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PAGE 2—THE BULLETIN, November 28, 1959 THIRST, TOO, SEEKS QUALITY Coke makes good food taste better j ROME COCA-COLA BOTTLING CO. 106-108 FIFTH AVENUE ROME, GEORGIA ROME & PRODUCE CO.. Inc WHOLESALE Bananas a Specialty ROME, GEORGIA OUR NEW 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. FLOWERLAND FLORIST 2775 PEACHTREE RD., N. 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