Born in Northern Italy in 1881, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was trained in Roman Catholic schools from an early age. After service in the military, Roncalli was ordained as a priest in 1904. His passion for social justice for working people and for the poor was formed early and remained an important commitment of his ministry.

Roncalli often received complicated assignments. He was made an archbishop in 1925 and sent as the papal envoy to Bulgaria, where he was responsible for reducing the tensions between Eastern Rite and Latin Rite Catholics during a difficult period. Some years later, he was the papal representative to Greece and Turkey when anti-religious sentiments were running high. His leadershipin Turkey anticipated on a local scale some of the developments of later decades on a universal scale: putting the liturgy and the official documents of the church in the language of the people, and opening conversations with Orthodox Christians and those of other faiths.

While serving as the papal nuncio in Turkey, Roncalli actively aided Jews fleeing Nazi persecution and encouraged priests under him to do the same. Near the end of the Second World War, he was made the papal nuncio to Paris with the task of trying to heal the divisions caused by the war. In 1953, at the age of 72, he was made a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice, the first time he had ever been the bishop ordinary of a diocese.

In 1958, Cardinal Roncalli was elected Pope and took the name John XXIII. After the long pontificate of Pius XII, it was widely assumed that John XXIII would be a brief “placeholder” pope of minor consequence. During the first year of his pontificate, however, he called the Second Vatican Council for the purpose of renewing and revitalizing the church. The work of the Council transformed the church of the twentieth century, not only for Roman Catholics, but for all Christians. With its emphasis on liturgical renewal, ecumenism, world peace, and social justice, the legacy of the Council continues to inspire the mission of the church among Christians of all traditions.

John XXIII died on June 3rd, 1963.