Pope John XXIII and Holocaust - Research Paper Example

After 11 ballots, Roncalli was elected as the pope at the age of 76 on 28 October 1958. This election was much more surprising for Roncalli himself than for anyone else, as he had arrived in Rome having a return ticket for the train to Venice. In the history of over 500 years, he has been the first pope to assume the papal name of "John" after he got elected.

Holocaust and Pope's Efforts
Having the position of the nuncio, Roncalli rendered services during the course of the Holocaust in World War II for saving the lives of refugees, most of which were Jews, from being the victims of Nazis. His efforts included the following:
• the Jewish refugees arriving in Istanbul were helped assisted for going back into Palestine and other places;
• His interventions enable the Slovakian children to leave the country.
• The interventions also resulted in the arrival of orphaned children of Transnistria on a refugee ship that came from Constanța to Istanbul.
• Nuncio Roncalli saved the Jews of Hungary through the baptismal certificates from converting to Christianity. These certificates were sent to Monsignor Angelo Rota (Hebblethwaite, Peter).
Many more of his achievements have been listed in various academic records and research papers. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation was successful in launching the International Campaign for the Acknowledgement of the humanitarian actions on September 7, 2000, which was conducted by Vatican Nuncio Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli for the people, the majority of whom were Jews and the Nazi regime persecuted them.

Relations with Jews
Pope John XXIII undertook to end the portrayal of Jews as "perfidious" or disloyal in the liturgy of Good Friday as one of the prioritized acts. This issue was addressed by him in the first Good Friday liturgy in his preaching at a time when he came across a celebrant who referred to the Jews with that word for the first time. Pope also confessed to the Church regarding anti-Semitism as sin all through the period of centuries. The word 'faithless' was removed from the conversion prayer of Jews in 1960. Later, it was revised so as to be read something else (Walters, Kerry). During the time when Vatican II was held, Cardinal Augustin Bea was tasked by John XXIII for the production of various significant documents relating to the settlement with Jews.

Theology
Pope John struggled for securing the theological beliefs of the people. Some of them are as follows:

Contraception
John XXIII, during the year 1963, formed a committee comprising of six non-theologians for the investigation of the details on birth control. A prohibitive view regarding the usage of contraceptives was expressed by him in the encyclical Mater et Magistra issued on May 15, 1961.

Human rights
John XXIII had been a prominent advocate and staunch believer of human rights which constituted the rights of the elderly and unborn. His writing on the subject of human rights is contained in Terris in his Pacem. He was of the opinion that man has been blessed with the right to live. The right to the integrity of the body is granted to him and to the means that are essential for the complete development and sustenance of life, which includes food, clothing and shelter in particular. Other rights of man include medical care, rest, finally, the social services that are essential for the human. Consequently, Pope expressed, that, man is permitted all the rights to be cared for in the condition of sickness, enforced unemployment, widowhood, disability emerging from his work; old age, or if he is deprived of the sources of making his living due to any of his own fault (Wynn, Wilton).

Divorce
John XXIII spoke at stretch on the subject of divorce and opined that the life of a human was passed on through the family. The family is developed on the basis of the sacred institution of marriage, and in nature, it is both, indissoluble and one just likes the union in God. It was, therefore, in opposition to the teachings given by the church that a married couple attempts to get a divorce.

Liturgical reform
John XXIII, in an attempt to maintain the tradition of his predecessors, sustained the steady modification in the Roman liturgy, and subsequently, published the alterations that were the outcome in the year 1962 Roman Missal. This was prior to the occurrence of bigger reform and the conclusion of Vatican II. Pope Pius V expanded the last conventional edition of Tridentine Mass in the form of 1962 Missal during the year 1570. However, in the future, during 2007, it was formally acknowledged by Pope Benedict XVI as an unusual type of the Roman Rite.

Legacy
Pope John maintained a diary from his teens, just after entering the seminary. It contained the spiritual reflections which were later published in the form of a journal titled Journal of a Soul. Roncalli's efforts, when he was a young man, are portrayed in the collection of writings, to the time that he "grows in holiness" and it extends to his papal election. St. Matthew (1964) is of the view that the opening caption of the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel, is devoted to the memory of John XXIII. Read More