Pope John XXIII

I am a Catholic and I found this book to be both inspiring and refreshing. Cahill gives a history of the papacy to provide background for the reign of John XIII and tells the story of John's life up until his death. This is an excellent book for understanding the history of the church and the second vatican council. Very refreshing and spiritually enlightening.

This is a splendid work, exquisitely written by one of our best contemporary historians. Pope John XXIII has been forgotten in recent years, perhaps because it is more fashionable to seem moral rather than to be so. John XXIII wasn't flashy enough for the late twentieth/early twenty-first centuries. Nor has his reputation been helped by the facts that his pontificate lasted barely five years, and that the last forty-three years have seen a reaction to many of the reforms that resulted from the Vatican II council that he initiated. Cahill's short, beautiful biography rectifies this historical amnesia by bringing into sharp focus the life of this gentle, humorous Italian peasant who, to the surprise of nearly everyone became the head of the Catholic Church. But, as is typical of Cahill's work, this is more than just biography. He begins with a condensed history of the Catholic Church, concentrating on its gradual accumulation of power and, incidentally, its drift from its responsibilities toward humanity. This provides a background for the life and career of Angelo Roncalli, the man who would become Pope John XXIII. Throughout, Cahill provides a contrast between the priest and the organization (with its numerous heroes and villains) that he served. Out of this gripping story, which reads easily as well as any novel, Cahill depicts the life of an ideal Christian, a model for human behavior that may well inspire the reader.

In the first part of POPE JOHN XIII Cahill describes in brief the history of the papacy. He pulls no punches when he cites for instance that Peter was never Bishop of Rome because the early Christians used a congregational style of governance. Cahill goes on to describe the evolution of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome which gains momentum after the Council at Nicea in 325 and is aided by the support of Emperor Constantine who wishes to use Christianity to better unite his empire. The leadership of the Bishop of Rome is never really accepted by the churches of the East and ultimately is challenged in the West as well by Martin Luther and the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Cahill describes the ups and downs of the papacy and by the time he reaches the 20th century the reader has a better appreciation for the tensions which exist between the churches of the East and West in addition to the reasons for the Reformation and the competing claims of Roman Catholic apologists. In short, we begin to understand the challenges facing John XIII when he becomes pope.The author clearly likes John XXIII who was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli into a large family of tenant farmers near the small city of Bergamo.Angelo went to the seminary early but also was drafted into the military for a brief period. After ordination as a priest he seemed to rise rapidly as he was singled out for diplomatic assignments to Bulgaria, Turkey and France.Cahill points out that some of the friends Angelo made along the way helped him develop the progressive streak which inspired him to convene Vatican II. The list of these friends includes the historian Bernard Berenson and the composer Igor Stravinsky.Angelo was elected pope because the cardinals wanted a compromise candidate who would not last too long and one who would bridge the gap between all levels of society. At that time Angelo was the Patriarch of Venice. The other candidate was Cardinal Gregory Agagianian, Patriarch of the Armenian Uniates. Agagianian was backed by the conservatives. Angelo eventually won after several rounds of voting.The crowning achievement of his papacy is obviously Vatican II. The most interesting part of the book is the account of the battle before and during the council by the conservative forces led by Ottaviano and their progressive opponents.The legacy of Vatican II was later preserved by Paul VI, a staunch friend of and successor to John XXIII.Cahill is definitely a liberal who ends the book expressing some doubt about the contributions of John Paul II but holding out considerable hope for the future of the Roman Catholic Church.

I discovered the author on the wonderful world of C-Span where one find authors not invited to Letterman, et all.Thought now retired, I am still a slow reader-- and thus liked the brevity of Cahill's book. A still "recovering" Catholic, I wss enchanted with the story of John XXIII. Whatever the current Vatican may do, I regard him as saintly. Cahill's bio may be brief, but one gets a clear picture of a boy from a poor but devout rural Italian family. His pastor is well described, who was a lovig mentor. One sees this boy become the man Angelo Rancalli. And beyond as a priest he finds leaders who---it seems to me--- practice what they preach. At the same time Angelo manages to survive and become a leader, with no loss of integrity--in times of repression. His success in helping Jews escape the Nazis is touched on, as well as the dramatic way he changed elements of anti-semitic liturgy. This was a radical man--- in the best sense of the word. As I learned from the nuns years ago, Jesus was a true radical. Cahill give us a history of the Church before and after John XXIII. At times witty, caustic, but clearly fond of this remarkable man.

This is a wonderful biography of the pudgy man born to a poor peasant family who became, in his old age, the much-beloved (at least by the people) Pope John XXIII. I was a ten-year old Protestant boy when Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli ascended to the throne of St. Peter. I remember reading about him and his Vatican Council over the next five years and hearing my Catholic friends talk favorably about the new pope. Then in 1963 the pope died and a few months later the young American president was assassinated and the whole world changed (or at least it seemed--and seems--to me).Thomas Cahill's addition to the Penguin Lives series of brief biographies is the best so far. Cahill's prose is easily read; his history flows smoothly. The book open with an account of the church's history and its long line of mostly undistinguished popes. Then Cahill focuses on the long life of Roncalli: his service in the Italian army during World War I; his rise to some significance in the church in Italy; then his unexpected posting to mostly Orthodox Bulgaria; and then to the plum job in sophisticated and free-thinking Paris. Somehow this widely varied experience combined with his native empathy for people and love of the soil to deliver a remarkably liberal and unfettered man to the head of the Roman Catholic church for a brief, but monumental, five years. Cahill concludes with a negative, almost searing, overview of Pope John's successors including a pretty nasty picture of Pope John Paul II who he thinks represents a weird, Polish kind of Catholcism. I can't comment on the fairness of that, but am encouraged that Cahill feels that the waters representing John's humanism and warmth run near the surface and will emerge again. Frankly, I hope so.