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... My name is Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the name may seem unfamiliar because I was not known in my public life by that name but rather as Pope John XXIII. You still may be thinking who was Pope John XXIII? ... Well let me begin by saying I was the first Pope to bring the Catholic Church into the modern world. ... When I was sixty-four years old, an age when most men are thinking of retirement, I was chosen by Pius XII, the Pope at that time, to represent him as nuncio to Paris. ...
In 1958, nearly seventy-seven years old, I was elected Pope upon the death of Pius XII. I took on the name of John for many reasons; because it was the name of my father; it was the name of the church where I was baptized and it had been borne by the two men in the Gospels who were closest to Jesus: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. At that time, many cardinals wished for an older man or transitional Pope who would not introduce many changes in the church so that their would be time for the Vatican to pause and reorganize. I believed that many people expected me to be a caretaker and transitional Pope because of my age, but many were astonished.
Even though my reign was short, less than five years, I demonstrated as few Popes ever had, the impact that an individual Pope can make on the Church and on the world. ... During my first year as Pope I communicated the main message I wanted everyone to know through acts of warmth and friendliness. I broke the concept of the Pope as a “prisoner of the Vatican” that had been established by Pius IX in 1870 and instead went out to the people. ... I was the first Pope in modern times to visit a prison. ... The index of forbidden books was a list of writings that devout Catholics must never see, the list included some of the great thinkers and literary figures
of recent centuries –John Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, Decartes, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and Moses Maimonides. ... Throughout Church history, Popes usually called Councils to deal with very specific matters; the First Vatican Council was summoned by Pius IX to declare infallibility of the Pope. Meaning the Pope cannot err. ... During my time as Pope I constantly reached out and welcomed many faiths of leaders including Anglican leader Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher of Canterbury and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexis of Moscow.
Approximate Word count = 1978
Approximate Pages = 7.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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