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
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.
Appointed Archbishop
of Milan by Pope Pius XII in 1954.Elevated to
cardinal in 1958 by Pope John XXIII. Indeed, Pope John XXIII, who had placed
Archbishop Montini at the top of his first batch of cardinals, referred to
his eventual successor as a "Hamlet" of "to be or not to be"
fame. On the death of Pope John XXIII,
Montini was elected June 21, 1963 to succeed him. 262nd Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
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.
His Holiness Pope Paul VI died on 6
August 1978 at Castelgandolfo, in the 16th year of his pontificate, at
the age of 80 years. He asked that his funeral be simple with no catafalque
and no monument over his grave. He was buried on 12 August in the Grottoes of
the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica. The diocesan process for his canonization
was initiated on 11 May 1993 by Bl. Pope John Paul II
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