The Most Rev. Loris Francesco Capovilla, Archbishop of Chieti, will
publish shortly the Letters of Pope John XXIII (1902-1962). He has
graciously allowed the L'Osservatore Romano to publish his
introduction to the two volumes which will appear later. In this
introduction, he explains the origin and the nature of the work and its
documentary importance. These Letters are, so to speak, a ''family
Catechism'' which, in these day of grievous stress for the Church,
present it precious testimony of loyalty.
I
Four years have elapsed since the publication of The diary of a
soul, of which numberless editions and translations have spread over
the whole world. With utter simplicity, the Diary reveals to the reader
the intimate spiritual life of Pope John, the perfect limpidity
of his soul and the hidden source of the shining light that his
Pontificate shed in the Church and on all humanity. These humble pages
of the Journal are, probably, unique in contemporary literature.
They have found their way into numberless families; they have become the
spiritual nourishment of thousands of religious, priests and laymen of
all social conditions, of all degrees of asceticism and cultural levels.
All have drawn comfort and strength from this itinerary of holiness and
perfection. As a boy of fourteen, Pope John started to trace, with utter
sincerity, the mysterious path along which, step by step, Divine
Providence was to guide him. We know now that he was being led to the
very See of' Peter, to become the Father and Teacher of the universe...
II
The Letters of Pope John will enable us to follow, one by one, all
the phases of his life. This documentation presents us with a patrimony
of inestimable religious and human wealth. The two volumes contain all
the letters he wrote to his family. They bring back sweet memories of'
the Pope's evangelical simplicity, which was to be the characteristic of
a new epoch in the Church, laden with, hope and blessings and destined
to nourish and influence numberless disciples.
These Letters were to have been published in 1961, on the occasion of
Pope John's eightieth birthday, in an edition strictly limited to the
Roncalli family and to their relatives and friends. For this same
birthday, the Pope had, somewhat reluctantly, accepted from the
Episcopate, the gift of a church and, front the faithful, a Seminary for
the students of the "Third World". He gave his approbation to
the project of publishing his letters because he thought they would show
the world the true christian background of his family and also because
he wanted his family at Sotto il Monte to share some of' the splendour
of his Pontificate. Pope John's birthday was celebrated with the usual
Cappella Papale on November 4th, 1961, the third anniversary of his
coronation. In his homily, he quoted the words of his predecessor, Leo
the Great pronounced in similar circumstances: "I hope to use the
time which is still to be granted me, for my sanctification only".
Pope John spoke with warmth and gratitude of his dear old
parents, as if he wished to place them, for veneration, along with the
saints, in the niches of' the Basilica: Both my parents lived to be over
eighty years old; my paternal grandfather died at 89, and I assisted him
to the end. His four brothers died at the age of 88, 87, 86, 85, like
the patriarchs. They lived in peace "vixerunt in pace longaeva,
sepulti in senectute bona." (cfr. Gen. 15-15) ...
Until 1958, most of these letters were kept at Camaitino, a dignified
old house at Sotto il Monte, which had been the dwelling of the Roncalli
family centuries back. The house had been leased in view of the time
when "Angelino" would come back to live there and await his
last hour, amongst the scenes of' his childhood. Don Angelo had planned
to rest there, at the foot of the altar in the church of Saint John
which he had consecrated in 1929.
When the package of letters reached the Pope at the Vatican, he tried
to run through them rapidly, but he soon realized that he had to linger
over them. He almost caressed the yellow crumpled pages, and his eyes,
that had contemplated so much beauty and sorrow around the western and
eastern world, could not but rest again with deep emotion on this vision
of his native village and hills, on the sweet stern faces he knew so
well, and the humble folk, all labourers of the soil, hardworking and
virtuous in their lowly hidden lives. He changed nothing in the Letters,
just a few signs show that he did read them through.
He was not a man to disavow anything he had ever said or written. In
his family relations and otherwise, he faithfully observed the precept
of Saint Paul to do the truth in charity "veritatem facientes in
charitate." Pope John could truly say of his letters: "you
will not find in them a word against anyone, or one word that I might
regret." How many names and events of the past did he not recall as
he read the letters, and relived all the feelings which stir in them:
pity, faith, love, sympathy for the sorrows of some, and joy for the
happiness of others.
III
At first sight the letters did not seem to be of any particular
interest, nor to contain useful historical data. The Pope wrote most of
them to persons who had only attended elementary schools for a couple of
years. However these simple people did enjoy reading the Bible, the
Psalms, Lives of the Saints and other books of devotion. The letters
cover a period of sixty years.
Because of pressing obligations in the Pope's service, I was unable
to take the time to compile and edit the letters. I wished also to
compare them with other letters preserved by different members of the
family and also get their comments. Consequently I could not
present my work to the Pope on his birthday as I had hoped. Ever since
his death, I have always wanted to publish the letters. I can never
forget some of' Pope John's last words to me, asking me to continue the
life intercourse he had kept up with his family for sixty years of his
long life. "When I am no longer here," the Pope said to me on
his death bed, "you will go to Sotto il Monte, won't you? to see my
dear ones. They are simple humble People, but their
friendship is true. I thank you for having thought of them so often and
for having cared for the aged one."
I think it is now time for their publication. It will be a comfort to
the Roncalli family and very edifying for the multitudes in the world
who found in Pope John "an unexpected teacher", and still turn
to him for inspiration, scanning all his words as living memorials of
his spirit of love.
IV
There are 727 letters. The first one is dated from Rome, January
1901: Angelo Roncalli, seminarian to his family; and the very last one
is also from Rome to his niece Maria Letizia. The Pope kept a copy of
most of his letters. The recipients themselves carefully kept all
the letters they received from their illustrious relative and safe
from the destructive hands of so many children in their families. They
are written "currenti calamo", without any literary pretence.
They express the Popes thought and well-balanced judgment in simple
words. There is always an undercurrent of advice, fitted to each one
according to his life and work. But the letters are, above all, the
expression of the warm bond of love which kept the seminarian first, and
then the Pope, close to his family. Many words and phrases are in the
Lombard dialect. Angelo Roncalli writes that he is very tired as he taps
his little typewriter late at night. Some phrases are not
finished, there are even grammatical mistakes, all of which show the
spontaneous confidential tone of his letters and the crystal-clear
quality of his soul. He is always comforting, helping and teaching.
V
The Letters tell the story of a simple country family, its
circumstances, difficulties and poverty; its passing joys and sorrows,
its defects also, but through it all the heritage of true
christian virtue jealously guarded and cultivated as their greatest
wealth. In them one follows the itinerary of Pope John's sacerdotal
vocation, as he passes from the halls of the Roman Seminary to the
threshold of Vatican Council II, ever faithful, through so many
contrasting happenings, to his exacting motto: "Obedientia et Pax."
The most significant and important events of the sixty years of this
century are reflected in them. One reads between the lines of Pope
John's intuitive perception of "the Signs of the Times". He
senses, for the world, future appalling vicissitudes and
upheavals; he indicates at the same time, the spiritual means of
forestalling them, and of interpreting the apparently inextricable
meaning of the events of history.
VI
Evidently all the virtues of the poor were practised in the Roncalli
family. One by one they stand out and the Pope comments on them; but his
Letters are no manual in which the poor are taught fatalism. They are,
rather, a hymn to the holiness of the poor, to their constant faith in
the presence of God and to the limitless interior resources of grace,
God grants to those who live and work in faithful adherence to his will.
He extols their sublime vocation to sanctity and perfection as an
invaluable contribution to the building of the Kingdom of God in history
and he promises them the eternal reward of their hard daily labour.
VII
The Roncalli family was very poor, and remained poor through the
whole of Pope John's life. "This is a great strain for me, but I do
it willingly to enable you to start the year without the bread and oil
bills, in the shop, weighing you down." (November 6, 1937). And
again to his sisters: "I feel that my life is necessary to help my
family through such lean years." "The only thought that cheers
me when I think of the sacrifices I have to make, is that it is true
charity: What I give you is, after all, only bread, oil, cheese, sugar
and other groceries, the bare necessities of life" (November 20,
1937). He wrote to his brother Joseph: "I am sure that there
is no better charity for me to exercise than to help you who are, for
me, the first poor; you are, indeed, the poor of the Lord whom he loves
and blesses, because you always try to be faithful to him"
(Feb. 1st, 1939).
When little Angelo was born, the large Roncalli family were
share-croppers and farmed eight acres of land, with four cows in the
stable. It was only after forty years of hard labour that Battista
Roncalli, with his sons, three of them veterans of the 1914-18 War, and
helped by a fortunate rise in the silkworm market, could risk to buy, on
a mortgage of 58,000 lire the eight acres and the Columbera farmhouse,
The debt was still partly unpaid at the death of his two aged parents
and even at the time when Pope John ascended the Pontifical throne.
Throughout his whole priestly life, he wanted to share his family's
heavy burden. When Don Angelo was 34 years old, he joined with the other
members of his family and signed a petition to obtain from the Little
Bergamo Bank, a loan which would enable them to make the first down
payment to Count Morlani and become landowners, instead of
sharecroppers. In terms of living, though, they remained just as poor as
before.
It was in the course of these years that he wrote to his sisters:
"Poverty has held me in its arms since my childhood and it has
never let me down, not even now that I am a Bishop. We must not
complain, because when we bear it with patience, poverty likens us to
Jesus. We have never lacked what is necessary and never will. Riches, as
you see around you, do not make men happy." (June 28, 1926).
His evangelical spirit knew how to use his poverty as a means of
sanctification, and it became the source of his unalterable abandonment
to God's Will. "I owe, in part, the tranquility of soul I
feel as I rest in the arms of Divine Providence and of holy obedience,
to having been born in the country and of a family, poor in earthly
goods, but rich in faith and in the fear of God and used to the simple
daily and yearly things of nature." (to his family, April 30,
1930). And again: "You know that my family is one of the great
consolations of my life. I praise you to all those I know as poor,
simple, humble folk good and fearing God."
These letters are therefore an extraordinary testimony to the
itinerary of poverty and suffering Which God's Providence planned for
Angelo Roncalli, from his Bergamo countryside to the See of Peter. In
them, Pope John XXIII presents to the world a prophetic picture of the
"Church of the Poor" and a stupendous example of the service
which the Church is called to fulfil in this new era of her history, as
she faces a martyred world torn by hunger and war, and athirst for
justice and peace. In them, we sense the hope and the foretelling of
"a new world and a new earth."
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