Pope
Montini, now Blessed Paul VI
It's been
expected for months... and this morning, it's official. Today October 19, 2014,
was held at the St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, the Beatification of Pope
Paul VI, the Pope signatory of the documents of the Second Vatican Council. He
is the same one who, on 15 September 1965, following the invitation of this Second
Vatican Council, with words of great profundity and historical scope established
the Synod of Bishops. Thank you for his deep and humble testimony of love for
God and his people. One could express him greatest gratitude than to celebrate
his Beatification after a Synodal Meeting.
Who is this
Pope Paul VI (1963-1978)?
Giovanni
Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was born on September 26, 1897 at
Concesio (Lombardy) of a wealthy family of the upper class. His father was a
non-practicing lawyer turned editor and a courageous promoter of social action.
Giovanni was a frail but intelligent child who received his early education
from the Jesuits near his home in Brescia. Even after entering the seminary
(1916) he was allowed to live at home because of his health. After his
ordination in 1920 he was sent to Rome to study at the Gregorian University and
the University of Rome, but in 1922 he transferred to the Accademia dei Nobili
Ecclesiastici to study diplomacy continuing his canon law studies at the
Gregorian. In 1923 he was sent to Warsaw as attache of the nunciature but was recalled
to Rome (1924), because of the effect of the severe Polish winters on his
health, and assigned to the office of the Secretariat of State where he
remained for the next thirty years. Besides teaching at the Accademia dei
Nobili Ecclesiastici he was named chaplain to the Federation of Italian
Catholic University Students (FUCI), an assignment that was to have a decisive
effect on his relations with the founders of the post-war Christian Democratic
Party.
In 1937 he
was named substitute for ordinary affairs under Cardinal Pacelli, the secretary
of state, and he accompanied him to Budapest (1938) for the International
Eucharistic Congress. On Pacelli's election as Pius XII in 1939, Montini was
reconfirmed in his position under the new secretary of state, Cardinal Luigi
Maglione. When the latter died in 1944, Montini continued to discharge his
office directly under the pope. During World War II he was responsible for
organizing the extensive relief work and the care of political refugees.
In the
secret consistory of 1952 Pope Pius XII announced that he had intended to raise
Montini and Domenico Tardini to the Sacred College but that they had both asked
to be dispensed from accepting. Instead he conferred on both of them the title
of prosecretary of state. The following year Montini was appointed Archbishop
of Milan but still without the title cf cardinal. He took possession of his new
See on January 5, 1955 and soon made himself known as the "archbishop of
the workers." He revitalized the entire diocese, preached the social
message of the Gospel, worked to win back the laboring class, promoted Catholic
education at every level, and supported the Catholic press. His impact upon the
city at this time was so great that it attracted world-wide attention. At the conclave
of 1958 his name was frequently mentioned, and at Pope John's first consistory
in December of that year he was one of 23 prelates raised to the cardinalate
with his name leading the list. His response to the call for a Council was
immediate and even before it met he was identified as a strong advocate of the
principle of collegiality. He was appointed to the Central Preparatory
Commission for Vatican II and also to the Technical-Organizational Commission.
On the
death of Pope John XXIII, Montini was elected June 21, 1963 to succeed him. In
his first message to the world, he committed himself to a continuation of the
work begun by John XXIII. Throughout his pontificate the tension between papal
primacy and the collegiality of the episcopacy was a source of conflict. On
September 14, 1965 he announced the establishment of the Synod of Bishops
called for by the Council fathers, but some issues that seemed suitable for
discussion by the synod were reserved to himself. Celibacy, removed from the
debate of the fourth session of the Council, was made the subject of an
encyclical, June 24, 1967); the regulation of birth was treated in Humanae
vitae July 24, 1968), his last encyclical. The controversies over these two
pronouncements tended to overshadow the last years of his pontificate.
Pope Paul
had an unaccountably poor press and his public image suffered by comparison
with his outgoing and jovial predecessor. Those who knew him best, however,
describe him as a brilliant man, deeply spiritual, humble, reserved and gentle,
a man of "infinite courtesy." He was one of the most traveled popes
in history and the first to visit five continents. His remarkable corpus of
thought must be searched out in his many addresses and letters as well as in
his major pronouncements. His successful conclusion of Vatican II has left its
mark on the history of the Church, but history will also record his rigorous
reform of the Roman curia, his well-received address to the UN in 1965, his
encyclical Populorum progressio (1967), his second great social letter
Octogesima adveniens (1971)—the first to show an awareness of many problems
that have only recently been brought to light—and his apostolic exhortation
Evangelii nuntiandi, his last major pronouncement which also touched on the central
question of the just conception of liberation and salvation.
Pope Paul
Vl, the pilgrim pope, died on August 6, 1978, the feast of the Transfiguration.
He asked that his funeral be simple with no catafalque and no monument over his
grave.
To Pope
Paul VI is due:
1. As Encyclicals:
Ecclesiam Suam (August 6, 1964), Mense Maio
(April 29, 1965), Mysterium Fidei (September 3, 1965), Christi Matri (September
15, 1966), Populorum Progressio (March 26, 1967), Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (June
24, 1967), Humanae Vitae (July 25, 1968)
2. As Apostolic
Exhortations:
Gaudete in
Domino (May 9, 1975), Evangelii Nuntiandi (December 8, 1975), Paterna cum benevolentia
(December 8, 1974), Marialis Cultus (February 2, 1974), Nobis in Animo (March
25, 1974), Evangelica Testificatio (June 29, 1971), Quinque iam anni (December
8, 1970), Recurrens mensis october (October 7, 1969), Signum Magnum (May 13,
1967), Petrum et Paulum Apostolos (February 22, 1967), Postrema Sessio
(November 4, 1965), Quarta Sessio (August 28, 1965)
And many
others Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Letters, Homelies, Letters, Messages
and Motu Proprio.
Blessed
Paul VI, pray for us!
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