Pope John Xx example essay topic

475 words
Biography Pope John Paul the XX, originally known as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was born in 1881 in a small town called Sotto il Monte, Italy. He was educated at Bergamo and the Seminario Romano in Rome. Ordained in 1904, he served as a chaplain in World War 1. He was secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo from 1904-14.

He wrote scholarly works which included a life of St. Charles Bor romeo. While he was serving for the Bishop he was called up for service in World War 1. He was first in the medical corps and was later a chaplain. After he got back from the war he went to Rome and reorganized the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In 1925 he was made into an archbishop and sent as Vatican diplomatic representative of the country Bulgaria. Later he became a representative for Turkey and Greece.

In 1944 he was named papal nuncio to France. There he was a mediator for the conservative church people and for more socially "radical clergy". While doing this he gained much popularity. In 1953, he became a Cardinal and the Patriarch of Venice. He was then elected pope October 28, 1958. As a pope, he put reforms into practice.

He pressured his own pastoral duties as well as those of their bishops and the lesser clergy. He was active in helping workers, poor people, orphans and outcasts. He advanced the cooperation of religions such as Protestant leaders, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, the archbishop of Canterbury, and a Shinto high priest. In April of 1959, he did not allow Roman Catholics to vote for parties that supported Communism. His encyclical Mater et Magistral-a vigorous social document issued July 14, 1961 just 30 years after Pius XI's Quadragesima Anno-advocated social reform, assisted to underdeveloped countries, gave a living wage for all workers and support for all socialist measures that promised real benefit to society. Pope John XX almost doubled the number of cardinals, making the college the largest in history.

On January 25, 1959 he announced the intention of calling an ecumenical council to consider measures for the renewal of the church in the modern day 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 convening of the council on October 11, 1962 was the high point of his career. This is when he decided to do the Second Vatican Council. His freshness, love for people, and interest in the church made Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli one of the best-loved popes in the world even to this date. Paul VI succeeded him.