Benedict XVI Pays Tribute to Paul VI

Zenit News Agency ^ | March 5, 2007

[NYer]

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI paid tribute to Pope Paul VI, saying he was a protagonist in a difficult historical period.

The Holy Father said this on Saturday, when receiving members of the Paul VI Institute, a Brescia, Italy-based organization which collects documentation and promotes the thought of Giovanni Battista Montini, who was Bishop of Rome from 1963 to 1978.

Benedict XVI mentioned some personal memories of this Pope, who appointed him archbishop of Munich in March 1977 and elevated him to cardinal three months later.

"He was called by divine providence to pilot Peter's boat during a historical period characterized by many challenges and problems," Benedict XVI said.

Paul VI was the first modern Pope to journey to the Holy Land, on the occasion of the historic meeting with Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem in January 1964, nine centuries after the schism between the Churches of the East and West.

That visit "had a clear symbolic meaning" and "indicated to the Church that the path of its mission consists in reiterating the footsteps of Christ," the German Pope said in his tribute.

He added: "The secret of the pastoral action carried out by Paul VI with tireless dedication, adopting on occasions difficult and unpopular decisions," lies in his love of Christ and his total dedication to Jesus, as well as in "a missionary tension nourished by the sincere desire for dialogue with humanity."

In the period after the Second Vatican Council, which Paul VI closed, he "did not let himself be conditioned by misunderstandings and criticisms, though at times he had to endure suffering and violent attacks," Benedict XVI said, "but in all circumstances he was a firm and prudent helmsman of Peter's boat."

The Paul VI Institute arose in 1979. In addition to archives, it has a 30,000-volume library, including 10,000 books from Paul VI's personal library.

[NYer]

Paul VI was the first modern Pope to journey to the Holy Land, on the occasion of the historic meeting with Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem in January 1964, nine centuries after the schism between the Churches of the East and West.

Patriarch Athenagoras I and Pope Paul VI

Following is the text of the joint Catholic-Orthodox declaration, approved by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, read simultaneously (Dec. 7) at a public meeting of the ecumenical council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul. The declaration concerns the Catholic-Orthodox exchange of excommunications in 1054.

JOINT CATHOLIC-ORTHODOX DECLARATION - OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI AND THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH ATHENAGORAS I

[livius]

I always felt very badly for Paul VI. I don't think he knew what hit him, and I certainly don't think he intended or even dreamed of the many evil things that were to come. I saw him at the Mass at Yankee Stadium, lo these many years...

[Kolokotronis]

Patriarch Athenagoras I was Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America before he became the EP. He was a dear and much loved friend of my grandparents.

My grandfather used to tell a story about +Athenagoras. One night in the 1930s he and a couple of friends were driving the Archbishop and another priest around in the wilds of Massachusetts and got lost and ran out of gas. As they had passed a small country store a short way back on the road, my grandfather pulled over and walked back around a bend to the store for directions and a can of gasoline. He was inside the store trying to explain their situation when the pump attendant came running in white as a sheet hollering that "Jesus Christ Himself is out front!" The Archbishop had gotten out of the car and seeing the lights of the store through the woods, had cut cross country and nearly beat my grandfather there. The attendant saw him emerging from the woods, beared, very tall, with his bishop's staff, tall hat on and dressed completely in black! Poor fellow thought it was the Second Coming!

[rzeznikj at stout]

I would say Paul VI is a victim of the Law of Unintended Consequences. IMHO, few, if anyone could have foreseen what the results of Vatican II were (both intended and unintended)...

[NYer]

The attendant saw him emerging from the woods, beared, very tall, with his bishop's staff, tall hat on and dressed completely in black! Poor fellow thought it was the Second Coming!

He must have thought it was Judgment Day.

Thanks for sharing that great story .... "wilds of Massachussets" .... indeed :-)

[livius]

That's very true. Those of us who lived through those first years after VatII will remember that everything just seemed to explode. The wolves were not only at the gates but inside them and I don't think anyone, including Paul VI, had any idea of how to deal with them.

[TradicalRC]

Looks more like Jeremiah.

[TradicalRC]

I think that they were around. They were dismissed as conservatives and Traditionalists usually are as mossbacks, rubes, reactionaries, etc. They are generally in the persona non grata category.

[Kolokotronis]

"Looks more like Jeremiah."

Well, he was 30 years younger at the time and maybe then he didn't have that dreadlocks look! :)

[Nihil Obstat]

God bless him for Humanae Vitae.