The Dialog

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — The life of Blessed John XXIII is a lesson in how obedience and trust in God lead to an interior peace that is naturally recognized by and shared with others, Pope Francis said.

Joining a pilgrimage of 3,000 people from the late pope’s home diocese, Bergamo, Italy, Pope Francis prayed at the tomb of Blessed John June 3, the 50th anniversary of his death.

Pope Francis prays at the tomb of Blessed John XXII in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican June 3, the 50th anniversary of his death. Pilgrims from the late pope’s home diocese of Bergamo attended a Mass to mark the anniversary. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Bishop Francesco Beschi of Bergamo told Pope Francis that he reminds many people of Blessed John, especially with his gestures and his “evangelical liberty.” Pope Francis replied that those characteristics come from the Lord and added that he could comment further, but would do so with the bishop privately.

Turning serious, Pope Francis told the pilgrims: “The whole world recognized Pope John as a pastor and father. A pastor because he was a father.”

Blessed John was and still is referred to by many as “the good pope,” Pope Francis said. “How wonderful it is to find a priest who is really good, filled with goodness.”

The pope, a Jesuit, said he wasn’t trying to give the founder of his order special publicity, but Blessed John’s reputation for goodness “reminds me of something St. Ignatius of Loyola would tell the Jesuits about the qualities a superior had to have. He would list this and that — a long list of qualities — but in the end, he would say if he doesn’t have those qualities, at least he must have much goodness, be a father, a priest with goodness.”

The 76-year-old Pope Francis told members of the pilgrimage, “Those like me, who are of a certain age, remember well the emotion” surrounding the last days of Pope John’s life in 1963. “St. Peter’s Square became an open-air shrine, day and night welcoming faithful of every age and social condition in trepidation and prayer for the pope’s health,” he said.

Blessed John was “an effective weaver of relationships and a valid promoter of unity, inside and outside the church community,” the pope said. He was “open to dialogue with Christians of other churches, with exponents of the Jewish and Muslim worlds and with many other people of good will.”

The pope told the Bergamo pilgrims that from reading Blessed John’s “Journal of a Soul,” it is clear that his peacefulness was the result of a spiritual journey marked by discipline, by recognizing and taming selfish desires and by an obedience that allowed the Holy Spirit to work through his superiors.

For Blessed John, obedience meant “undertaking in the church the service his superiors asked of him, without seeking anything for himself, without holding back anything asked of him, even when that meant leaving his homeland, facing a world he didn’t know and spending years in places where there were very few Catholics,” the pope said.

The notion of spiritual discipline is one that needs to be rediscovered, Pope Francis said. “If we learn to let ourselves be led by the Holy Spirit, if we learn to mortify our selfishness to make room for the love of the Lord and his well, then we will find peace, then we will know how to be peacemakers and spread peace around us.”

Pope Francis said Pope John’s decision to convoke the Second Vatican Council, which opened in October 1962, was the result of a “prophetic intuition” based on his “love for the tradition of the church and his awareness of its need for constant updating.”

The council and Pope John’s “offering his life for its good outcome,” he said, are “a shining light for the journey ahead of us.”

Pope Francis told the Bergamo pilgrims that they were right to be proud of the pope who came from their region; “preserve his spirit, deepen your study of his life and writings, but, especially, imitate his holiness.”

Blessed John XXIII was born Angelo Roncalli in Sotto il Monte Nov. 25, 1881. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Bergamo in 1904. Between 1925 and 1944, he served as a Vatican diplomat in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. After his service in the diplomatic corps, he was named archbishop of Venice in 1953.

By Dennis Sadowski

Catholic News Service

Recognizing the inherent dignity of each person is the greatest weapon anyone has against war and violence, Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told a conference marking the 50th anniversary of Blessed John XXIII’s encyclical “Pacem in Terris” (“Peace on Earth”).

Pope John XXIII signs his encyclical “Peace on Earth” (“Pacem in Terris”) at the Vatican in this 1963 file photo. Considered a highlight in Catholic social teaching, the encyclical addresses universal rights and relations between states. The document marks its 50th anniversary April 11, the date of its issue. (CNS photo)

Peace is intimately connected to working for justice, otherwise violence will be difficult to overcome, Cardinal Turkson said in an address April 10 at The Catholic University of America to about 150 participants in the conference sponsored by the Catholic Peacebuilding Network.

“Peace then is not merely the absence of war and conflict, but it represents … a gift from God,” the cardinal said.

“Peace is an attribute of God himself. God is peace. Creation aspires to peace,” he added.

In an interview with Catholic News Service following his address, Cardinal Turkson said “Pacem in Terris” remains as important for the world today as it was when it first appeared.

“If any factor in society in any way treads on or diminishes or makes it difficult for people to realize their dignity, the common good the human flourishing, human development that for us is a crisis moment. If we can do anything to promote the development of human society that’s what we stand for,” he said.

The two-day conference examined various aspects of the encyclical, which was promulgated April 11, 1963, by Blessed John months after the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Speakers looked at how the encyclical remains among the most significant components of Catholic social thought.

At the time, Blessed John’s concern for the world extended beyond the elimination of nuclear weapons from the arsenals of the superpowers. He expanded the church’s view that human rights and human dignity were as vital to peace as the end of war in an overall positive outlook for humanity. His teaching built upon the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948.

Blessed John identified emerging political and sociological trends that later moved forward at a rapid pace such as the empowerment of women worldwide, economic and social globalization and the rise of newly independent states as European colonialism began to decline. The encyclical recognized the rights of all people to food, water, safety, housing, health care, involvement in public life and affiliation in groups that promote their well-being, from labor unions to civic groups.

Several speakers noted the widespread use of the term “common good” in the encyclical and that the work was not just addressed to Catholics but to “men of good will” no matter their faith or heritage.

John Carr, former director of the U.S. bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, cited paragraphs 163 and 164 of the encyclical as the cornerstone of peacebuilding efforts in calling Christians to be a “glowing point of light in the world, a nucleus of love, a leaven of the whole mass.”

Such is the nature of the work of the church on behalf of human life and dignity, he said. “We ought to act as if this is good news.”

Conference sessions examined political as well as social issues that affect world peace and how “Pacem in Terris” addresses each. Presenters discussed the just-war theory, the evolution of nuclear weapons policy since the end of the Cold War, the role of Catholic colleges and universities and religious orders in educating students in the practice of reconciliation and nonviolence, the institutional church’s role in reducing violence and promote understanding in conflict zones around the world, and examples of on-the-ground programs of Catholic Relief Services that best reach people in need

Carolyn Woo, president and CEO of CRS, told the conference while the world has seen the number of people living on $1.25 or less per day decrease from 1.9 billion to 1.3 billion since the 1980s, 2 billion people have gained access to clean water since the 1990s and that 97 percent of girls around the world are enrolled in elementary schools, numerous challenges to achieving peace remain.

Inequality among people, poor governance, human rights abuses, conflict over natural resources and environmental degradation are impediments to the peace that Blessed John envisioned, she said.

“Remember the work of peace is very hard,” she said. “It’s the work of Christ.”

In a session on nuclear weapons, Father J. Bryan Hehir, a theologian and faculty member at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, said the world continues to deal with the dangers such weapons pose years after the Cold War ended.

Blessed John saw a world where two superpowers could easily engage in nuclear war, prompting him to write the encyclical, he explained. Today, instead of two nations with nuclear weapons, there are nine, he continued, and the concern focuses on nuclear proliferation as more countries and non-state actors seek out such weapons.

Father Hehir urged Catholics to be vigilant and continue to call for new arms reductions and for limits on proliferation with the ultimate goal of “going to zero.”

 “Pacem in Terris” can be read online at www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem_en.htm

By Francis X Rocca

Catholic News Service

SOTTO IL MONTE GIOVANNI XXIII, Italy — The feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, is the occasion every year for millions of devotees to celebrate the apparition of Mary to three Portuguese peasant children in 1917 and to meditate on her call for repentance and conversion by the modern world.

For a much smaller but highly dedicated group of people, the anniversary of the first apparition is also an occasion for exploring their belief that, 95 years later, the Vatican is still hiding a portion of the Mary’s revelations. Read more »

By Francis X Rocca

Catholic News Service

SOTTO IL MONTE GIOVANNI XXIII, Italy — When the freshly named patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo G. Roncalli, chose 37-year old Father Loris F. Capovilla as his personal secretary in 1953, a skeptical adviser told the cardinal that the priest looked too sickly to bear the strain of his new job.

“Then he’ll die as my secretary,” replied the future pope, now known as Blessed John XXIII.

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