Pope Paul VI (
Latin Paulus PP. VI;
Italian Paolo VI), born
Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (
September 26,
1897 –
August 6,
1978), reigned as
Pope of the
Catholic Church and
Sovereign of
Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. Succeeding
John XXIII, who had convened the
Second Vatican Council, he presided over the majority of its sessions and oversaw the implementation of its decrees.
Giovanni Montini was born in Concesio, in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, into a family of local nobility on his maternal line. He entered the seminary to train to become a Roman Catholic priest in 1916, and was ordained priest in 1920. He took the solemn oath against Modernism before an open tabernacle initiated by Pope St. Pius X. He studied at the Gregorian University, the University of Rome and the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici.
The only foreign experience Montini underwent, was his time in the nunciature in Warsaw, Poland in 1923. Similar to Achille Ratti before him [1], he felt confronted with a huge problem, not limited to Poland, excessive nationalism "This form of nationalism treats foreigners as enemies, especially foreigners with whom one has common frontiers. Then one seeks the expansion of ones own country at the expense of the immediate neighbours. People grow up with a feeling of hemmed in. Peace becomes a transient compromise between wars". [2] When he was recalled to Rome, he was happy to go, because, “this concludes this episode of my life,which has provided useful though not always joyful experiences”[3]
His organisational skills led him to a career in the Roman Curia, the papal civil service. In 1937, he was named Substitute for Ordinary Affairs under Cardinal Pacelli, the Secretary of State under Pope Pius XI. When Pacelli was elected Pope Pius XII, Montini was confirmed in the position under the new Secretary of State. When in 1944 the Secretary of State died, the role was assumed directly by the Pope, with Montini working directly under him.
