Pope John XXIII

Jun 2, 2013

Pope John XXIII died fifty years ago today June 3. Below you will find a few quotations from Pope John and some interesting youtube clips.

One of the best known John XXIII quotes, from his speech at the opening of the Second Vatican Council. 11 October 1962:
“In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who, though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure. In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin. They say that our era, in comparison with past eras, is getting worse, and they behave as though they had learned nothing from history, which is, none the less, the teacher of life. They behave as though at the time of former Councils everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and life and for proper religious liberty.

We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand.

In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by men’s own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed toward the fulfilment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church”.

And now one of the many quotations that reveals his sense of humour:

“Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways, women, gambling, and farming. My family chose the slowest one”.


And here is a selection of youtube clips:

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