|
FROM POPE PIO IX TO POPE GIOVANNI PAOLO II
10 PAPES – 7 JUBILEE YEARS PICTORIAL – BIOGRAPHIC MONOGRAPHS
FROM THE CLOSED HOLY DOORS BY PAPE MASTAI TO THE WORLD EMBRACE BY PAPE WOJTYLA
Historical Notes by FRANCO MARIANI
INTRODUCTION
In the last page of this book there is a photo taken in Vatican on December, 9th, 1998, when, in my capacity as President of the “Comitato Firenze Promuove”, I gave Pope Giovanni Paolo II the first copy of my volume on Cardinal Ermenegildo Florit, the 86th Archbishop of Florence, the fifth publication of our publishing series and a painting by the painter Galeazzo Auzzi, who was with me at the meeting. The painting portrays the Pope while he is praying, dressed in his holy vestment.
On my return by train with the Vice-President Carla Vettori Biagioni, the actor Bruno Vetti, Mrs. Auzzi, Galeazzo and I, still excited by the meeting with the Pope, in a few seconds, like we often do during our friendly and pleasant talk, we had an idea which means a historic-artistic message of Florence and which can be included in that context of manifestations which are going to enrich the Jubilee Year of the twenty-one century.
At first we had thought of portraying pictorially the Popes of this century, but it seemed too reducing for our historic religious excursus not to include such an important pope as Pio IX, the last king Pope, whit whom the temporal power of a Roman Pope had finished: it had lasted about 1115 years; besides Pio IX was the last Pope who celebrated a Jubilee Year without opening the Holy Doors.
While our plan was taking shape, we realized that the idea of the show of ten paintings portraying the Popes, within the time we had taken into consideration, needed a card about their mission, without forgetting the history and the origin of the Jubilee event, providing at the same time some interesting particular information to give a further sense to our work.
In these ten paintings of so many successors of the Apostle Peter, Galeazzo was able to understand the humanity and the suffering, referred to Pope Giovanni Paolo II; the goodness, referred to Pope Giovanni XXIII and Pope Giovanni Paolo I.
Personally and according to my journalistic experience and as a writer, I tried to give prominence to the less known aspect of these men of God, who carried out their priest office in a very hard century, a period of time always on the go and completely aimed to look for the supreme good.
We wish this Jubilee and our publication may be a little contribution towards this direction and we may “reabsorb and taste again” the sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with us ourselves, our neighbour and God.
SHORT HISTORICAL NOTES ABOUT THE JUBILEE YEAR
By
Franco Mariani
Jews used to keep a year of rest every seven years and it was usually called the sabbatical one. During that period every agricultural labour stopped. On the seventh sabbatical year, that is every fifty years, the celebration took a particular character and it was called the Jubilee Year.
Unlike the Jewish conception, the Jubilee called Jubilee Year too, according to the Christians, took a chiefly spiritual character, allowed by the Roman Pope from its institution, by Pope Bonifacio VIII in 1300.
In the Bull announcing the Jubilee, the Pope decreed that it was to take place every hundred years, but in 1350 Pope Clemente VI, obliged by various circumstances, changed the maturity every fifty years.
Soon after, in 1378, Pope Urbano IV brought it at thirty-three years, referring to the years of Messiah’s earthly life.
Finally in 1470, it was Pope Paolo II who fixed the natural celebration every twenty-five years. Today, a Jubilee year can be ordinary, every twenty-five years and extraordinary, when it is announced on particular circumstances.
Among the historical oddities, it is worth mentioning that among the Popes who announced and celebrated a Jubilee year, there are two Florentines too, Giulio De’Medici, who became Pope Clemente VII and celebrated the Jubilee year in 1525 and Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, who became Pope Urbano VIII and opened the 13th Jubilee Year, on Christmas night in 1624.
The Holy Door in St. Peter’s Cathedral, in Vatican, which is opened by the Pope, when he is celebrating a Jubilee Year and from where Pilgrims must enter “to receive forgiveness”, was made by a Tuscan, the sculptor Vico Consorti from Siena.
In the sixteenth century the Church used to announce extraordinary Jubilees to beg the divine help through some penitential observances, when the Church was in difficulties or in other circumstances. However they variously lasted: a few days, some weeks or a month or a year, too.
During this century, two extraordinary Jubilee Years took place, the former under Pope Pio XI in 1933 on the 19th centenarian of Christ Redemption; the latter, fifty years later in 1983 under Pope Giovanni Paolo II on the Redemption Year. A Jubilee Year is always a very important event, not only as a penitential fact, but even as a particular moment of meditation and reconciliation.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
POPE PIO IX GIOVANNI MARIA MASTAI FERRETTI
He was born at Senigallia from a noble family on May, 13th, 1792. He studied at the Scolopi College in Volterra, Tuscany.
He was elected Pope within hardly fifty hours of Conclave on June, 16th, 1846 thanks to his reputation of being a virtuous man and for his liberal tendencies. His first acts as a Pope seemed to reaffirm the hopes of the Italians, or, at least of those who aimed to civic liberties and to a national reunification.
By his reforms in 1847 he definitely opened the gates which had closed the Jews in the “ghetto”. In 1848, when the first riots broke out Rome and the Pope’s minister, Pellegrino Rossi, was murdered, Pio IX was obliged to run away from Quirinale, (later it became the King’s official residence, while today it is the President’s of the Italian State) where he lived; and was even obliged to leave the Holy City, disguised as a simple priest, in order to take shelter at Gaeta.
When he came back to Rome on April, 12th, 1850, his politics was chiefly taken up to defend and keep the Roman Pope’s temporal power.
In 1870 he announced the first Vatican Ecumenical Council, in which the Pope’s infallibility was affirmed, chiefly when he uses to speak ex-chair, as he is directly inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Council was still going on, when on September, 20th, the Italian troops occupied Rome entering through the famous gap of Porta Pia. At that time, it began the long Pope’s “imprisonment” in Vatican, which lasted as long as 1929.
His pontificate, the longest one among all Peter’s successors, lasted 32 years and it is the only record even today.
He was the last King Pope, because he himself ended the Roman Pope’s temporal power which had lasted about 1115 years.
In 1875 he announced the 21st Jubilee Year, but he didn’t open the Holy Doors owing to the occupation of Rome from the Savoias.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
POPE LEONE XIIIVINCENZO GIOACCHINO PECCI
He was born at Carpineto, in Ciociaria, on March, 2nd, 1810. He was elected Pope after only a 36 hours’ Conclave on February, 20th, 1878.
He was an intelligent sensitive Pope who realized the requests of the time, even if he kept a hard attitude towards the Italian State.
Twice he was about to leave Rome: the former when there was an attack to the corpse of his predecessor, Pope Pio IX and the latter, when it was built a monument to Giordano Bruno.
Leone XIII was the first Pope to be immortalized by a film.
He wanted expressly to announce the Jubilee Year in 1900 as an act of reconciliation and for the first time St. Peter’s was lighted up by electric light.
He died on July, 20th, 1903.
His pontificate lasted 25 years and 5 months.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
POPE PIO X GIUSEPPE MELCHIORRE SARTO
A SAINT IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
He was born at Riese, near Treviso, on June, 2nd, 1835 and he was the second one of ten children.
He was appointed Cardinal in 1895 and was sent to the Patriarchato of Venice.
He used to practise poverty, as a pleasant duty. The Venetians knew his prelate clothes were his predecessor’s and his gold watch was often pawned to help the poor.
He was elected Pope on August, 4th, 1903, after a four days’ Conclave.
He reformed the “Curia”, the priest institutions and the clergy education. He considered everybody needed a religious education.
He pointed out the importance of a catechism teaching to children (the famous catechism by Pio X) even by an “Encyclical” on April, 15th, 1905.
He died on August, 20th, 1914, when ha was eighty and after 11 years’ pontificate.
He was proclaimed Saint on May, 29th, 1954 by Pope Pio XII.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
POPE BENEDETTO XV GIACOMO DELLA CHIESA
He was born at Pegli, Genoa, on November, 21st, 1854 from a very ancient noble family, married to two popes.
He was elected Pope on September, 3rd, 1914. He was the Pope of the first world war.
He created an assistance and research centre in Vatican, so that seven hundred thousand requests of information and forty thousand of repatriation arrived.
In 1917 he promulgated the Code of Canon Law. Under his pontificate the 14 States who were in Vatican with their own Ambassadors, became 27.
His pontificate ended on January, 22nd, 1922 and had lasted seven years and six months.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
POPE PIO XI ACHILLE RATTI
He was born at Desio, near Milan on May, 31st, 1857. He was elected Pope on February, 6th, 1922 after fourteen ballots.
He announced the 23rd Jubilee in 1925.
In 1933 he announced an Extraordinary Jubilee Year on the occasion of the 19th Centennial of the Redemption.
He created the Vatican Radio and opened it at the presence of Guglielmo Marconi on February, 2nd, 1931.
He died on February, 10th, 1939.
His pontificate lasted seventeen years.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
POPE PIO XII EUGENIO PACELLI
He was born in Rome on March, 2nd, 1876. He was ordained priest in 1899 and entered immediately at the Administration office in the Vatican State. In 1917 he was Papal Nuncio in Münich and in Berlin later.
He became Cardinal in 1929 and was at the same time appointed as Secretary of State.
He was elected Pope after an only day’s Conclave on March, 2nd, 1939, on the occasion of his birthday.
As Pope Benedetto XV did at his time, during the second world war Pio XII created a wide assistance and information network for the soldiers, receiving ten million requests.
On July, 16th, 1943 after a violent bombing in St. Lawrence district, he went personally to be of comfort and help to the people.
When the war ended, Pio XII’s pontificate directed towards the struggle against the Marxist ideology.
In 1950 he announced the Jubilee Year during which he proclaimed the Dogma of Mary’s Assumption to Heaven.
His pontificate ended on October, 9th, 1958 and had lasted 18 years and six months.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
POPE GIOVANNI XXIII ANGELO GIUSEPPE RONCALLI
He was born at Sotto il Monte, in the surrounding of Bergamo, on October, 25th, 1881.
During the first world war he was obliged to go into the army as a chaplain with the degree of sergeant.
In 1924 he became Bishop and entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See; later he was sent to Bulgaria as Apostolic Visitor and to Turkey and Greece as Apostolic Delegate.
In 1944 Pope Pio XII sent him to Paris as Papal Nuncio.
In 1953 he became Cardinal and was sent to the Patriarchato of Venice.
He was elected Pope on October, 23rd, 1958 after a three days’ Conclave.
His aspect and manner were good and he immediately showed he wasn’t a caretaker Pope.
He announced and opened the Vatican Ecumenical Council II which marked an important turning in the history of the Catholic Church.
His pontificate ended on June, 3rd, 1963 after a long illness which kept the world with bated breath, while everybody’s eyes were pointed towards the window of the Papal apartments which look on St. Peter’s square.
His pontificate lasted four years and eight months.
There is a plan of beatification which according to many people, it should be closed within a very short time.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
POPE PAOLO VI GIOVANNI BATTISTA MONTINI
He was born at Concesio, in the surrounding of Brescia on September, 20th, 1847.
In 1953 he was named Pro-Secretary of State, number two, after the Pope, in the Hierarchy of the Holy See.
He was named Archbishop of Milan in 1954 and donned the scarlet on December, 15th, 1958.
He was elected Pope on June, 21st, 1963 after a four days’ Conclave.
He was the first Pope who visited the five continents and spoke to the General Assembly of the United States.
In Manila, thanks to the Secretary’s help, Mons. Pasquale Macchi, the Pope avoided, almost uninjured, only a light scratch, an attempt of a madman dressed as a priest, who hit him by a knife.
He continued with the Vatican Ecumenical Council II, giving a new vital sap to the Church life by a careful and correct reform and many human and social Encyclicals.
During the disastrous flood in Florence, on November, 4th, 1966, the Pope sent many appeals to the world from his window looking over St. Peter’s, so that any help could get the city submerged by the fury of the water.
Many times he himself sent foodstuffs, covers, medicines and money to the Florentines and on Christmas night he went on a visit to Florence to celebrate the midnight Mass in the Florentine Cathedral so that the world could fix its eyes on Florence which had been abandoned by everybody.
In 1975 he announced and celebrated the 25th Jubilee Year.
He died on the day of Our Lord’s transfiguration, on August, 6th, 1978. He was eighty.
His pontificate had lasted 15 years and two months.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
POPE GIOVANNI PAOLO I ALBINO LUCIANI
He was born at Canale d’Agordo, near Belluno, on October, 17th, 1912.
In 1958 he was named Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, in 1969 he was sent to the Patriarchato of Venice.
In September, 1972 Pope Paolo VI paid him a visit and a particular homage: the Pope laid the papal stole on him in St. Mark’s square full of crowd, as if he wanted to name him as his successor to Peter’s throne.
He entered the Cardinal college in March, 1973.
He was named Pope on August, 29th, 1978 at the end of a hot Summer Saturday.
His pontificate was at once simple and refused any ceremonial, such as the papal tiara and the gestatorial chair.
He was the first Pope in the Church history who had a double name as a gift, he himself said during his first speech, to Pope Giovanni XXIII and Pope Paolo VI.
His pontificate was the shortest in the papal history: it lasted thirty-three days only.
His sudden and unexpected death, on September, 29th, 1978, provoked at once a groundless series of voices and assumptions, creating a mystery of halo in the public opinion, so that, still today, many people think he was been a victim of a plot.
Like Pope Giovanni XXIII, he was a simple Pope, he always had a smile on his lips and at once people called him “the Pope of the smile”.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
POPE GIOVANNI PAOLO II
KAROL WOJTYLA
He was born at Wadowice in Poland on May, 18th, 1920.
In 1958 he was ordained Suffragan Bishop of Krakow; in 1964 he became titular of it and in 1967 he donned the scarlet.
On October, 16th, 1978 he was named Pope after four polls and became the 264th successor of Apostle Peter.
He underwent a very serious attempt on May, 13th, 1981 during the general Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s. After a along difficult operation at the Policlinico “Gemelli” he escaped and slowly recovered.
For this reason, some years later, he decided to give the bullet pulled out from his body to the Marian Sanctuary of Fatima in Portugal, as that same day it was the feast of the Madonna of Fatima.
He made almost one hundred journeys abroad, getting nearly every Country in the world; he visited all the Italian Regions, and within the end of 1999, before the opening of the Jubilee, he is going to visit all the more than 300 parishes in Rome.
In 1983 he held an Extraordinary Jubilee Year to celebrate the 1950 years of the Redemption.
“Open your doors to Christ” he said during the beginning ceremony of his pontificate, more than twenty-one years ago, “be Christ the centre of your life”; this is the message which Giovanni Paolo II has lived personally. His partecipations were numerous as well as his appeals and solidarity deeds towards suffering peoples and the oppressed from a materialistic narrow-minded mentality of this century, which is going to end and which has seen this man as a very protagonist. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
