (born November 25, 1881, Sotto il Monte, Italy—died June 3, 1963, Rome; beatified September 3, 2000canonized April 27, 2014; feast day October 11) one of the most popular popes of all time (reigned 1958–63), who inaugurated a new era in the history of the Roman Catholic Church by his openness to change (aggiornamento), shown especi...
Angelo was one of 13 children born to Giovanni Roncalli, a tenant farmer of Sotto il Monte, a tiny village 7 miles (11 km) from the Lombard city of Bergamo. The Roncallis were poor but not nearly as destitute as some later legends would have it. “We had the necessities of life,” the pope used to say testily, “and we were strong and healthy.” Though Angelo, the third child and oldest son of the family, went off to prepare for the priesthood as a child of 11, he continued to spend vacations with his family and remained close to them throughout his life.
No matter how powerful he became, however, he never helped any of the other Roncallis to advance in the world. “The world is only interested in making money…,” he wrote to his brother Xaverio after becoming pope. “A great honour has come to our family,” he acknowledged, but he urged Xaverio and the others to remain humble, seek no honours or preferments, and take no material advantage of their relationship to the pope. “At my own death,” he concluded, “I shall not be denied the praise which did so much honour to the holiness of Pius X: born poor, he died poor.” In his last will he bequeathed each of the living members of the family a legacy of less than $20—his total personal fortune.
Angelo the churchman, however, was destined to spend most of his life among the powerful and cultivated. Inevitably, that set him apart from the other Roncallis almost from the beginning. While still a seminarian, he was already beginning to feel out of place in Sotto il Monte, where he was charged with priggishness and “putting on airs.” “Only three days of the holidays have passed and already I am weary of them,” he recorded in the diary that he allowed to be published after his death. He was eager, he wrote, to return to Bergamo, with its orderly life of study, prayer, and genteel fellowship, and to escape from the petty gossip, suspicion, and jealousies of the village.
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Roncalli was not an especially brilliant student. He did well enough, however, to be sent to Rome for theological studies in 1900. After only one year at the Seminario Romano, his education was interrupted when he was drafted into military service and assigned to an infantry company conveniently stationed at Bergamo. Later, as a priest, he returned to the army during World War I. Again he served in Bergamo, first as a hospital orderly and later as a military chaplain with the rank of lieutenant.
Sep 3, 2000 · The Catholic Church was present in many ways in the young Turkish republic. His ministry among the Catholics was intense, and his respectful approach and dialogue with the worlds of Orthodoxy and Islam became a feature of his tenure.
Saint John XXIII. (1881–1963). On October 28, 1958, Angelo Giuseppe Cardinal Roncalli was elected the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. He succeeded Pius XII, who died on October 9, 1958. The new pope chose his father’s name, Giovanni (John).
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He was called the “good pope” because of his humble, kind, and active papacy. He visited the sick and imprisoned, saw the world as his family, and made profound changes within the Church and world. During his four-and-a-half years as pope, John XXIII issued eight encyclicals.
