Word: angelos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Symbol of Unity. As Pope, Angelo Roncalli took the name of John, partly because it reminded him of John the Baptist, the precursor of the Lord, and of the other John, the beloved disciple and evangelist. Montini's choice was equally significant. "The name is a program in itself," exclaimed one Vatican cleric. Clearly, Pope Paul intended to recall the great Apostle to the Gentiles, who, said the editor of L'Osservatore Romano, is "a symbol of ecumenical unity, venerated by Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians." It was St. Paul who internationalized the early church; it was Paul...
...lesser nobility of Rome, John XXIII from the peasantry of northern Italy. Paul VI is a bourgeois Pope, born to the comforts of Italy's middle class. His birthplace was Concesio, a country village near Brescia in northern Italy (and about 40 miles from Sotto il Monte, where Angelo Roncalli was born). The Pope's father, Giorgio Montini, was a lawyer and crusading journalist; his progressive political and social views were inspired by Don Luigi Sturzo, a near-legendary priest and sociologist who was one of the founders of Italian Christian democracy. Until Mussolini's Fascism...
...Montini's second son, "Giambattista," was a frail, ailment-prone child plagued by colds, who had to be educated privately after poor health drove him from the Jesuit school in Brescia. But at the age of 20, young Montini was well enough to enter the seminary of Sant Angelo in Brescia. He was, then as now, somewhat withdrawn and bookish. One teacher recalls him as the best pupil he ever had, while some fellow students detected in him the quiet charisma of the born leader. "Never have I met anyone who had to say so little to establish...
Paul VI began following the path blazed by John with his very first actions as Pope. He renamed John's old friend Amleto Cicognani as the Vatican's Secretary of State, and Monsignor Angelo Dell'Acqua as Substitute Secretary. The new Pope descended to the grotto beneath St. Peter's to pray by the side of his predecessor's tomb. And in the spirit of John's footloose ways, Paul VI left the Vatican the day after his election-to visit Spain's ailing primate, Enrique Cardinal Pla y Deniel...
Subtle & Strong. From his words and acts, it was clear that the new Pope had aperturismo-the sense of openness to the world. But Paul's aperturismo would not be John's. Angelo Roncalli was a warm and intuitive man, with a fatherly love of men rather than ideas. The new Pope, says one Spanish Catholic layman who has worked with him, "is a Gothic priest not only in physical appearance but in spiritual formation. He has a subtle intelligence and a strong hand." Subtle, strong-handed Pope Paul VI will unquestionably differ from John in his stand...