Angelo Roncalli and Priestly Celibacy

Angelo Roncalli and Priestly Celibacy | Fr. Brian Van Hove, S.J. | Ignatius Insight

Since his death on June 3, 1963, many biographies and studies of Pope John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) have appeared. In the month of his death was the article of Roger Aubert, "Jean XXIII: Un 'pape de transition' qui marquera dans l'histoire". The same year, and revised in 1981, is Leone Algisi's John the Twenty-Third / Giovanni XXIII. In 1965 there appeared that of Edward Elton Young Hales, Pope John and His Revolution. In 1973 Pope John XXIII by Paul Johnson, and in 1979 Bernard R. Bonnot's Pope John XXIII: An Astute, Pastoral Leader.

We are told the writer who had access to the greatest quantity of primary, original sources is Peter Hebblethwaite. In 1984 the British edition of his John XXIII: Pope of the Council appeared, and in 1985 the American version was published as Pope John XXIII: Shepherd of the Modern World. [1] The Hebblethwaite contribution is considered the "definitive" biography. It was reprinted in 1994. In 2000 and 2005 it was reprinted in a revised and abridged edition by Margaret Hebblethwaite, Peter Hebblethwaite's wife whom he married after leaving the priesthood and the Society of Jesus.

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Comments

[Ed Peters]

Good essay. Thx for posting it.

[Thomas]

I hate the "Good Pope John" [nonsense]. And certainly not because I dislike the Holy Father. It's used as a club against his predecessors and successors, and I have no doubt he himself would strongly chastize the not-so-subtle Modernists who employ it.

My aunt frequently says she dislikes Benedict XVI (and John Paul the Great for that matter) and wished Blessed John XXIII was always pope. I usually bite my tongue for the sake of peaceful family functions, but I look forward to pointing out what exactly a perpetual John XXIII papacy would have meant: the continued use of the Tridentine Mass as the universal and ordinary form of the Roman Rite. My God, how she hates that Mass.