St Bernards High School - Bernardian Yearbook (Fitchburg, MA)

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MM saat ee POPE PAUL VI HIS HOLINESS,

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Proclaiming to the nations the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ. (Eph3:9) On June 22, 1963, white smoke plumed through the roof of the Sistine Chapel announcing to the 100,000 people crammed in St. Peter's Square that the College of Cardinals had elected the new Vicar of Christ on earth. On the sixth ballot, Giovanni Battista Cardinal Montini, known thereafter as Paul VI, re- ceived the necessary plurality to ascend to the papacy. Chosen as the 262nd successor of Peter, in ceremonial splendor, he received the triple crown, symbolizing the unbroken two-thousand year lineage. Upon receiving the fisherman’s ring, Pope Paul VI watched a strand of flax consumed by flames as a reminder that the glories of this world are flecting. Behind the name Paul was Saul of Tarsus who exemplified the importance of charity and Christian unity. Giovanni Montini was born in 1897 and became a priest in 1920. Since his ordination, he served as secretary to the Papal Nunciature and for thirty years worked in the Vatican Secretar- iat of State. In 1954, he was appointed to the communist-riddled archdiocese of Milan where he became known as the archbishop of the working man. As a cardinal, he became a close friend of Pope John, and has dedicated his pontificate to the progressive changes as initiated by Pope John. Like his predecessor, Pope Paul has opened a new era in Catholic and non-Catholic harmony— “We open our arms to all who glory in the name of Christ. We call them with the sweet name of brother.” John the beloved disciple of the Lord loved his Master with a quiet, gentle love, and tradi- tion tells us that as he grew old, his simple answer to every problem put to him about the meaning of Christianity was: ‘‘Little children, love one another.” The love with which Paul loved Christ was no less than John’s but it was more intense and complex. The words of Pau! which Cardinal Montini read from the Mass of the Sacred Heart the morning before he took this great apostle’s name for his own ate appropriate: “To me, though I am the very least of God’s People, he has granted of his grace the privilege of proclaim- ing to the nations the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, that now, through the Church, the wisdom of God in all its varied forms might be made known.” (Eph, 3:9-10)

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Mother Mary Bernice