PAUL VI

1897–1978, pope (1963–78), an Italian (b. Concesio, near Brescia) named Giovanni Battista Montini; successor of John XXIII.

Prepapal Career

The son of a prominent newspaper editor, he was ordained in 1920. Later he did advanced studies in Rome and entered (1922) the Vatican secretariat of state, in which he served for 32 years. After 1944, when Pius XII acted as his own secretary of state, Montini became especially influential as one of the two prosecretaries on whom the pope relied. As archbishop of Milan (1954–63) he showed particular concern with social problems and worked to improve relations between workers and employers. He was created a cardinal in 1958.

Papacy

The Second Vatican Council

Elected pope in June, 1963, Paul immediately demonstrated his intention of continuing the reforms of his predecessor, John XXIII. He reconvened the Second Vatican Council (see Vatican Council, Second) and supervised the carrying out of many of its reforms, such as the vernacularization and reform of the liturgy. With the aim of continuing the work of the council after it ended, he instituted an international synod of bishops, and bishops were instructed to set up councils of priests in their own dioceses. In addition, considerable powers of dispensation were devolved from the Roman Curia onto the bishops, the rules on fasting and abstinence were relaxed, and some of the restrictions on intermarriage were lifted. A commission on canon law revision was also established.

International Relations

In 1964, Paul VI made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; he was the first pope in over 150 years to leave Italy. That historic journey was followed by trips to India (1964), the United States (1965), where he addressed the United Nations, and other parts of the world, including Africa (1969) and Southeast Asia (1970). Relations between the Vatican and the Communist world were improved; Communist leaders visited the Vatican for the first time, and in 1971 Cardinal Mindszenty, whose presence in the U.S. embassy in Budapest had long bedeviled church-state relations in Hungary, was finally persuaded to go to Rome.

Reassertions of Papal Primacy

The broader international outlook of the Vatican under Paul VI was matched by a new ecumenism. The pope met with the leaders of other churches and addressed (1969) the World Council of Churches, and limited doctrinal agreements were reached with the Anglicans and Lutherans. Such accords, however, did not represent any modification of the papal claim to spiritual leadership of the whole Christian Church, nor of the doctrine of papal infallibility. In fact, Pope Paul issued frequent reassertions of papal primacy in the face of growing dissent within the Roman Catholic Church itself.

In 1968, in the encyclical Humanae Vitae, Paul reaffirmed the church's long-standing ban on contraception. The encyclical, a disappointment to many liberals within the church, raised a storm of protest, and many national hierarchies openly modified the statement. In the ferment that ensued, liberals also raised questions about priestly celibacy, divorce, and the role of women in the church—all issues on which Paul upheld the traditional position of the church. The dispute developed into a real contest of strength between the Vatican and the Dutch hierarchy in particular, which in 1970 endorsed the marriage of priests and the admission of women into the priesthood. The synod of bishops in 1971 supported the pope's stand on priestly celibacy, but a sizable minority were opposed. At the synod of bishops of 1974, assembled to discuss "evangelization in the modern world," Pope Paul disapproved the bishops' proposal for greater autonomy for the local churches.

Bibliography

See his Christian in the Material World (tr. 1963), Dialogues (tr. 1964), The Church (tr. 1964), and The Pope Speaks (tr. 1968). See also W. Wynn, Keepers of the Keys: John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II (1988); J. E. Smith, Humanae Vitae, a Generation Later (1991).

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