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PAGE 2—THE BULLETIN, November 28, 1959
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From: POPE JOHN XXIII: An Authoritative Biography by
Zsolt Aradi, Msgr. James I. Tucek and James C. O'Neill. Copy
right, 1959, by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, Inc., Publishers.
THE PATRIARCH
AT WORK
Every tourist who goes to
Venice owes Pope John XXIII a
debt of gratitude.
During the five years he was
Cardinal Patriarch of the City
of Canals, Angelo Roncalli made
a special effort to make its re
ligious and artistic treasures
more accessible to the public.
Among his most enduring
projects was the renovation of
the great, golden Basilica of St.
Mark’s, one of the world’s most
impressive churches. Cardinal
Roncalli had the Byzantine mo
saics of the church repaired and
cleaned. He had the tomb of St.
Mark brought up to view where
it could be seen by all.
He also planned to have the
chancel screen in front of the
sanctuary lowered so that the
faithful in the body of the
church could see what was go
ing on at the altar. In this he
ran afoul of the Italian Fine
Arts Commission which refused
to sanction any change in the
historic church.
This is said to be the only
battle Cardinal Roncalli lost
while in Venice. Later, when he
became Pope an arrangement
was worked out so that the pan
els in the screen could be low
ered by hinges so that the con
gregation could look through
the screen into the sanctuary.
Among his first projects in
Venice was the renovation and
repair of the patriarchal palace,
a pile of elegant marble which
was falling slowly into ruin.
ROOMS OF PIUS X
The rooms of his predecessor,
St. Pius X, who was Patriarch
of Venice when he was elected
Pope, claimed the attention of
Angelo Roncalli. The rooms had
been kept as they were from
the days of Cardinal Sarto but
the long years of disuse had
left their mark.
Cardinal Roncalli had these
rooms renovated and the first
visitor to the restored rooms
was His Eminence Francis
Cardinal Spellman of New
York. A short time later they
were opened to the public as a
kind of museum and Cardinal
Roncalli enjoyed showing vis
itors through the rooms and
telling them about the life of
Pius X as he remembered it
from his student days in Rome.
In his five years in Venice
Cardinal Roncalli visited every
one of his parishes. Often he
would visit a parish on impulse,
but as one of his priests put it,
“always as a father, not as a
policeman.”
Each year he joined the en
tire Venetian hierarchy in mak
ing a spiritual retreat and once
a month he met with the clergy
for a day of recollection. In a
span of five years he built more
than 30 churches and a minor
seminary.
In 1954 he went to Lourdes
on a pilgrimage accompanied
by all the bishops of the Tri-
veneto region. From there he
journeyed to Spain, dressed as
a simple priest pilgrim to visit
the shrine of Santiago di Com
postela. The same year he cel
ebrated his 50th anniversary of
ordination.
In November, 1954, Pope Pius
sent him to Lebanon as papal
delegate to a national Marian
congress at Beirut where Card
inal Roncalli presided over the
crowning of Our Lady of Leba
non.
Archdeacon Giuseppe Scarpa
recalls that Cardinal Roncalli
“could always find the good
side of people. He always show
ed an extraordinary respect for
the human person.
“It was his manner to stand,
no matter who entered the room
and to accompany the most low
ly visitor personally to the door.
I never saw him unhappy. I
never knew him to be any
thing but optimistic. I never
heard him condemn anyone.”
A journalist, Ettore della Gio-
vanna, recalls that he interview
ed the Patriarch in 1956. Due
to that fact that he was intro
duced to Cardinal Roncalli by
a letter from a priest from Ber
gamo with left-of-center lean
ings. Cardinal Roncalli welcom
ed Della Giovanna jokingly but
pointedly by saying: “Your hair
is white; you should have more
political judgment.”
SPEAKS ON COMMUNISM
One of Cardinal Roncalli’s
former secretaries in Venice has
this to say of him:
“It would be a mistake for
anyone to allow himself to be
deceived by the Pope’s simpli
city into thinking that he is a
simpleton. His simple manner is
the result of his holiness, but
his character is more than this.
He is a very complex, and pro
found personality, keen and
alert, and anything but simple.
In February, 1957, an auxili
ary bishop of the Venice Patri
archate was transferred to an
other diocese. This bishop was
criticized by some for being
overly active. When he took
possession of his Diocese anony
mous calling cards edged in
black, like those used to express
mourning, were distributed.
Cardinal Roncalli took swift
action. He leveled brief but se
vere sanctions against those
priests and laymen involved in
the escapade. However, in pri
vate the Cardinal remarked jok
ingly that the Bishop “would
have helped God Himself in
creating the world.”
At Christmas time, 1955, the
Cardinal’s annual message of
peace and brotherhood dealt
mainly with problems of unem
ployment. He exhorted busi
nessmen, technical consultants
and economists to remember
that their talents had not been
given them “merely to adjust
budgets, but to be the ministers
of providence to the advantage
of all the human family.”
While sympathetic to the
problems of the unemployed,
Angelo Roncalli would not tol
erate oversimplification of his
attitude. In 1957, the govern
ment announced plans to close
the state arsenal at Venice.
L’Unita, the Italian commun
ist newspaper, reported that the
Patriarch would order the
church bells to be rung in pro
test and that he would celebrate
a “Mass of protest.”
The story also went on to say
that Catholics and communists
in Venice had entered discus
sions to settle their difficulties.
The Cardinal issued a prompt
denial of the story saying that
negotiations between Catholics
and Marxists “have never been,
nor could ever be, opened in
Venice.”
In August the year before, he
made his position on commun
ism unmistakably clear in a
pastoral letter addressed to the
clergy and laity of Venice. In it
he deplored the so-called “op
ening to the left.” This was fav
ored by certain parts of the
Christian Democratic Party.
“For Catholics,” wrote Card
inal Roncalli, “this constitutes
a serious mistake and a flagrant
violation of Catholic discipline
. . . The people might be misled
by the deceptive axiom that to
carry out social justice, to help
the poor of all classes and to
create respect for taxation laws,
one must absolutely associate
oneself with those who disown
God and who are the oppressors
of human freedoms . . . This is
wrong in its premise and fatal
in its application.”
A month later the Cardinal
received the civic committees of
the Christian Democratic Party
and he once again spelled out
his position:
“Communism and socialism
have the same philosophy and
are irreconcilable with Christi
anity. There is no possibility of
agreement between Marxism
and the Gospel.”
PATRON OF ARTS
Everything that happened in
his city attracted his active at
tention. Every facet of the life
of his spiritual children fell un
der his pastoral touch. Even the
Venice International Film festi
val, which had received passive
and active opposition before his
time, was welcomed into St.
Mark’s for a “Movie Mass.”
He became the first Patriarch
in the history of Venice to visit
the important Venice Biennial
Art Exhibit, considered one of
the most important Italian
shows of modern art.
Cardinal Roncalli also initi
ated an annual “Journalists’
Mass” on the feast of their pa
tron, St. Francis de Sales. And
there was likewise an annual
Mass for the artists and crafts
men of Venice.
It was Cardinal Roncalli who
gave permission to the Russian
composer Igor Stravinsky to
perform an oratorio dedicated
to St. Mark in the Basilica. The
Cardinal attended the perform
ance. Again in 1958 Stravinsky
directed another oratorio in
Venice, this time on the theme
of the Lamentations of the Pro
phet Jeremiah.
In 1957, the Cardinal also
convoked a synod of the bish
ops and clergy of Venice. It
foreshadowed his calling of the
first synod even held in Rome
after his election as pope.
In March, 1958, Cardinal Ron
calli was sent to Lourdes as
papal legate for the dedication
of the new Basilica of St. Pius
X. So large was the church that
Cardinal Roncalli performed
part of the ceremony from the
back of an open convertible,
which circled the Church three
times as prescribed by the lit
urgy.
On leaving Lourdes, he was
beseiged by the French report
ers to say one last thing for the
press. Angelo Roncalli respond
ed with the words which the
Blessed Virgin had spoken to
Bernadette Soubirous: “Pen
ance, penance, penance.”
This was the same message
he gave to his own Venetians a
few days after his return from
Lourdes, when in a pastoral let
ter, he wrote: “Oh, my brothers,
my children! Penance, penance,
penance, for your personal sins
and for the sins of the whole
world.”
When the sad news of the
death of Pius XII reached him
on Thursday, October 9, 1958,
he began to make the first pre
parations for his trip to Rome.
His secretary, Msgr. Loris
Capovilla who was to remain
with Pope John in the Vatican,
relates that the Cardinal pack
ed his own bag. Among the
items he included was the red
“cappa magna,” the great cape
of a Prince of the Church which
would be needed in these sad
times only in giving homage to
the new pope. He never had a
chance to wear it.
He left Venice on the 9:30
a. m. train to Rome on October
12, 1958. The thoughts of more
than one turned to another de
parture from Venice — that of
Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto who
went to Rome almost 50 years
before and who was elected
Pope Pius X.
Talking with stationmaster
Vittorio de Rosa, Cardinal Ron
calli said that on his return he
wanted to discuss a certain mat
ter with him. De Rosa replied:
“It is my good wish for you,
Your Eminence, that you will
not return.”
The Cardinal hesitated a min
ute, lost in thought, and then
answered: “My hope is to re
turn to Venice within 15 days.”
Next issue: Roncalli and the
Conclave.)
Services For
Salvatore Lupo
SAVANNAH—Funeral serv
ices for Salvatore Lupo were
held November 7th at the Most
Blessed Sacrament Church.
In Venice one of Cardinal Roncalli's first projects was the reno
vation of the rooms occupied by St. Pius X when he was Patriarch
of Venice. The first visitor to the restored rooms was Francis
Cardinal Spellman of New York.
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