Feast of Blessed John XXIII

Last Friday we celebrated the Feast of our Parish Patron, Blessed John XXIII. He was born into a farming family in the area of Bergamo in Italy and was lucky to have an uncle who was also his godfather and spent much time encouraging him to learn. Luckily Blessed John XXIII grew up with a deep love of Jesus and was able to enter the seminary to study for the priesthood.

He was a warm, gentle person who made people feel at ease. His talent in this area was recognised and he was soon promoted in the Church. Later he was given diplomatic positions because of the wonderful way he worked with all types of people and because he showed the love and kindness of Jesus to all he met. He was eventually promoted to be Archbishop of Florence.

When Pope Pius X died the conclave of Bishops met together to elect a new Pope. Blessed John went too but he was already an older man and was not expecting to be elected Pope. Surprisingly he was. Blessed John then went on to lead the Church into a new era by setting up Vatican II which allowed for many changes in the Church including those on liturgy. It is hard for us to imagine how it must have been for our grandparents who would have attended Mass in Australia in Latin, not English.

Blessed John showed great humility and had a wonderful sense of humour. Once he was asked "How many people work in the Vatican?" and he replied, "Oh, about half of them."