Something About John.

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On a Fulton Sheen rerun, the venerable Bishop succinctly joked that in an encounter with Pope John XXIII, the Good Pope whom the English called 'Johnny Walker,' whispered to him "All the years God knew I was going to be Pope, why then did he not make me handsome?" Yup, I got hooked on Pope John XXIII since I wondered who the Pope was when I was born. Didn't even know him when he was canonized saint together with the only saint I have ever seen in person - John Paul II. So I resolved to find out the life of the Good Pope. Born Angelo Roncalli, he was the fourth child, and first son, in a poor family of sharecroppers. His father wanted him to work the fields but his calling came early, a diminutive boy waking before dawn to run a long stretch to Mass. His father eventually gave him directions to the seminary, where he walked alone, to become a priest. The professors marveled at his proficiency in Hebrew, French, and English, but he humbly claimed fluency only in his native tongue. While seminarians dreamed of making it to the Vatican, he asked to be installed as parish priest at Sotto il Monte, his birth place, where his family and friends dwell. He served the community of peasants fighting to be heard which, eventually, became the reason he was reassigned to far away places such as Bulgaria and Istanbul, where he saw first hand the plight of the oppressed. He survived two world wars, and in one, became the instrument in saving 645 Jewish children aboard a German ship bound to Auschwitz. He drafted baptismal certificates for every child. In his old age, Cardinal Roncalli was made Archbishop of Venice, where he still made a tremendous impact on the people. It was on this state the old Cardinal was in, when a conclave was convened, for a new pope. His name surfaced, by virtue of his age, as a transitional Pope the curia needed. Lo and behold, the curia was astonished when the already decrepit Pope John XXIII visited prison. One convict in the death row wouldn't want to look at him. Pope John XXIII asked the jailer what crime was committed. The prisoner killed his wife. So Pope John told him "I had never been married but if I was, I would have also killed my wife." The prisoner turned and made his confession. Pope John was not only a peace maker but also a miracle worker. In the 1962 naval blockade at the Bay of Pigs, he made an appeal on television to the both the USA and the USSR to think about the grotesque repercussions of another world war. Russia retreated. When the problems of the world piled up on his desk, he told his secretary to summon two thousand bishops from around the world for a council. The curia was rendered mum, for the Pope, in jest, simply told them, "two thousand years of Christianity and we only had 19 councils?" Thus, the Vatican II came to be. Saint John XXIII, you who loved peace and was kind and merciful to every soul, pray for us.