Upon his election to the papacy, Montini took the pontifical name Paul VI (the first to take the name "Paul" since 1605) to indicate a renewed worldwide mission to spread the message of Christ. He re-convened the Second Vatican Council, which was automatically closed with the death of John XXIII, and gave it priority and direction. After the council had concluded its work, Paul VI took charge of the interpretation and implementation of its mandates, often walking a thin line between the conflicting expectations of various groups within Catholicism. The magnitude and depth of the reforms affecting all fields of Church life during his pontificate exceeded similar reform policies of his predecessors and successors. Paul VI was a Marian devotee, speaking repeatedly to Marian congresses and mariological meetings, visiting Marian shrines and issuing three Marian encyclicals. Following his famous predecessor Saint Ambrose of Milan, he named Mary as the Mother of the Church during the Second Vatican Council.[9] Paul VI sought dialogue with the world, with other Christians, other religions, and atheists, excluding nobody. He saw himself as a humble servant for a suffering humanity and demanded significant changes of the rich in North America and Europe in favour of the poor in the Third World.[10] His positions on birth control (see Humanae vitae) and other issues were often controversial, especially in Western Europe and North America.
Paul VI died on 6 August 1978, the Feast of the Transfiguration, in Castel Gandolfo, after a period of ill health. According to his will, he was buried in the grottos of the Vatican not in an ornate tomb, but in a grave in the ground. The diocesan process for the beatification of Paul VI began on 11 May 1993, and he was given the title "Servant of God". The diocesan process concluded its work in 1998.[11]
On 20 December 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, in an audience with the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, declared that the late pontiff had lived a life of heroic virtue, which means that he could be called "Venerable".[12] A miracle attributed to the intercession of Paul VI was approved on 9 May 2014 by Pope Francis. The beatification ceremony for Paul VI was held on 19 October 2014, which means that he can now be called "Blessed".[13] His liturgical feast day is celebrated on the date of his birth, 26 September, rather than the day of his death as is usual.[14]
Early life
His father, Giorgio Montini
In 1916, he entered the seminary to become a Roman Catholic priest. He was ordained priest on 29 May 1920 in Brescia and celebrated his first Holy Mass in Brescia in the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie.[17] Montini concluded his studies in Milan with a doctorate in Canon Law in the same year.[18] Afterwards he studied at the Gregorian University, the University of Rome La Sapienza and, at the request of Giuseppe Pizzardo at the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici. At the age of twenty-five, again at the request of Giuseppe Pizzardo, Montini entered the Secretariat of State in 1922, where he worked under Pizzardo together with Francesco Borgongini-Duca, Alfredo Ottaviani, Carlo Grano, Domenico Tardini and Francis Spellman.[19] Consequently, he spent not a day as a parish priest. In 1925 he helped found the publishing house Morcelliana in Brescia, focused on promoting a 'Christian inspired culture'.[20]
Vatican career
Polish nunciature
The only foreign diplomatic experience Montini underwent was his time in the nunciature in Warsaw, Poland in 1923. Like Achille Ratti before him,[a] he felt confronted with the huge problem, not limited to Poland, of excessive nationalism: "This form of nationalism treats foreigners as enemies, especially foreigners with whom one has common frontiers. Then one seeks the expansion of one's own country at the expense of the immediate neighbours. People grow up with a feeling of being hemmed in. Peace becomes a transient compromise between wars."[21] When he was recalled to Rome he was happy to go, because "this concludes this episode of my life, which has provided useful, though not always joyful, experiences."[22]After his Polish mission, Giovanni Battista Montini returned to Rome, where soon he began to work in the Vatican. Later, as pope, he wanted to return to Poland on a Marian pilgrimage, but he was not permitted by the Communist government, a request that it later could not deny to the native son Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II.
Pius XII
Montini on the day of his ordination in 1920.
It is true, my service to the pope was not limited to the political or extra-ordinary affairs according to Vatican language. The goodness of Pope Pius XII opened to me the opportunity to look into the thoughts even into the soul of this great pontiff. I could quote many details how Pius XII, always using measured and moderate speech, was hiding, nay revealing a noble position of great strength and fearless courage.[24]As war broke out, Maglione, Tardini and Montini were the main figures in the Vatican's State Department, as despatches originated from or addressed to them during the war years.[25][page needed] Montini was in charge of taking care of the "ordinary affairs" of the Secretariat of State, which took much of the mornings of every working day. In the afternoon he moved to the third floor into the Office of the Private Secretary of the Pontiff. Pius XII did not have a personal secretary. As did several popes before him, he delegated the secretarial functions to the State Secretariat.[26] During the war years, thousands of letters from all parts of the world arrived at the desk of the pope, most of them asking for understanding, prayer and help. Montini was tasked to formulate the replies in the name of Pius XII, expressing his empathy, and understanding and providing help, where possible.[26] At the request of the pope, he created an information office for prisoners of war and refugees, which in the years of its existence from 1939 until 1947 received almost ten million (9 891 497) information requests and produced over eleven million (11.293.511) answers about missing persons.[27] Montini was several times openly attacked by Benito Mussolini's government as a politician, and meddling in politics, but each time he found powerful defenses by the Vatican.[28] In 1944, Luigi Maglione died, and Pius XII appointed Tardini and Montini together as heads of the State Department. Montini's admiration was almost filial, when he described Pope Pius XII:
His richly cultivated mind, his unusual capacity for thought and study led him to avoid all distractions and every unnecessary relaxation. He wished to enter fully into the history of his own afflicted time: with a deep understanding, that he was himself a part of that history. He wished to participate fully in it, to share his sufferings in his own heart and soul.[29]At the request of the pope, together with Pascalina Lehnert, Ferdinando Baldelli and Otto Faller, he created the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza, which aided large number of Romans and refugees from everywhere with shelter, food and other material assistance. In Rome alone this organization distributed almost two million portions of free food in the year 1944.[30] The Vatican and the Papal Residence Castel Gandolfo were opened to refugees. Some 15,000 persons lived in Castel Gandolfo alone, supported by the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza.[30] At the request of Pius XII, Montini was also involved in the re-establishment of Church Asylum, providing protection to hundreds of Allied soldiers, who had escaped from Axis prison camps, Jews, anti-Fascists, Socialists, Communists, and after the liberation of Rome, German soldiers, partisans and other displaced persons.[31] After the war and later as pope, Montini turned the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza, into the major charity, Caritas Italiana.[b]
Archbishop of Milan
After the death of Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, OSB in 1954, Montini was appointed Archbishop of Milan, which made him the Secretary of the Italian Bishops Conference.[33] Pope Pius XII presented the new Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini "as his personal gift to Milan". He was consecrated in Saint Peter's Basilica by Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, since Pius XII was forced to stay in bed due to his severe illness.Pius XII delivered an address about Montini's appointment from his sick-bed over radio to those assembled in St. Peter's Basilica on 12 December 1954.[34] Both Montini and the pope had tears in their eyes when Montini parted for his dioceses with 1,000 churches, 2,500 priests and 3,500,000 souls.[35] On 5 January 1955, Montini formally took possession of his Cathedral of Milan. Montini, after a period of preparation, liked his new tasks as archbishop, connecting to all groups of faithful in Milan. He enjoyed meetings with intellectuals, artists and writers.[36]
Montini's philosophy
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini walking in Saint Peter's Square in 1962.
His public speeches were noticed not only in Milan but also in Rome and elsewhere. Some considered him a liberal, when he asked lay people to love not only Catholics but also schismatics, Protestants, Anglicans, the indifferent, Muslims, pagans, atheists.[38] He engaged in friendly relations with a group of Anglican clergy visiting Milan in 1957 and a subsequently exchanged letters with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher.[39]
He was not made a cardinal by Pius XII, who held no consistory and created no cardinals from the time he named Montini to Milan and his death four years later. Pope Pius XII revealed at the 1952 secret consistory that Montini and Tardini had declined appointments to the cardinalate.[40][41]
Montini and Angelo Roncalli were considered to be friends, but when Roncalli, as Pope John XXIII announced a new Ecumenical Council, Cardinal Montini reacted with disbelief and said to Giulio Bevilacqua: "This old boy does not know what a hornets nest he is stirring up."[42] He was appointed to the Central Preparatory Commission in 1961. During the Council, his friend Pope John XXIII asked him to live in the Vatican. He was a member of the Commission for Extraordinary Affairs but did not engage himself much into the floor debates on various issues. His main advisor was Monsignore Giovanni Colombo, whom he later appointed to be his successor in Milan[43] The Commission was greatly overshadowed by the insistence of John XXIII to have the Council complete all its work in one single session before Christmas 1962, to the 400th anniversary of the Council of Trent, an insistence which may have also been influenced by the Pope's recent knowledge that he had cancer.[44]
Pastoral progressivism
During his period in Milan, Montini was known as a progressive member of the Catholic hierarchy. Montini went new ways in pastoral care, which he reformed. He used his authority to ensure that the liturgical reforms of Pius XII were carried out at the local level and employed innovative methods to reach the people of Milan: Huge posters announced that 1,000 voices would speak to them from 10 to 24 November 1957. More than 500 priests and many bishops, cardinals and lay persons delivered 7,000 sermons in the period not only in churches but in factories, meeting halls, houses, courtyards, schools, offices, military barracks, hospitals, hotels and other places, where people meet.[45] His goal was the re-introduction of faith to a city without much religion. "If only we can say Our Father and know what this means, then we would understand the Christian faith."[46]Pius XII asked Archbishop Montini to Rome October 1957, where he gave the main presentation to the Second World Congress of Lay Apostolate. Previously as Pro-Secretary, he had worked hard to unify a worldwide organization of lay people of 58 nations, representing 42 national organizations. He presented them to Pius XII in Rome in 1951. The second meeting in 1957 gave Montini an opportunity to express the lay apostolate in modern terms: "Apostolate means love. We will love all, but especially those, who need help... We will love our time, our technology, our art, our sports, our world."[47]