Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli

He was born into a poor sharecropping family in a small Italian town. He was one of fourteen children who joined their parents in the fields to earn their keep. Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli (1881-1963) was never a rich man. At the time of his death, he left his personal “fortune” to family members. They each received less than twenty dollars. He was poor and proud of it. “I thank God for the grace of poverty,” he wrote, “It strengthened my resolve never to ask for anything–position, money, or favors—neither for myself nor my family.” He entered the priesthood in his late teens and was elected pope at age seventy-eight. Given his advanced age, most people thought he would merely be a transitional leader, harmless and accommodating. He said in his brief acceptance speech that he chose the name Pope John XXIII because he aspired to lead like John the Baptist, who made straight the way of the Lord. He became the first pope to leave the Vatican to make regular visits to hospitals and prisons. He said famously to inmates, “You could not come to me, so I came to you.” He played a pivotal role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, urging world leaders to exercise restraint. He successfully modernized the church by convening the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and was affectionately called “the Good Pope.” From the time he entered seminary, he kept a diary of spiritual reflections and prayers. One prayer that follows here was written in 1902 during his seminary training. You can detect his awareness of his humble background and his desire to offer himself in service to God: