Word: montini
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...Giorgio 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 He was, then as now, somewhat withdrawn and bookish.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...
...cooler relationship between Pope and Pro-Secretary was apparent in 1953, when neither Montini nor Tardini was among the new cardinals named by Pius. The Pope explained that both men had turned down the offer; it was not quite that simple. Pius had first offered a cardinal's hat to Tardini, who refused it, perhaps because he had divined the Pope's true wishes, perhaps to checkmate his rival, Montini. Since Tardini had refused, Montini could only answer no. Then, a year later, Pius announced.that Montini would become Archbishop of Milan, a post that traditionally carries with...
...Pius let Montini go without the expected red hat, but not without a moment of touching sentiment. Recalls the former French Ambassador to the Vatican, who was present at Montini's consecration in St. Peter's: "At one point in the ceremony, during a moment of absolute silence, a feeble voice was heard. It seemed to come from the heavens. From his sickbed, Pius XII was addressing a few words to his well-beloved son, who was becoming his brother in the episcopate. I have always thought that on that day, Pope Pius XII marked the destiny...
...Strongly, Divinely." When Montini journeyed northward by train toward Milan, with a black shawl over his knees and his personal possessions crammed into a borrowed suitcase, he had never been so much as a parish priest, and yet he was taking charge of Italy's most populous diocese. To the surprise of the city, the quiet Vatican diplomat became a pastoral whirlwind. He visited Milan's Communist districts, calmly asked for workers' suggestions as to where they would like their new church built. Greeted with jeers and catcalls, he would advance with a sad smile...
...Montini, the church's task was to convert Communists, not combat them -and the weapons of conversion were spiritual. He invited Franciscan and Jesuit preachers to conduct Billy Graham-style crusades on Milan's streets, and in a city with more than 1,000 churches, added at least ten each year -primarily in the new suburbs. For Montini, the missionary task was to conquer through Christian love those "unhappy ones who gather behind Marx," to reassure them that, as Jesus "still loves them strongly, immensely, divinely," so the church supports "the profound need for a new and worthwhile...