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The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently (in various languages, with various uses) by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches (Eastern Catholic Churches which use the Byzantine Rite), and in a substantially modified form by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church. The rite developed in the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul). It is the second largest liturgical rite in Christendom, second in worldwide usage only to the Roman Rite.

The Rite consists of the Divine Liturgies, Canonical Hours, forms for the administration of Sacred Mysteries (sacraments) and the numerous prayers, blessings, and exorcisms, developed in the Church of Constantinople. Also involved are the specifics of architecture, icons, liturgical music, vestments and traditions which have evolved over the centuries in the practice of this Rite.

Traditionally, the congregation stands throughout the whole service, and an iconostasis separates the sanctuary from the rest of the church. The faithful are very active in their worship, making frequent bows and prostrations, and feeling free to move about the temple (church building) during the services.

Scripture plays a large role in Byzantine worship, with not only daily readings but also many quotes from the Bible throughout the services. The entire Psalter is chanted each week, and twice weekly during Great Lent.

Fasting laws are stricter than in the West. On fast days, the faithful give up not only meat, but also dairy products, and on many fast days they also give up fish, wine and the use of oil in cooking. The Rite of Constantinople observes four fasting seasons: Great Lent, Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast. In addition, most Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year are fast days. Many monasteries also observe Monday as a fast day.

History[link]

There are two ancient liturgical traditions from which all of the Eastern Rites (plus the Gallican Rite in the West) developed: the Alexandrian Rite in Egypt and the Antiochene Rite in Syria. These two Rites developed directly from practices of the Early Church. Of these two traditions, the Rite of Constantinople developed from the Antiochene Rite. Prior to the see of Constantinople's elevation to the dignity of Patriarch by the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, the primary jurisdiction in Asia Minor was the Patriarchate of Antioch. With the council's elevation of Constantinople to primacy in the East, with the words "The Bishop of Constantinople ... shall have the prerogative of honour after the Bishop of Rome; because Constantinople is New Rome",^[1] the Constantinoplitan Rite gradually came to be the standard usage in every place under its jurisdiction.

Fresco of Basil the Great in the cathedral of Ohrid. The saint is shown consecrating the Gifts during the Divine Liturgy which bears his name.

The tradition of the Church of Constantinople ascribes the oldest of its two main Divine Liturgies to St. Basil the Great (d. 379), Metropolitan of Cæsarea in Cappadocia. This tradition is confirmed by the witness of several ancient authors, some of whom were contemporaries.^[2][3][4] It is certain that St. Basil made a reformation of the Liturgy of his Church, and that the Byzantine service called after him represents his reformed Liturgy in its chief parts, although it has undergone further modification since his time.^[5] St. Basil himself speaks on several occasions of the changes he made in the services of Cæsarea.^[6][7] and other contemporary witnesses attest his arrangement of the services. Basil had as his goal the streamlining of the services to make them more cohesive and attractive to the faithful. He also worked to reform the clergy and improve the moral life of Christians. He shortened the services and wrote a number of new prayers. The most important work attributed to him is the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil. He took as his basis the Liturgy of St. James as it was celerated at his time in the region of Cappadocia, as well as some liturgical elements recorded in the Apostolic Constitutions.^[5] Over time, the Liturgy of Saint Basil gained wide usage in Asia Minor and Syria. Peter the Deacon mentions that Basil's Liturgy was "used by nearly the whole East";^[5] however, the Coptic rite uses another Liturgy which is also attributed to Saint Basil,^[8] so Peter the Deacon's reference may not be to the Liturgy of St. Basil used in the Byzantine Rite.

Saint Basil's liturgical work was continued by John Chrysostom (died c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople. He wrote new (and shorter) prayers for the Divine Liturgy, as well as other prayers. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is the most common form of the Liturgy used in the Constantinopolitan Rite, and his Catechetical Homily is an important part of the Byzantine Paschal Vigil.

Further developments continued to occur, centered mostly around Constantinople and Mount Athos. Monasticism played an important role in the development of the rituals. In Constantinople, the work of the monastery of the Studion greatly enriched the liturgical traditions, especially with regard to the Lenten observance. Iconography continued to develop and a canon of traditional patterns evolved which still influences Eastern religious art to this day.

Two distinctive liturgical traditions developed: the "Cathedral Rite", strongly influenced by Byzantine court ritual and its interface with the liturgy at the Great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and the "Monastic Rite" developed in the great monasteries of the East. Eventually these distinct traditions merged and coalesced into the services as they are observed today.

Historical events have also influenced the development of the liturgy. The great Christological and Trinitarian controversies of Late Antiquity are reflected in the glorifications of the Trinity heard in the numerous ekphonies encountered during the services. In response to Nestorius' attack on giving the title of Theotokos to the Virgin Mary, the Byzantines increased the use of the term in the liturgy, and now almost every string of hymns ends with one in her honour, called a Theotokion.

It must be borne in mind that neither the Liturgies of Basil nor John Chrysostom as they are known today reflect exactly the services celebrated in their day. All liturgical rites change and develop over time. As new saints are glorified (canonized), new hymns are composed; as new needs arise, new prayers are written. The Rite also profits from the fact that the Christian East is not so centralized in ecclesiastical polity as the West. This allows for greater diversity, and as members of one church visit another, a natural cross-pollination occurs with resultant enrichment on all sides. In spite of its great emphasis on tradition, the Byzantine Rite comprises a constantly growing and expanding ritual, with room for local practice.

Divine Liturgy[link]

This tradition has several forms of the Divine Liturgy (celebration of the Eucharist), three of which are in use everywhere that the Byzantine Rite is used: the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified.

• The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is the one most commonly celebrated throughout the year.
• The Liturgy of St. Basil is celebrated ten times a year: on the five Sundays in Great Lent, with Vespers on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday, on the Eves with Vespers (or Feasts themselves, at the normal time, depending on the day of the week) of Christmas and Theophany, and on January 1, which is the feast day of St. Basil. (For those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, January 1 falls on January 14 of the modern Gregorian Calendar.)
• The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (which has no Consecration of the Gifts but distributes the Holy Mysteries from a Lamb sanctified in advance, always as a Vespers (Liturgies on fast days always being served in conjunction with the office of vespers) is celebrated only on certain weekdays of Great Lent: on Wednesdays, Fridays and any of the more important feast days which may occur (however, if the Great Feast of the Annunciation occurs on a weekday of Great Lent, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated). It is also served on the first three days of Holy Week.

The Divine Liturgy is normally not celebrated daily except in cathedrals and larger monasteries. However, most parishes and smaller monasteries serve the Liturgy on Saturdays, Sundays, and major feast days throughout the year.

The Divine Liturgy is celebrated with particular solemnity whenever a bishop is serving. Though other services are also affected by the presence of a bishop, none more so than the Liturgy.

Daily Office[link]

The daily chanting of the Canonical Hours has developed over the centuries into an intricate pattern of worship drawing on influences from the Temple in Jerusalem, classical poetry, Byzantine hymnography, monastic spirituality, and imperial court ritual. Numerous cycles combine and make use of a vast array of liturgical texts making the Byzantine Rite one of the richest liturgical traditions in Christianity (for more detail, see Canonical Hours: Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic usage).

The daily cycle of services consists of the following:

• Vespers (chanted at sunset, which is when the liturgical day begins, following the ancient Jewish tradition)
• Compline (the last prayer before sleep)
• Midnight Office (a monastic office which is chanted in the middle of the night, or early in the morning)
• Matins (the morning office—and the longest of the day—which traditionally ends as the sun is rising)
• First Hour (chanted at the rising of the sun)
• Third Hour (chanted at the third hour of the day—approximately 9:00 am)
• Sixth Hour (chanted at noon)
• Ninth Hour (chanted at the ninth hour of the day—approximately 3:00 pm)

The Divine Liturgy is not ennumerated among these services of the daily cycle because the Liturgy is considered to exist outside of time.

On the Great Feasts of the liturgical year as well as on certain feast days (and in the Slavic tradition, on every Saturday night) there is a particularly solemn service called the All-Night Vigil which combines Vespers, Matins and First Hour with special additions into a single long service.

All of these services are considered communal prayer, and there are in addition Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers, as well as numerous devotional services, such as Akathists, Canons, Molebens, Panikhidas, etc. which are either prayed by the individual privately or are served on behalf of an individual or group rather than the entire local church. The most important of the private prayers is the Jesus Prayer (Prayer of the Heart) and the entire Hesychastic tradition that has grown up around it.

Sacraments and other services performed as needed[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

Calendar[link]

The fixed portion of the liturgical year begins on September 1. There is also a moveable Paschal cycle which is fixed according to the date of Pascha (Easter), by far the most important day of the entire year. The interplay of these two cycles, plus other lesser cycles influences the manner in which the services are celebrated on a day to day level throughout the entire year.

Traditionally, the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches used the Julian Calendar to calculate their feast days. Beginning in 1924 the Patriarchate of Constantinople made an adjustment to their liturgical year to bring the fixed cycle in conformity to the modern Gregorian Calendar. The Paschal cycle, however, continued to be calculated according to the Julian Calendar. This composite calendar is known as the Revised Julian Calendar. Constantinople's example was followed by the Church of Greece as well as a number of other autocephalous churches. Today, some churches continue to follow the Julian Calendar while others follow the Revised Julian Calendar. Only the Orthodox Church of Finland has adopted the Western calculation of the date of Pascha (see computus); all other Orthodox Churches, and a number of Eastern Catholic Churches, celebrate Pascha at the same time, according to the ancient rules.

List of Churches of Byzantine liturgical tradition[link]

Eastern Orthodox Churches[link]

Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Chicago.

Only autocephalous (self-heading) churches are listed; autonomous churches are considered under their mother churches. Those churches which follow the Julian Calendar exclusively are marked with *, while those that partially use the Julian calendar are marked with (*).

• Ecumenical Patriarchate(*)
• Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria
• Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch
• Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem*
• Russian Orthodox Church*
• Serbian Orthodox Church*
• Romanian Orthodox Church
• Bulgarian Orthodox Church
• Georgian Orthodox Church*
• Cypriot Orthodox Church
• Church of Greece
• Albanian Orthodox Church
• Polish Orthodox Church
• Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church
• Orthodox Church in America(*)

Greek-Catholic Churches[link]

These Particular Churches are considered sui iuris churches (autonomous) in full communion with the Holy See

• Albanian Greek-Catholic Church
• Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
• Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
• Croatian Greek Catholic Church
• Greek Byzantine Catholic Church*
• Melkite Greek Catholic Church
• Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
• Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
• Macedonian Greek Catholic Church
• Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic
• Russian Catholic Church*
• Ruthenian Catholic Church
• Slovak Greek Catholic Church
• Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church(*)

Note: Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics are not recognized as a particular Church (cf. canon 27 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches).

Byzantine Rite Lutheranism[link]

• Ukrainian Lutheran Church^[9] (which uses liturgical formulae from the Byzantine Rite form the base text for the Order of Service in the Ukrainian Evangelical Service Book.^[10])

Notes[link]

Books[link]

• Robert F. Taft, The Byzantine Rite. A Short History. Liturgical Press, Collegeville 1992, ISBN 0-8146-2163-5
• Hugh Wybrew, The Orthodox Liturgy. The Development of the Eucharistic Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite, SPCK, London 1989, ISBN 0-281-04416-3
• Hans-Joachim Schulz, Die byzantinische Liturgie : Glaubenszeugnis und Symbolgestalt, 3., völlig überarb. und aktualisierte Aufl. Paulinus, Trier 2000, ISBN 3-7902-1405-1
• Robert A. Taft, A History of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Pontificio Istituto Orientale, Roma 1978-2008 (6 volumes).

See also[link]

Other Eastern liturgical rites:

• Alexandrian Rite
• Antiochene Rite
• Armenian Rite
• East Syrian Rite
• West Syrian Rite

External links[link]

• Study Text of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
• Study Text of the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great
• The Divine Music Project Thousands of pages of Byzantine music in English for Byzantine rite services
• Fr. Ronald Roberson's book The Eastern Christian Churches – A Brief Survey is the most up-to-date primer on these churches, available on-line at Catholic Near-East Welfare Association (CNEWA).
• "The Rite of Constantinople". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04312d.htm. 
• Rites of the Catholic Church Giga-catholic Website
• Byzantine rite in Italy The tradition of the Italo-Greek-Albanian Church
• The Byzantine-Slavic Rite

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John XXIII
Papacy began	28 October 1958
Papacy ended	3 June 1963
Predecessor	Pius XII
Successor	Paul VI
Orders
Ordination	10 August 1904 by Giuseppe Ceppetelli
Consecration	19 March 1925 by Giovanni Tacci Porcelli
Created Cardinal	12 January 1953
Personal details
Birth name	Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
Born	(1881-11-25)25 November 1881 Sotto il Monte, Kingdom of Italy
Died	3 June 1963(1963-06-03) (aged 81) Vatican City
Motto	Oboedientia et Pax
Coat of arms
Sainthood
Feast day	3 June
Beatified	3 September 2000 by Pope John Paul II
Other Popes named John

Blessed Pope John XXIII (Latin: Ioannes PP. XXIII; Italian: Giovanni XXIII), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963), headed the Catholic Church and ruled Vatican City from 1958 until his death.

Pope John was elected on 28 October 1958. He called the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) but did not live to see it to completion. He died in 1963, only four-and-a-half years after his election, and two months after the completion of his final encyclical, Pacem in Terris. He was beatified, along with Pope Pius IX, on 3 September 2000.

Biography[link]

Early life and ordination[link]

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in Sotto il Monte, a small country village in the Bergamo province of the Lombardy region of Italy. He was the first-born son of Giovanni Battista Roncalli (1854–1935) and his wife Marianna Giulia Mazzolla (1854–1939), and fourth in a family of 13, including: Angelo Giuseppe, Alfredo (1889–??), Maria Caterina (1877–1883), Teresa (1879–1954), Ancilla (1880–1953), Domenico Giuseppe (22 February 1888 – 14 March 1888), Francesco Zaverio (1883–1976), Maria Elisa (1884–1955), Assunta Casilda (1886–??), Giovanni Francesco (1891–1956), Enrica (1893–1918), Giuseppe Luigi (1894–??) and Luigi (1896–1898).^{[1] [2]} His family worked as sharecroppers as did most of the people of Sotto il Monte – a striking contrast to that of his predecessor, Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII), who came from an ancient aristocratic family, long connected to the Papacy. However, he was still a descendant of an Italian noble family, from a secondary and impoverished branch.^[3]

In 1904, Roncalli was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church of Santa Maria in Monte Santo in Rome.

Priest and bishop[link]

In 1905, Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi, the new Bishop of Bergamo, appointed Roncalli as his secretary. Roncalli worked for Radini-Tedeschi until the bishop's death in 1914. During this period Roncalli was also a lecturer in the diocesan seminary in Bergamo.

During World War I, Roncalli was drafted into the Royal Italian Army as a sergeant, serving in the medical corps as a stretcher-bearer and as a chaplain. After being discharged from the army in 1919, he was named spiritual director of the seminary.^[4]

In 1921, Pope Benedict XV appointed him as the Italian president of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In 1925 Pope Pius XI appointed him as Apostolic Visitor to Bulgaria (1925–1935), also naming him for consecration as titular bishop of Areopolis, Greece. He chose as his episcopal motto Obedientia et Pax ("Obedience and Peace"), which became his guiding motto.

Nuncio[link]

In 1935 he was made Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece. Roncalli used this office to help the Jewish underground in saving thousands of refugees in Europe, leading some to consider him to be a Righteous Gentile (see Pope John XXIII and Judaism). In 1944, during World War II, Pope Pius XII named him Apostolic Nuncio to France. In this capacity he had to negotiate the retirement of bishops who had collaborated with the German occupying power.

Cardinal[link]

In 1953, he was appointed Patriarch of Venice and, accordingly, raised to the rank of Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca by Pope Pius XII. As a sign of his esteem, the President of France, Vincent Auriol, claimed the ancient privilege possessed by French monarchs and bestowed the red hat on Roncalli at a ceremony in the Elysee Palace.

Papacy[link]

Papal styles of Pope John XXIII
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Blessed

Papal election[link]

Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop of one of the most ancient and prominent sees in Italy, he had not yet been made a cardinal.^[5] Though his absence from the 1958 conclave did not make him ineligible – under Canon Law any Catholic male may be elected – the College of Cardinals usually chose the new Pope from among themselves.

After the long pontificate of Pope Pius XII, the cardinals chose a man who – it was presumed because of his advanced age – would be a short-term or "stop-gap" pope. In John XXIII's first consistory, Montini was created a cardinal and became John's successor in 1963, taking the name of Paul VI. John XXIII's personal warmth, good humour and kindness entirely captured the world's affections.

Upon his election, Roncalli chose John as his regnal name. This was the first time in over 500 years that this name had been chosen; previous Popes had avoided its use since the time of the Antipope John XXIII during the Western Schism.

On the choice of his name Pope John said that

I choose John ... a name sweet to us because it is the name of our father, dear to me because it is the name of the humble parish church where I was baptized, the solemn name of numberless cathedrals scattered throughout the world, including our own basilica [St. John Lateran]. Twenty-two Johns of indisputable legitimacy have [been Pope], and almost all had a brief pontificate. We have preferred to hide the smallness of our name behind this magnificent succession of Roman Popes.^[6]

Upon his choosing the name, there was some confusion as to whether he would be known as John XXIII or John XXIV; in response, John declared that he was John XXIII, thus affirming the antipapal status of antipope John XXIII.

Before this antipope, the most recent popes called John were John XXII (1316–1334) and John XXI (1276–1277). However, there was no Pope John XX, owing to confusion caused by medieval historians misreading the Liber Pontificalis to refer to another Pope John between John XIV and John XV.

Visits around Rome[link]

Monument to Pope John XXIII in Porto Viro (Rovigo)

On 25 December 1958, he became the first pope since 1870 to make pastoral visits in his Diocese of Rome, when he visited children infected with polio at the Bambino Gesù Hospital and then visited Santo Spirito Hospital. The following day he visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison, where he told the inmates: "You could not come to me, so I came to you." These acts created a sensation, and he wrote in his diary:

...great astonishment in the Roman, Italian and international press. I was hemmed in on all sides: authorities, photographers, prisoners, wardens...^[7]

His frequent habit of sneaking out of the Vatican late at night to walk the streets of the city of Rome earned him the nickname "Johnny Walker",^[8] a pun on the whisky brand name.

Calling the Council[link]

Far from being a mere "stop gap" pope, to great excitement, John called an ecumenical council fewer than ninety years after the First Vatican Council (Vatican I's predecessor, the Council of Trent, had been held in the 16th century). Cardinal Giovanni Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI remarked to a friend that "this holy old boy doesn't realise what a hornet's nest he's stirring up".^[9] From the Second Vatican Council came changes that reshaped the face of Catholicism: a comprehensively revised liturgy, a stronger emphasis on ecumenism, and a new approach to the world.

Pope John and papal ceremonial[link]

Pope John XXIII was the last pope to use full papal ceremony, some of which was abolished after Vatican II, while the rest fell into disuse. His papal coronation ran for the traditional five hours (Pope Paul VI, by contrast, opted for a shorter ceremony, while later popes declined to be crowned). However, as with his predecessor Pope Pius XII, he chose to have the coronation itself take place on the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica, in view of the crowds assembled in Saint Peter's Square below.

Final months and death[link]

On 23 September 1962, Pope John XXIII was first diagnosed with stomach cancer. The diagnosis, which was kept from the public, followed nearly eight months of occasional stomach hemorrhages, and reduced the pontiff's appearances. Looking pale and drawn during these events, he gave a hint to his ultimate fate in April 1963, when he said to visitors, "That which happens to all men perhaps will happen soon to the Pope who speaks to you today."

On 11 May 1963, the Italian president Antonio Segni awarded Pope John XXIII the Balzan Prize for his engagement for peace. It was the Pope's last public appearance.

On 25 May 1963, the Pope suffered another hemorrhage and required blood transfusions, but the cancer had perforated the stomach wall and peritonitis soon set in. By 31 May, it had become clear that the cancer had overcome the resistance of Pope John. "At 11 am Petrus Canisius Van Lierde as Papal Sacristan was at the bedside of the dying pope, ready to anoint him. The Pope began to speak for a very last time: "I had the great grace to be born into a Christian family, modest and poor, but with the fear of the Lord. My time on earth is drawing to a close. But Christ lives on and continues his work in the Church. Souls, souls, Ut omnes unum sint."^[10] Van Lierde then anointed his eyes, ears, mouth, hands and feet. Overcome by emotion, Van Lierde forgot the right order of anointing. Pope John gently helped him before bidding those present a last farewell.^[11]

The Pope died at 19:49 (local time) of peritonitis due to a perforated stomach cancer on 3 June at the age of 81, ending a reign of four years, seven months. He was buried on 6 June.

On 3 December 1963, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award, in recognition of the good relationship between Pope John and the United States.

Efforts during the Holocaust[link]

As nuncio, Roncalli made various efforts during the Holocaust to save refugees, mostly Jewish people, from the Nazis. Among his efforts were:

• Jewish refugees who arrived in Istanbul and were assisted in going on to Palestine or other destinations
• Slovakian children managed to leave the country due to his interventions.
• Jewish refugees whose names were included on a list submitted by Rabbi Markus of Istanbul to Nuncio Roncalli.
• Jews held at Jasenovac concentration camp, near Stara Gradiška, were liberated as a result of his intervention.
• Bulgarian Jews who left Bulgaria, a result of his request to King Boris of Bulgaria.
• Romanian Jews from Transnistria left Romania as a result of his intervention.
• Italian Jews helped by the Vatican as a result of his interventions.
• Orphaned children of Transnistria on board a refugee ship that weighed anchor from Constanza to Istanbul, and later arriving in Palestine as a result of his interventions.
• Jews held at the Sered concentration camp who were spared from being deported to German death camps as a result of his intervention.
• Hungarian Jews who saved themselves through their conversions to Christianity through the baptismal certificates sent by Nuncio Roncalli to the Hungarian Nuncio, Monsignor Angelo Rota.

In 1965 the Catholic Herald quoted Pope John as saying:

We are conscious today that many, many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes so that we can no longer see the beauty of Thy chosen people nor recognise in their faces the features of our privileged brethren. We realize that the mark of Cain stands upon our foreheads. Across the centuries our brother Abel has lain in blood which we drew, or shed tears we caused by forgetting Thy love. Forgive us for the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we know what we did."^[12]

On 7 September 2000 the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation launched the International Campaign for the Acknowledgement of the humanitarian actions undertaken by Vatican Nuncio Giuseppe Roncalli for people, most of whom were Jewish, persecuted by the Nazi regime. The launching took place at the Permanent Observation Mission of the Vatican to the United Nations, with the presence of the Vatican's then State Secretary, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

The IRWF has carried out exhaustive historical research related to different events connected with interventions of Nuncio Roncalli in favour of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. Until now three reports have been published compiling different studies and materials of historical research about the humanitarian actions carried out by Roncalli when he was nuncio. ^{[13] [14]}

Legacy and beatification[link]

The body of John XXIII

Known affectionately as "Good Pope John" and "the most beloved Pope in history" to many people, on 3 September 2000, John was declared "Blessed" by Pope John Paul II (who himself was declared "Blessed" in 2011), the penultimate step on the road to sainthood. He was the first pope since Pope Pius X to receive this honour. Following his beatification, his body was moved from its original burial place in the grottoes below St Peter's Basilica to the altar of St. Jerome and displayed for the veneration of the faithful. At the time, the body was observed to be extremely well preserved—a condition which the Church ascribes to embalming^[15] and the lack of air flow in his sealed triple coffin rather than to a miracle.

When John's body was moved, the original vault above the floor was removed and a new one built beneath the ground; it was here that the body of Pope John Paul II was entombed from 2005 to 2011 before being moved for his beatification in 2011.

The date assigned for the liturgical celebration of Blessed John XXIII is not 3 June, the anniversary of his death, as would be usual, but 11 October, the anniversary of his opening of the Second Vatican Council.^[16] He is also commemorated in the Anglican Communion.

From his early teens, he maintained a diary of spiritual reflections that was subsequently published as Journal of a Soul. The collection of writings charts Roncalli's efforts as a young man to "grow in holiness" and continues after his election to the Papacy; it remains widely read.

Sedevacantist and Conclavist groups have been some of Pope John's most outspoken critics. The more extreme devotees of Our Lady of Fátima also believe that Pope John deliberately held back secret prophetic information revealed during an apparition of the Virgin Mary.^[17] This is perhaps the basis for Internet reports in the late 1990s about the supposed discovery of Pope John's diary in which he allegedly wrote about receiving prophetic insight into the future, including the return of Jesus in New York in 2000.^[18] Catholic Church authorities give absolutely no credence to these rumours. Although Pope John did have a diary, there is no evidence in it to suggest that he received apocalyptic visions of the future.^[19]

In 2003, The Guardian newspaper found a confidential communique from John to Catholic bishops, allegedly mandating confidentiality in matters of pederasty with the threat of excommunication.^[20] These allegations were later denied by Archbishop Vincent Gerard Nichols, Chairman of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults. Nichols explained that the communique "is not directly concerned with child abuse at all, but with the misuse of the confessional. This has always been a most serious crime in Church law."^[21]

See also[link]

Saints portal

• Orthodox Church
• Eastern Catholic Church
• List of Righteous Among the Nations by country
• List of encyclicals of Pope John XXIII
• List of meetings between the President of the United States and the Pope

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hebblethwaite, Peter & Hebblethwaite, Margaret (2000). John XXIII: Pope of the Century. Continuum International. ISBN 0-8264-4995-6 
• Martin, Malachi B. 1972. Three Popes and the Cardinal: The Church of Pius, John and Paul in its Encounter with Human History. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-27675-7.
• Martin, Malachi (1986). Vatican: a novel. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-015478-0 
• Martin, Malachi (1990). The Keys of this Blood. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-69174-0 
• Pope John XXIII, Journal of a Soul ("Giovanni XXIII Il Giornale dell' Anima". trans. Dorothy White, 1965 Geoffrey Chapman ISBN 0-225-66895-5
• Williams, Paul L. (2003). The Vatican Exposed. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-065-4 

External links[link]

Find more about Pope John XXIII on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
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• Vatican biography
• John XXIII@Everything2.com
• Pope John XXIII: Biography at About.com
• John XXIII (pope): Britannica Online Encyclopedia
• John XXIII was embalmed; Vatican denies he is subject of miracle of incorruptibility
• Advocating John XXIII as Righteous Among the Nations
• Monument to John XXIII
• Memorial Page for John XXIII
• Homily by Pope John Paul II from Pope John XXIII beatification mass
• Pope John XXIII: text with concordances and frequency list
• Saint of the Day at americancatholic.org
• Pope John XXIII's Multilingual Opera Omnia
• Pope John XXIII, TIME Magazine, 4 Jan. 1963

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