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Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in 1881 in Sotto il
Monte, near Bergamo. He was educated at Bergamo and the Seminario Romano
of the Apollinare in Rome, to be ordained in 1904. Called up for service
in World War I, he was first in the medical corps and was later a
chaplain. In 1925 he was made archbishop and sent as Vatican diplomatic
representative to Bulgaria. Later he was representative in Turkey and
Greece, and in 1944 he was named papal nuncio to France. In 1953 he was
made cardinal and the patriarch of Venice.
He was elected pope October 28, 1958 as successor of Pius XII. As pope,
he was active in promoting cooperation with other religions. In April,
1959, he forbade Roman Catholics to vote for parties supporting Communism,
but his encyclical Mater et Magistra, issued on July 14, 1961,
advocated social reform, assistance to underdeveloped countries, and
support for all socialist measures that promised real benefit to society.
On January 25, 1959, he announced the intention of calling an
ecumenical council to consider measures for renewal of the church in the
modern world, promotion of diversity within the encasing unity of the
church, and the reforms that had been earnestly promoted by the ecumenical
movement and the liturgical movement. The beginning of the council was on
Oct. 11, but he died in 1963 and was succeeded by Paul VI. In 1965 the
process of beatification of John XXIII was begun.
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