This Monday June the 3°, the church marked a half-century since the death of Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli – Blessed Pope John XXIII. In the Catholic liturgical year he is remembered on October 11,the day that the Second Vatican Council began. He was beatified (made a saint) on September 3, 2000.In the Anglican calendar he is remember on his death day, June .
Within minutes after the Pope’s death
Vatican Radio announced:
“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the death of our beloved
Pope John XXIII. His Holiness, whose kindness and humility have won the
admiration and affection of all mankind, died peacefully and serenely
in his apartment in the Vatican apostolic palace at 7:49 p.m. this
evening, the third of June 1963.
Pentecost, Monday, June 3, was a day which the church would never
forget for it marked the day when one of the most beloved popes of all
times died.
Never before had a pope’s final agony been followed so closely and
with such deep and sincere sorrow, not only by Catholics but by men of
every creed and circumstance on the face of the earth.
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has been working relentlessly to honor
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, and to spread his
magnificent legacy.
Roncalli was a remarkable man who epitomized courage, passion for
justice and a strong spirit of reform. His record as
Pope John XXIII is well
documented and widely known. In 1961, he commissioned the drafting of
the revolutionary
Decretum de Judaeis (“Decree on the
Jews”) which
served as a basis to
Nostra Aetate (Our Age), a declaration of the
relation of the
Church with
Non-Christian Religions, which was
promulgated in 1965 by his successor,
Pope Paul VI, after Roncalli’s
death.
Many other anecdotes surrounding his
Papacy
clearly show his innermost feelings towards Jews. One of them relates to
his famous statement: “I’m Joseph, your brother”, referring to his
middle name “Giuseppe” (Joseph, in Italian), in clear Biblical allusion
of what Joseph said to his brothers in Egypt.
Before his papacy he also demonstrated his
unconditional love for the
Jewish people and for the
State of Israel.
Back in the 1940′s, during the dark days of
the Holocaust, Angelo
Roncalli served as Apostolic Delegate in Istanbul and in this position
he went out of his way to save as many Jews as possible. His door was
always open to the Jewish Yishuv leaders involved in the rescue efforts,
especially Haim Barlas, who documented the aid he got from Roncalli.
promoted the naming of streets, schools and a
kindergarten after him, the erection of busts and monuments, the
creation of educational programs and so forth.
Back in 2011, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation submitted a
massive file (the Roncalli Dossier) to Yad Vashem, with a strong
petition and recommendation to bestow upon him the title of Righteous
among the Nations.
The foundation has some good news:
A few weeks ago we learned that the city of
Ashdod was favorably considering the possibility of naming a street
after him and we continue our campaign with other cities and have asked
Minister
Gilad Erdan to contemplate the possibility of a special stamp
issue bearing Roncalli’s semblance.
We are very happy that one of our first
members, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (better known nowadays as Pope
Francis), who has always been very supportive of our mission to keep
alive the legacies of the rescuers, is likely to follow the same path
set by Angelo Roncalli, fostering a brotherly dialog between Christian
and Jews.
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was a remarkable human being – a role model to whom we all owe a debt of eternal gratitude.
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