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Conclave June 19
VATICAN CITY—The Sa
cred College of Cardinals
will meet in secret conclave
on June 19th, to elect a new
pope.
While there is much
speculation as to who will be
named, it is well to recall
a Roman saying—“He who
enters the conclave pope,
emerges as a cardinal.”
“I Am As A Victim On The Altar 99
Vol. 43, No. 38
As In Life-ChurclL, Council, Peace
10c Per Copy — $3 A Year
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1963
By James C. O’Neill and Patrick Riley
VATICAN CITY, (NC)—His Holiness Pope John XXIII consecra
ted his death for the causes to which he had dedicated his life—
the Church, the ecumenical council and world peace.
POPE JOHN LIES IN STATE IN VATICAN—Lying in state before a large, 16th-century
tapestry, Pope John XXIII holds the crucifix he requested that he be buried with. The
Pontiff, who died on June 3, after four days of suffering, was laid out in a large recep
tion room in the papal apartments. His body was later moved to St. Peter’s Basilica
where the funeral Mass was offered on June 6. (NC Photos)
It was after he had received
the Viaticum—Holy Communion
of the dying—that he received
(on Friday, May 31) represen
tatives of the College of Car
dinals to bid them farewell.
He told them:
“As I leave, I wish to thank
the College of Cardinals. I am
as a victim on the altar for
the Church, for the council
and for peace. I bless the en
tire Sacred College.”
Early Friday night, the 81-
year-old Pope lapsed into a
coma. But he regained con
sciousness at 2:45 a.m. on Sa
turday morning, less that sev
en hours later. He was able
to sit up in bed, drank coffee,
and conversed with members
of his family. But he was suf
fering from great abdominal
pain. Later, he dozed. Then he
alternated between periods of
consciousness and coma.
But at one point during the
night, he told those at his bed
side:
"I have been able to follow
my death minute by minute, and
now I am moving sweetly to
ward the end.’’
And while the prayers for the
dying were being said for him,
Pope John uttered these words
from St. Paul’s letter to the
Philippians: “I . . . desire to
be dissolved and to be with
Christ.”
The great Bishop of Rome
had entered his agonizing crisis
at about midnight of Thursday,
May 30.
At 9 p.m. Friday, the Pope's
three brothers, Alfredo, Za-
verio and Giuseppe Roncalli,
and his widowed sister, As-
sunta were in the sick
room. They had just arrived
by train from northern Italy to
be at their brother’s bedside.
But he was then in a coma and
was being given oxygen. Only
the week before, one of the bro
thers had told newsmen that
Pope John was “the healthiest
sus. Several times he told those
around his bed that he was suf
fering, but suffering with love.
A press office bulletin describ
ed the atmosphere in the room
as “one of profound and Chris
tian serenity.” A Yugoslavpre-
late, Bishop Franjo Franic of
Split, had entered the room
shortly before noon.
A steady stream of cardin
als and other officials of the
Church's central administra
tive staff continued. Another
visitor was Bishop Giuseppe
Piazzi of Bergamo.
Archbishop Angelo Dell’Ac-
qua, Substitute Secretary for
Ordinary Affairs in the Vati
can Secretariat of State—who
with Archbishop Antonio Sa-
more, the Secretary for Ex- ’
traordinary Ecclesiastical Af
fairs, was permanently on hand
in the papal apartments—said at
five o’clock that the Pope had
recognized Bishop Piazzi. Pope
John^ asked the Bishop to con
vey a special blessing for his
beloved sons of Bergamo, for
the diocesan seminary, for the
Congregation of the Priests of
the Sacred Heart—which the
Pope joined as an extern mem
ber and also for a Bergamo
college.
By 6:30 p*m. Saturday it ap
peared that Pope John was be
ginning to slip back into
the drowsiness of the earlier
afternoon. Cardinal Bea on em
erging from a visit said, “Hu
manly speaking we can no long
er harbor any hope.” He said
he had received only a slight
sign of recognition from the
Pope during that visit.
At 7 p.m. announcement said
the Pontiff’s condition remained
“stationary.” But his tempera
ture had risen to 101.3
degrees, and his faculties were
(Continued on Page 6)
POPE JOHN XXIII
Pope’s Death Raises Questions
Concerning Future Of Council
Pope John Buried In
Grotto Below St. Peter’s
By Msgr. James I. Tucek
(N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE)
The Pope is dead! Long live
the Pope!
The Church has a heart, but
the Church is realistic. One of
the most loved popes in the
Church’s long memory is dead,
but questions with an eye to the
future must be asked.
Will Pope John XXIII’s suc
cessor reconvoke the council?
Who will his successor be?
To ask these questions is not
to lessen the mourning for the
loss of the beloved Pope John.
They are questions of vital
interest to the Pope’s loyal
subjects.
They were questions which
had certainly occurred also to
the dying Pope. As he lay on
his deathbed he was reported to
have expressed the wish that
his successor would see the
Second Vatican Council on to a
successful conclusion. And even
before that, the Pope had sug
gested that he was hurrying the
processes of the council through
its preparation and actual con
vocation with the hope that he
might live to see its successful
conclusion.
Although it is true, according
to the provisions of Church law,
that the council dies with the
Pope, there were many consid
erations that made it appear
almost certain that the next
Pope would reconvoke the coun
cil.
If the dying Pope had actually
adjured his successor to keep
the council alive, it could not
be taken lightly.
The preparations and first
session of the council had al
ready created an accumulation
of material that could not easily
be scrapped. Hundreds of thou
sands of man hours and much
more in costs had already been
expended to bring the council
to its present state.
It is highly probable also that
Pope John’s successor will be
a man who has already been
intimately engaged in the coun
cil and will have a fine appre
ciation of its importance. A new
pope will almost certainly be
elected from among the mem
bers of the College of Cardi
nals, all of whom have been
actively engaged in the council.
It seems to be less a question
“Will the council be reconvok
ed?’' as “When will the council
be reconvoked?’’
Before Pope John’s final cri
sis the council was scheduled to
reconvene on September 8. It is
possible that that date could
still be met without the coun
cil's scheduled program break
ing stride. Much depends on
when the conclave to elect a new
pope will be called, how long it
will take to elect a new pope,
and what date the new pope will
choose for his coronation.
The man who can answer
these questions is known only
to God.
This leads to the next ques
tion: Who will be the next pope?
‘'This is a guessing game being
played by the man on the street,
but only 82 men can play it
effectively. The 82 members of
the College of Cardinals will
ultimately bring their decision
down to one man, and by all
odds he will be one of their
number.
Here again the council will
enter in as a determining fac
tor. The fact of the council would
be foremost in the minds of the
cardinals when they gather in
conclave to elect a man to suc
ceed the Pope who had convoked
the Second Vatican Council.
Certain tendencies brought
into evidence by the council
might also affect the choice.
The union of Christian Churches
in general and the reunion of
the Oriental Churches in par
ticular has gained in importance
because of the council. The im
portance of the missions has
likewise become more real and
proximate than ever before. The
internationalization of the
Church’s government, which
has been in progress for sev
eral decades, should continue
to be a factor.
The past half-dozen con
claves have not gone outside
of Italy for their choice of a
pope, and it seems not too brash
to expect that the choice of a
pope will once more lie within
Italy's boundaries. Even so,
one might guess that all the
factors could meet in one man
within these limits.
The dying Pope had certainly
also given thought to his possi
ble successor, for it is axio
matic—as he himself had stat
ed—that every cardinal named
is considered to have the quali
ties necessary to succeed to
the papacy.
The College of Cardinals,
considering the fact of a council
halted in mid-stream, so to
speak, might also have in mind
the choice of a man who could
be expected to continue in the
papacy with those personal qua
lities and convictions which
Pope John had brought to the
papacy with such great success.
Whoever the new pope might
(Continued on Page 8)
Bishop Mourns
Death Of Pope
The death of His Holiness, Pope John XXIII is a source
of great sorrow, not only to Catholics throughout the world,
but to all men of good will, to whom the Holy Father so often
addressed his appeals for peace, justice, and mutual under
standing according to the Will of the Creator of us all.
To us, as Catholics, the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on
earth, and surely, a love of Christ for all men everywhere
was reflected in the comparatively short but tremendously
fruitful pontificate of Pope John. Perhaps no Pope in the almost
2000-year history of the Church has captivated the hearts
of so many people. And, indeed, this may have been his greatest
contribution to the advancement of God’s Kingdom on earth.
For never before has the world sought more intensely for that
mutual understanding among all men which is a prerequisite
for unity and truth under God. Certainly never before have
men been so conscious of their responsibilities to God and to
each other as His children, in spite of increasing gains being
made by those who would destroy the influence of religion in
individual, community, national and international life. This
awareness on the part of so many millions of the relevance
of religion not only in the lives of individauls but in society
itself and the worldwide response to religious leadership
in the search for international peace and justice is due in
no small part to the Pope, who convened the Second Ecumeni
cal Council and issued the two great encyclicals, Mater et
Magistra and Pacem in Terris.
In the providence of an all wise God, this beloved Pontiff
did not live to see the fruition of his most heartfelt desire for
unity in truth and peace under God, but most certainly he could
meet his Divine Judge with the words of Him Whose life he
imitated so well—“I have finished the work Thou gavest me
to do.’’
Our prayers and the prayers of countless millions ascend
to God asking eternal rest and happiness for a gentle, kind,
and beloved pontiff and the consolation which only God can give
for the grieving brothers and sister of Pope John XXIII.
BISHOP OF SAVANNAH
WEARY—Dr. Antonio Gas-
barrini, one of three physi
cians in almost constant at
tendance on His Holiness Pope
John XXIII, rubs his eyes as
he is driven home from the
Vatican. - (NC Photos)
of us all.”
Visitors to the bedside that
evening also included Giovanni
Cardinal Montini, Archbishop
of Milan, Augustin Cardinal
Bea, S.J., President of the ecu
menical council’s Secretariat
for Promoting Christian Unity;
and Ukrainian Rite Archbishop
Josyf Slipyi of Lvov, who came
to Rome last February after.
18 years of arrest and impris
onment in the Soviet Union.
The cardinals of Rome also
moved quietly in and out of the
dimly lighted papal bedroom.
Dawn Saturday found more
than 200 persons still main
taining a vigil in St. Peter’s
Square below the papal apart
ment. Young priests were recit
ing the Divine Office by the
light of the lamps near the
great obelisk in the center of
the plaza.
And on the far side of the
apostolic palace, where the
Pope’s bedroom window over
looks the Via de Porta Angel
ica, a swarm of sparrows nois
ily scoured the air for their
breakfast as the new sun burst
through the dapples of gray and
white clouds to bathe the bed
room window.
While he was awake, it was
reported, the Pope continued to
repeat the Holy Name of Je-
VATICAN CITY (NC)—Pope
John XXIII was buried in the
Grottoes below St. Peter’s Bas
ilica in a private ceremony.
(June 6).
The cardinals in Rome and
the diplomats accredited to the
Holy See had attended a Mass
that morning in St. Peter’s
Basilica for the deceased Pon
tiff. The nine days of solemn
mourning, as proclaimed by the
cardinals in Rome, began Fri
day, June 7th.
At the same time, it was
announced that the Sacred Con
gregation of Rites had granted
permission for celebration of a
requiem mass, for Pope John
during the octave of Pentecost
in all the chapels, churches
and oratories throughout the
world. The congregation also
granted priests who say mass
privately the right to offer such
a requiem during the Pentecost
octave.
Bishop McDonough offers Mass for soul of late Pontiff.
Pope John’s Dedication Same In Death
