www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Quote of Blessed John XXIII

The other day, I came across a beautiful quote of Pope John XXIII (of blessed memory) when he was nuncio to Bulgaria in the mid 1920's. He had attended the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and Rome had called him to to task for it
"in what have I offended?? They are bishops as we are. They are priests as we are. They have valid Sacraments. They honor the Mother of God as we do. If I am asked to forgive my enemies, can I not love these my brothers??"

And this was in 1925!!!!! What Humanity!!!!

What a great quote, thank you for posting this!

Dear Friends,

The great love for the Christian East this Holy Pope had (is there any significance in the fact that Pope John Paul the Great is now interred in the tomb of Bl. Pope XXIII?) is shown by the fact that when he became Pope, he set, as a goal of his Pontificate, the release from Soviet custody of Patriarch Joseph Slipyj - which was achieved also thanks to the help of President John Kennedy.

I know that the old Confessor had a great veneration for Pope John XXIII until the end of his own days.

Bl. Pope John XXIII is also credited with saving the lives of many Jews during World War II (in one case, he had baptismal certificates made etc.).

When various groups tried to thank Pope John for this, he turned to them, somewhat surprised, and said, "Well, after all, I was following orders given to me by Pope Pius XII!"

Alex

One of the many holy popes of the 20th century. How blessed we have been the last 100 years. All of them have been ecunemically minded an open to reunification with the east. I am sure they are interceeding as we speak to soften the hearts of the Orthodox leaders for a desire of reunification.

Are we talking about the same Pope John XXIII?

Isn't this the same Pope who "opened the windows and let the fresh air" of Vatican II in.

Am I missing something here, praising this Pope?

Jim

There is much to praise and much to be thankful to God for in the ministry of Pope John XXIII of blessed memory especially on the part of Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christians!!

May he pray unto God for us!!!

I heard this story many years ago but never have forgotten it. Once while he was visiting in the prisons...a convicted murderer asked the Holy Father (Pope John XXIII) if God could forgive anything. Pope John simply hugged him and held him close. +

More so than any mircles saints have been a part of - I am impressed by thier total humanity.

I have several books about Padre Pio and most of them are the typical "he id this - he did that" stuff... but I have one obscure book written by a close frreind of his - which almost completely ignores his mircles and opens a door i nto the human-ness of Padre Pio. More than any other book - this one touched me the most. The isolation Pardre Pio felt - the things he could not share with others. The burden of being a saint.

anyways...

-ray

Pope John XXIII had quite a good sense of Italian humour. He was once asked how many people worked in the Vatican, to which he answered, "about half"! :p

Alice,

He probably uused humor as not to draw attention of a church approching crisis. He saw that he had to make changes because things had been rather stagnat since the Council of Trent, and noticed how the faithful not truly a part of the prayer dialogue. Most of what the priest was read silently, and the people "assisted" by offering their private devotions in the litugy. John saw liturgy "as the work of the people". Already during the second council, there was a Liturgy reform instituted and another one a couple years later. These two change reflected the spirit of the Council. The proclamation of the Novus Ordo caught a great many by surprise. This was done by his successor Paul VI.

Pope John may have opened the windows at the second Vatican coumcil, but did not live long enough to see it out. It was actually Paul VI that concluded the council. In reading the documents from the council many dramatic statements are made to advance Catholicism into the modern world. Unfortunately we see, that many were unprepepared on how to handle the changes and what they meant. I pray the the current pontiff sets some order back in his house, so that his agaenda may go forward.

Something about Pope Benedict I like. Could it be that he wants to focus more on the church and getting its house in order than playing politics? Who know, we will have to wait and see.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+ who has been fighting with software instalss since 5AM, and is still not finished.