Pope John XXIII Biography Quotes 19 Report mistakes

Early Life and Formation
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born on 25 November 1881 in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo in northern Italy, into a large family of sharecroppers. His parents, Giovanni Battista Roncalli and Marianna Giulia Mazzolla, raised their children in a setting marked by hard work, frugality, and a deep Catholic piety that profoundly shaped Angelo's character. He entered the minor seminary at an early age, continued his studies at the Bergamo seminary, and later moved to Rome to complete his formation at the Pontifical Roman Seminary and the Roman campus of the Pontifical Gregorian University. Ordained a priest in 1904, he nurtured a personal spiritual discipline that would later be published as Journal of a Soul, reflecting a lifelong quest for humility and faithfulness.

Priesthood in Bergamo and World War I
Soon after ordination, Father Roncalli was called back to Bergamo to serve as secretary to the progressive Bishop Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi. Under Radini-Tedeschi's guidance, he learned practical pastoral governance and the social dimension of Catholic teaching, visiting factories, encouraging lay associations, and engaging with the needs of workers and the poor. He also taught Church history at the seminary and edited historical and pastoral texts, honing the clear, patient prose that would characterize his later papal writings. During World War I he served as a military chaplain in the Italian army's medical corps, ministering to the wounded and grieving on the home front and in hospitals. The conflict deepened his aversion to warfare and strengthened his resolve to seek paths of reconciliation rooted in human dignity.

Service to the Universal Church
After the war, his organizational skill and pastoral sense brought him to wider responsibilities. In 1921 Benedict XV appointed him national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Italy, where he traveled extensively to encourage missionary awareness and reorganize pastoral support. In 1925 Pius XI sent him to Bulgaria as apostolic visitor and then apostolic delegate, consecrating him a bishop and placing him in a setting where Catholicism was a small minority. In Bulgaria he learned the delicate art of ecumenical courtesy and came to appreciate the spiritual riches of Eastern Christianity.

In 1934 he was transferred to Turkey and Greece as apostolic delegate, residing in Istanbul. Amid rising tensions and the devastation of World War II, he developed relationships with Orthodox leaders and with civil authorities in secular Turkey. From this vantage he quietly assisted refugees, including Jews fleeing persecution, by helping them obtain documents and passage when possible; he cooperated with diplomats and local Catholic representatives to facilitate relief and rescue efforts. These experiences further refined his diplomatic prudence and his instinct for pastoral charity across confessional and cultural boundaries.

Nuncio to France
In late 1944, with Europe's liberation unfolding, Pius XII appointed Roncalli apostolic nuncio to France. He arrived in Paris at a fraught moment, as the provisional government of Charles de Gaulle sought to purge collaborators and the Church faced the challenge of restoring credibility and order. Roncalli worked with de Gaulle and with foreign minister Georges Bidault to mediate disputes over bishops accused of collaboration, to reconstitute diocesan leadership, and to normalize relations between the Holy See and the French state. His calm demeanor, good humor, and willingness to listen earned respect even from those suspicious of Vatican diplomacy. He also participated in delicate postwar questions, such as the appointment of new bishops and the rehabilitation of religious life in a country scarred by occupation and resistance.

Patriarch of Venice and Cardinal
Pius XII created him a cardinal and appointed him Patriarch of Venice in 1953. In Venice, Roncalli flourished as a pastor. He visited parishes and islands by boat, preached simply, and cultivated a presence that was both fatherly and accessible. He supported Catholic Action while encouraging collaboration with civic authorities in addressing social needs. He maintained friendships with churchmen who would soon shape global Catholicism, including Giovanni Battista Montini, then Archbishop of Milan, later Pope Paul VI. His episcopal motto, Oboedientia et Pax (Obedience and Peace), succinctly expressed the style of ministry he had exercised for decades: fidelity to the Church joined to an irenic, open-hearted pragmatism.

Election as Pope John XXIII
After the death of Pius XII in 1958, the cardinals gathered for a conclave that turned to the elderly and genial Patriarch of Venice as a figure of unity. Elected on 28 October 1958, he chose the name John XXIII, evoking both continuity with ancient tradition and personal devotions, and consciously settling an old numbering ambiguity by adopting a title previously used by a Renaissance antipope. He retained Loris Francesco Capovilla as his trusted private secretary and appointed the seasoned Domenico Tardini as Secretary of State, signaling both pastoral sensitivity and firm administrative competence. Although many expected a brief, caretaker pontificate, John XXIII quickly set a transformative course.

Early Papal Initiatives
In January 1959 he startled the Roman Curia by announcing three initiatives: a diocesan synod for Rome, a revision of the Code of Canon Law, and the convocation of an ecumenical council. The synod met in 1960, testing methods of consultation and reform; the codification project began in earnest; and the proposed council, soon to be known as the Second Vatican Council, moved from idea to institutional reality. John XXIII internationalized the College of Cardinals in his consistories, raising figures such as Laurean Rugambwa of Tanganyika, Rufino J. Santos of the Philippines, and Peter Tatsuo Doi of Japan, underlining the Church's global character. He established the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity under the Jesuit cardinal Augustin Bea, complementing the doctrinal guardianship of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani and his Holy Office, and balancing curial currents with a new emphasis on ecumenical dialogue. He also made symbolic liturgical decisions, such as inserting the name of Saint Joseph into the Roman Canon in 1962, reflecting his pastoral instinct for the devotional life of the faithful.

The Second Vatican Council
John XXIII opened the council on 11 October 1962 with the address Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, urging the bishops to present the perennial doctrine in a fresh, pastoral key he called aggiornamento, an updating in service of evangelization. He invited observers from other Christian communities, including Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches, building on ecumenical gestures such as his cordial meeting in 1960 with Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The council's preparatory schemata, drafted under curial supervision, met vigorous debate; many were returned for substantial revision as the global episcopate sought a more biblically rooted, pastorally confident expression of Catholic faith. Leading council fathers such as Cardinals Leo Suenens, Giacomo Lercaro, and Julius Doepfner took prominent roles, while influential periti (theological advisers) like Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, and Joseph Ratzinger helped articulate new directions in liturgy, ecclesiology, religious freedom, and ecumenism. John XXIII presided with patience and optimism over the first session, encouraging frank speech and charity, setting a tone that would shape the council even after his death.

Social Teaching and Peacemaking
Alongside the council, John XXIII issued encyclicals that updated Catholic social doctrine for a rapidly changing world. Mater et Magistra (1961) addressed the responsibilities of public authority, the rights of workers and families, the role of intermediate associations, and the need for global solidarity in economic development. Pacem in Terris (1963), his most celebrated document, was addressed not only to the Catholic faithful but to all people of good will. In measured, accessible language, it affirmed a framework of rights and duties grounded in the dignity of the human person, urged disarmament and the strengthening of international institutions, and called for truth, justice, love, and freedom as the pillars of peace. The encyclical resonated widely during the Cold War; it complemented his earlier public appeal during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, when his broadcast plea for negotiation and restraint was noticed by both John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. In a further sign of thaw, he received Soviet visitors, including Khrushchev's son-in-law Aleksei Adzhubei and daughter Rada, signaling a willingness to open channels even with officially atheist regimes. In 1963 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for his efforts on behalf of peace and human fraternity.

Final Illness and Death
John XXIII had long suffered from precarious health, and in 1962 he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He continued his duties as much as possible, presiding at the opening of the council and pursuing the drafting of Pacem in Terris while his condition worsened. The faithful and the wider world followed his decline with affection and concern; his simplicity and kindness had earned him the affectionate title Il Papa buono, the Good Pope. He died in the Apostolic Palace on 3 June 1963. His funeral drew immense crowds, testimonies of goodwill from world leaders, and heartfelt tributes from Christians of many traditions. The conclave that followed elected Giovanni Battista Montini as Paul VI, who would carry Vatican II to completion and implement key reforms John had set in motion.

Legacy
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli's legacy as Pope John XXIII rests on a distinctive blend of pastoral warmth, institutional courage, and evangelical hope. He reoriented the papacy from a defensive posture to a dialogical stance without abandoning doctrinal clarity. By summoning the Second Vatican Council and setting its pastoral horizon, he catalyzed developments in liturgy, ecclesiology, religious liberty, ecumenical and interfaith relations, and the Church's social witness. Through collaborators such as Domenico Tardini, Augustin Bea, and Loris Capovilla, and through his esteem for voices across the episcopate and academy, he modeled leadership that listened, discerned, and decided with trust in the Holy Spirit. His encyclicals, particularly Pacem in Terris, gave modern expression to principles of human rights and the common good that still inform global conversations. Decades after his death, he was beatified by John Paul II and canonized by Pope Francis, honors that recognized not only his personal holiness but also the enduring fruit of his pontificate. For many, his smile, his steady courage in a dangerous century, and his appeal to conscience over fear remain a touchstone of Christian witness in the modern world.

Our collection contains 19 quotes who is written by Pope, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Motivational - Wisdom - Faith - Peace.

Other people realated to Pope: Norman Cousins (Author), Athenagoras I (Clergyman)