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'Pope Paul VI' (
Latin: ''Paulus PP. VI'';
Italian: ''Paolo VI''), born 'Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini' (
September 26,
1897 –
August 6,
1978), reigned as
Pope of the
Catholic Church and
Sovereign of
Vatican City from
1963 to
1978. Succeeding
John XXIII, who had convened the
Second Vatican Council, he presided over the majority of its sessions and oversaw the implementation of its decrees.
Early career
Giovanni Montini was born in
Concesio, in the
province of Brescia,
Lombardy, into a family of local nobility on his maternal line. He entered the
seminary to train to become a
Roman Catholic priest in
1916, and was ordained a
priest in
1920. He took the solemn oath against
Modernism before an open tabernacle initiated by Pope St. Pius X. He studied at the
Gregorian University, the
University of Rome and the ''
Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici''. His organisational skills led him to a career in the
Curia, the papal civil service. In
1937, he was named ''Substitute for Ordinary Affairs'' under Cardinal Pacelli, the Secretary of State under
Pope Pius XI. When Pacelli was elected
Pope Pius XII, Montini was confirmed in the position under the new Secretary of State. When in
1944 the Secretary of State died, the role was assumed directly by the pope, with Montini working directly under him.
Some of his work during this period remains shrouded in mystery, with claims and counter-claims, most notably concerning his involvement in the diplomatic activities of the
Vatican during
World War II. For example, the Vatican's repeated contacts with Count
Galeazzo Ciano,
fascist Minister of Foreign affairs and son-in-law of
Mussolini, remains an issue of some criticism. Montini, who worked as a
diplomat, has been accused of having obtained from the Fascists, at the beginning of the war, some promises of unclear advantages for the Vatican, in exchange of its eventual support. However, many other historians dispute this analysis.
The unique complexity of the war-time period saw Montini procure large sums of money to aid European
Jews, while he is also alleged to have been involved in enabling some leading Nazi officers to escape the collapse of the
Third Reich (see
Ratlines). Formally a simple administrative employee of the
Vatican government, but effectively the closest supporter of Pius XII, he has often been recognised as one of the most important political figures of the period. No official confirmation exists, but evidence indicates that he (along with
Alcide De Gasperi) attempted to set up a channel of communication between Crown Princess
Maria José (daughter-in-law of the King of Italy and wife of the Prince of Piedmont,
Umberto) and the United States, in order to find a separate peace for Italy with the
United States; the Princess however was not able to meet
Myron Taylor, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's special representative to the Vatican, and no one knows if Montini was unable to organize this meeting or was unwilling to do so.
Archbishop of Milan
Montini was appointed in
1954, to the senior Italian church post of
Archbishop of Milan. Traditionally such an appointment would be followed by being made a cardinal at the next
consistory (when vacancies in the
College of Cardinals are filled). To the surprise of many, Montini never received the
red hat (as the appointment to the cardinalate is often called) before Pope Pius's death in
1958; what was not known was that at the Secret Consistory in
1952 Pope Pius revealed that Montini had declined the cardinalate.
[1] Although some viewed him as a person who might have succeeded Pope Pius, since Montini was not a member of the College of Cardinals,
[2] Angelo Cardinal Roncalli was elected pope and assumed the name
Pope John XXIII. The new pope raised Montini to the cardinalate after only two months in office, with Montini thus becoming
Cardinal-Priest of ''
Ss. Silvestro e Martino ai Monti''.
Pope
Montini was generally seen as the
most likely successor to Pope John; as the
cardinal electors processed into the
Sistine Chapel to begin the
conclave, onlookers even whispered "il Papa, il Papa," at Montini. Montini was an enthusiastic supporter of Pope John's decision to establish the
Second Vatican Council. When John died of
stomach cancer on
June 3,
1963, Montini was elected to the
papacy in the
following conclave and took the name Paul VI. He brought the
Second Vatican Council to completion in
1965 and directed the implementation of its goals until his death in
1978. He was also the last pope to date to be
crowned; his successor
Pope John Paul I replaced the
Papal Coronation (which Paul had already substantially modified, but which he left mandatory in his 1975
apostolic constitution ''
Romano Pontifici Eligendo'') with a
Papal Inauguration. Paul VI donated his own
Papal Tiara, a gift from his former Archdiocese of Milan, to the
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in
Washington, D.C. as a gift to
American Catholics. In 1968, with the
motu proprio Pontificalis Domus, he discontinued most of the ceremonial functions of the old Roman nobility at the
papal court, save for the
Prince Assistants to the Papal Throne. He also abolished the
Palatine Guard and the
Noble Guard, leaving the
Swiss Guard as the sole military order of the Vatican. He oversaw the largest
revision to the
Church's Liturgy since the
Council of Trent. In
1965 he established the
Synod of Bishops, but nevertheless reserved certain pronouncements to papal authority alone, including
priestly celibacy and
contraception, both of which became the subject of controversial
encyclicals, ''
Sacerdotalis Caelibatus'' and ''
Humanae Vitae'' respectively.
''Humanæ Vitæ''
Main articles: Humanae Vitae
To the world Pope Paul VI is perhaps best known for his
encyclical ''Humanæ Vitæ'' (subtitled ''On the Regulation of Birth''), published on
July 25 1968. In this encyclical he reaffirmed the Catholic Church's traditional condemnation of artificial
birth control. His decision was widely unexpected, because many had expected the Church to reverse its long-standing teaching on contraception in the wake of the
first contraceptive pill, and many Catholic couples opted to use birth control in spite of church teaching.
A commission composed of bishops, theologians and laity had been established by
John XXIII for the purpose of reviewing the teaching on birth control. In the furor surrounding the publication of the encyclical, stories appeared in the press that it was the commission's majority recommendation that the Church relax its stance on contraception. The Pope chose to discount the so-called "Majority Report" when he promulgated ''Humanæ Vitæ''. Although this version of events is widely accepted, it has not gone unchallenged. For example, in an interview in 2003 with the Catholic news agency
Zenit, the
natural lawyer and moral theologian
Germain Grisez gave a different version of events:
:''The final report of the commission was not one of the documents that were leaked to the press, and, so far as I know, it has never been published. The leaked documents, which were misleadingly labeled, were among the appendices to the final report, and none of them was agreed upon by the majority of the 16 cardinals and bishops who made up the commission after it was restructured in February 1966, although they did approve sending those documents along to Paul VI.... [He] was not interested in the number of those who held an opinion but in the cases they made for their views.... Having received the commission's final report, he studied it. After about four months, he announced on Oct. 29, 1966, that he found some aspects of the majority's case to be seriously flawed. He continued studying and concluded that the commission was right in holding that the pill is not morally different from other methods of contraception. Eventually he became completely convinced that there was no alternative to reaffirming the received teaching. He then took great care preparing the document that was eventually published as'' Humanæ Vitæ. ''True, the majority of the theologians, who were then among the periti [experts] advising the cardinals and bishops, had argued that contraception was morally acceptable, and nine of the 16 cardinals and bishops agreed with their position. But virtually all the theologians and all but one of the cardinals and bishops also agreed that the pill was not morally different from other contraceptives, which had long been condemned.''
[3]
Pope Paul was shattered by the widespread negative reaction to the encyclical, and it remained his last. His biography on the Vatican's website notes of his reaffirmations of priestly celibacy and the traditional teaching on contraception that "[t]he controversies over these two pronouncements tended to overshadow the last years of his pontificate".
1 However
Pope John Paul II unambiguously reaffirmed both teachings and expanded on ''Humanæ Vitæ'' with an encyclical of his own (titled ''
Evangelium Vitae''), as well as in a series of 129 talks delivered at his weekly audiences.
[4]
Meeting with Orthodox Patriarch
Paul was the first pope in centuries to meet the heads of various
Eastern Orthodox faiths. Notably, his meeting with
Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in
1964 in
Jerusalem led to rescinding the
1054 excommunications of the
Great Schism. This was a significant step towards restoring communion between Rome and Constantinople. It produced the
Catholic-Orthodox Joint declaration of 1965, which was read out on
December 7, 1965, simultaneously at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul. The declaration did not end the 1054 schism, but showed a desire for greater reconciliation between the two churches, represented by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I. Nevertheless, not all Orthodox leaders at the time were happy with this Catholic-Orthodox Joint declaration.
Relations with Anglicans
Pope Paul also became the second pope to meet an
Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury,
Michael Ramsey, after the visit of Archbishop
Geoffrey Fisher to
Pope John XXIII on
December 2 1960. He was a good friend of the Anglican Church, which he described as "our beloved sister Church". Along with Archbishop Ramsey, he encouraged the foundation of the Anglican Centre in Rome.
The Pilgrim Pope
Countries visited by Pope Paul VI.
Pope Paul VI's Coronation Tiara, now in the Crypt of the The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit six
continents, and was the most travelled pope in history to that time, earning the nickname ''the Pilgrim Pope''. In
1970 he was the target of an assassination attempt at
Manila International Airport in the
Philippines.
["Apostle Endangered". ''Time'', December 7, 1970. Retrieved April 13, 2007] The assailant, a
Bolivian
Surrealist painter named
Benjamín Mendoza y Amor Flores, lunged toward Pope Paul with a
kris, but was subdued.
[ Although the Vatican denied it, subsequent evidence suggests Pope Paul did indeed receive a stab wound in the incident.]
Controversies
According to some critics, Pope Paul VI was habitually indecisive. For example he appeared unable to decide how to deal with the scandal-ridden American Cardinal Cody, who was surrounded by allegations of financial and sexual impropriety. Cody even invited his female 'friend' to pose in a picture with him and Pope Paul taken when Cody was being awarded the red hat. Paul changed his mind over whether to remove Cody, on one occasion contacting a Vatican official at Rome Airport, whom he had sent to inform Cody of his dismissal, and telling him to return as he had changed his mind. Cody remained in office until his death.
Some critics point to Paul's response to Archbishop Lefebvre, who challenged papal authority by refusing to accept the New Mass and liturgical reforms produced after Vatican II. The pope summoned Lefebvre to meetings in which he argued with Lefebvre and showed his great frustration, but he did not excommunicate Lefebvre, as many had expected. Lefebvre was eventually excommunicated automatically (''latae sententiae'') for his illicit episcopal ordinations in 1988 during the reign of Pope John Paul II.
Pope Paul's slippers and gloves
Pope Paul discontinued the use of many traditional features of papal dress, including the papal slippers and gauntlets. Some of those discontinued by Paul were resurrected by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
The pope's response to the critics of ''Humanae Vitae'' is also cited as an example of indecisiveness. When Cardinal O'Boyle, the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., disciplined several priests for publicly dissenting from this teaching, the pope gave him encouragement. But when other bishops did nothing to quell dissent, the pope raised no objection. And when bishops in Canada, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands were lukewarm in their support or even publicly expressed reservations about this teaching, the pope did not discipline them in any way.
Some of Pope Paul's statements in the 1970s seemed critical of the direction taken by the Church after Vatican II, expressing his dislike of some of the "pedestrian" language used in some translations of the New Mass. But he did not generally indicate such unhappiness in his public statements. He did oppose Liberation theology after the 1962–65 Vatican Council, frowning on the CELAM (Latin American Episcopal Conference) support to it.
According to some sources, as Paul became older he spoke of abdicating the papal throne and going into retirement. Some critics see this as another example of indecision, as he remained in the papacy until his death.
It is rumored that Pope John XXIII referred to then-Cardinal Montini as "Our Hamlet" (''Amleto''), in reference to his indecisiveness. The private secretaries of both popes have denied that John ever made such a statement. Pope Paul himself reflected that description of himself in a private note written in 1978. He asked:
:''What is my state of mind? Am I Hamlet? Or Don Quixote? On the left? On the right? I do not think I have been properly understood.''[5]
Consistories
Pope Paul VI held six consistories between 1965–1977 that raised 143 men to the cardinalate in his fifteen years as pope. They were held on:
★ February 22, 1965, 27 cardinals
★ June 26, 1967, 27 cardinals
★ April 28, 1969, 34 cardinals
★ March 5, 1973, 30 cardinals
★ May 24, 1976, 21 cardinals
★ June 27, 1977, 4 cardinals
Up to and including the current Pope Benedict XVI, all of Pope Paul's successors were created cardinals by him. His immediate successor, Albino Cardinal Luciani, who took the name John Paul I, was created a cardinal in the consistory of March 5, 1973. After John Paul I's 33 day reign, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, created a cardinal in the consistory of June 26, 1967, took the name John Paul II. After the third longest reign in history, John Paul II died on April 2, 2005. On April 19, 2005, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected to the papacy and took the name Benedict XVI. Ratzinger was created a cardinal in the small four-appointment consistory of June 27, 1977, which ended up being Paul VI's last consistory before his death in August 1978.
Final months and death
Pope Paul VI left the Vatican to go to the Papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, for the final time on July 14, 1978, uncertain of whether he would return. While Mass was being said for him near his bedside during the afternoon of August 6, the feast of the Transfiguration, he became agitated, but managed to receive Communion one last time. He soon fell into unconsciousness for four hours and died soon after. The agitation had been a heart attack. [6]
Beatification
The diocesan process for beatification of Servant of God Paul VI began on May 11, 1993 by Pope John Paul II. The title of Servant of God is the first of four steps toward possible canonization. At the same time, it must be recognized that there is far less popular enthusiasm for Paul's canonization than for that of John XXIII and John Paul II. This is likely due to the unsettled state of his legacy, combined with his own retiring and indecisive nature. Any serious move toward actual canonization, therefore, is likely to lie in the distant future.
See also
★ Roman Curia
★ Archbishop Annibale Bugnini
★ Aldo Moro
★ Fleur de lys
★ Liberation theology
★ Paul VI Audience Hall
Encyclicals
★ Ecclesiam Suam (August 6, 1964) [1]
★ Mense Maio (April 29, 1965) [2]
★ Mysterium Fidei (September 3, 1965) [3]
★ Christi Matri (September 15, 1966) [4]
★ Populorum Progressio (March 26, 1967) [5]
★ Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (June 24, 1967) [6]
★ Humanae Vitae (July 25, 1968) [7]
Footnotes
1. ''Pope Paul VI : 1963–1978'', Retrieved 2 March 2006.
2. In theory any male Catholic, even a layman, is eligible for election to the papacy by the College of Cardinals, so technically Archbishop Montini could still have become pope in 1958. However, the cardinals in modern times invariably elect a fellow cardinal to the office.
3. ''Germain Grisez on "Humanae Vitae," Then and Now'', Retrieved 2 March 2006.
4. See for example, the brief overview: ''What is the theology of the body?'', Retrieved 2 March 2006. For the text see ''General Audiences : John Paul II's Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul II, retrieved 6 May 2006
5. Cathal B Daly, ''Steps on my Pilgrim Journey'' (Veritas, 1998) p.
6. Pope Paul VI Is Dead of a Heart Attack at 80; Guided the Church Through Era of Change
References
★ Soothsayers of the second Advent, , William M., Alnor, , ,
★ Paul VI, , J.L., Gonzalez, Paulist Press, 1964,
★ Paul VI: The First Modern Pope, , Peter, Hebblethwaite, Paulist Press, 1993, ISBN 0-8091-0461-X
Encyclicals on Vatican site
★ ''Ecclesiam Suam'' (August 6, 1964)
★ ''Mense Maio'' (April 29, 1965)
★ ''Mysterium Fidei'' (September 3, 1965)
★ ''Christi Matri'' (September 15, 1966)
★ ''Populorum Progressio'' (March 26, 1967)
★ ''Sacerdotalis Caelibatus'' (June 24, 1967)
★ ''Humanæ Vitæ'' (July 25, 1968)
External links
★ A list of all Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Constitutions, Encyclicals and documents issued, as well as his Last Will and Testament
★ THE TRUTH OF THE ENCYCLICAL "HUMANÆ VITÆ" by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II)
★ Pro-''Humanæ Vitæ'' analysis by Janet Smith, Former Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas
★ American attitudes towards ''Humanæ Vitæ''
★ Quotes of Pope Paul VI
★ The writings of Pope Paul VI
★ Tomb of Paul VI - Vatican Grottoes
★ Claims that Pope Paul VI was 'replaced' by an imposter in 1972
★ Website comparing pictures of Pope Paul VI to 'prove' he had been replaced by an actor while the real Pope Paul was 'kept drugged' in the Vatican
★ Pope Paul VI: text, concordances and frequency list
★ Pope Paul VI's Multilingual Opera Omnia
;Video on YouTube - Italian documentaries (English subtitled)
★ Paulus VI, a forgotten pope
★ The assassination attempt of Paulus VI
★ The last years of Paulus VI (G.B. Montini 1974-78)
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