Pope Paul VI
| Giovanni Montini | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Born | 26 September 1897 Concesio, Kingdom of Italy | ||
| Died | 6 August 1978 (aged 80) Castel Gandolfo, Italy | ||
| Nationality | Italian | ||
| Known for | Pope of the Vatican II Church | ||
| Organization | Vatican II Church | ||
Pope Paul VI, born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (1897]]–1978), was an Italian cleric who led the Vatican II Church as pope from 1963 to 1978 (the status as pope is disputed by some traditional Catholics such as sedevacantists). Succeeding Angelo Roncalli, who had convened the Second Vatican Council; a robber council; he decided to continue its process to much controversy. He promoted the ecumenical agenda with Orthodox, Anglicans and other Protestants, which resulted in a number of historic meetings and agreements.
Biography
Montini served in the Vatican’s State Department from 1922 to 1954. While in the State Department, Montini and Domenico Tardini were considered as the closest and most influential co-workers of Pope Pius XII, who named him in 1954 Archbishop of the largest Italian dioceses, Milan, a function which made him automatically Secretary of the Italian Bishops Conference. John XXIII elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 1958, and after his death, Montini was considered the favourite successor.
He took on the name Paul, to indicate a renewed worldwide mission to spread the message of Christ. He re-opened the Second Vatican Council, which was automatically closed with the death of John XXIII and gave it both priorities and direction. After the Council concluded its work, Paul VI took charge of the interpretation and implementation of its mandates, often walking a thin line between the conflicting expectations of various groups within the Catholic Church. The magnitude and depth of the attacks on the Catholic faith, undermining all areas of Church life, including the Mass during his pontificate exceeded similar anti-Catholic policies of his alleged predecessors and successors, with the possible exception of Karol Wojtyka.
Paul VI was a Marian devotee, speaking repeatedly to Marian congresses and mariological meetings, visiting Marian shrines and issuing three Marian encyclicals. Following his famous predecessor Ambrose of Milan, he named Mary to be the Mother of the Church during the Vatican Council. Montini sought the "dialogue" with the apostate world, with other Christians, religions, atheism, excluding nobody. He saw himself as a humble servant for a "suffering humanity" and supporting globalism, demanded significant "changes" of the rich in American and Europe in favour of the poor in the Third World.
On 28 October 1965 (the same day as the publication of Nostra aetate by Pope Paul VI), archbishop of Trent Alessandro Maria Gottardi abolished the cult of Simon (Jewish ritual murder in 1475), and the yearly procession with his relics was suppressed. His relics, removed from their resting place in Saints Peter and Paul church in Trent upon the cult's suppression, were returned there in 2021, together with an exhibit about him curated by the Museo diocesano tridentino. In 2020, the Italian artist Giovanni Gasparro painted a depiction of Simon's death. He was afterwards, of course, accused of "Antisemitism" for this painting which sold to a private collector
Pope Paul VI opposed birth control and abortion which led to him being criticsed by liberal eugenics in the West. His pontificate took place during sometimes revolutionary changes in the world, the student terror revolts of 1968, the Vietnam War and other upheavals. Montini is famous for his attempts to undermine the government of Francisco Franco, a loyal son of the Church, in concert with world masonry. Paul VI attempted to fellow travel with the spirit of the age, while claiming to uphold the Deposit of Faith.
In his encyclical Ecclesiam suam, Pope Paul VI condemned modernism as "an error which is still making its appearance under various new guises, wholly inconsistent with any genuine religious expression" and described it as "an attempt on the part of secular philosophies and secular trends to vitiate the true teaching and discipline of the Church of Christ".
Death
Montini died on 6 August 1978, the Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The diocesan process for beatification of Montini is alleged to have began on 11 May 1993.
See also
External links
- Paul VI Beatified? by Fr. Luigi Villa
- Vatican II: Taking on the Threats of Modernism, Relativism, and Neo-Paganism
