Today is the Feast Pope Saint John XXIII (1881 – 1963) who was responsible for inaugurating the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 65).
One man who was present at the Second Vatican Council was the Most Reverend Carl Mengeling, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Lansing, pictured above. As a young priest of the Diocese of Gary, Indiana, Bishop Mengeling was in Rome doing advanced studies when he was asked by the Vatican to be a page at the Council.
As an eyewitness to Church history, what are Bishop Mengeling’s memories of “Good Pope John”? He writes:
Attending the Second Vatican Council in Saint Peter’s Basilica in 1962-65 was open to all graced to enter. Many were American seminarians in Rome – from the Casa Santa Maria on Humility Street and elsewhere.
Two of us decided to go to the Council’s four seasons in four weeks of October. We found places near the several thousand cardinals and bishop participants. The Council was called by Pope John XXIII, who presided in loving presence.
The pope, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was born on November 25, 1881, in Sotto il Monte, in Bergamo, Italy. His ecclesial service was in Bulgaria, 1925-34; Apostolic Delegate (Bishop) in Turkey, 1834-4 and Greece; Nuncio to France, 1944-53; Archbishop in Venice, 1953-1958. He was elected pope at 76 years of ago, October 28, 1958. He was pope from 1958 till his death on June 3, 1963 at the age of 81.
He called the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65. His warmth and holiness made him “Beloved Pope John.” As a pope of innocence and goodness, he spread a fatherly personality. He was beatified on September 3, 2000 and canonized April 27, 2014. His successor was Cardinal Giovanni Montini, taking the name of Pope Paul VI, 1963 – 1978.
The two seminarians, one from the archdioceses of Los Angeles, Justin Rigali, now Cardinal Rigali, retired in Saint Louis, MO. The other was myself, from the diocese of Gary, IN, Bishop Carl F. Mengeling, now retired Bishop of Lansing, MI.
Pope Saint John XXIII, pray for us!
