Pope John XXIII tells torchlit crowd to give their children his caress

VATICAN CITY, October 11, 1962 AD — Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council this morning in St. Peter’s Basilica before about two thousand bishops, and told them that the Church would now meet error with mercy rather than with severity. Tonight, when a torchlight procession filled St. Peter’s Square, the eighty-year-old Pope came to his window and spoke to the crowd without a prepared text.

St. John XXIII was seventy-six when the cardinals elected him on October 28, 1958 AD, and his age took everyone by surprise. Many people expected a short pontificate of transition. Three months later, at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, he told the cardinals he meant to call an ecumenical council. It would be a gathering of the bishops of the whole Church, the twenty-first in its history. He made the proposal, he said, “certo tremando un poco di commozione, ma insieme con umile risolutezza di proposito” (trembling a little with emotion, certainly, but with humble firmness of purpose).

The Pope turned eighty on November 25 of last year. Eight days later, on December 3, 1961 AD, he wrote a letter to his brother Zaverio, whom he called Severo. He regarded it as his spiritual testament to the Roncalli family. He told his brother: “Gli 80 anni passati dicono a me, come a te caro Severo, e a tutti i nostri, che ciò che più conta è di tenerci ben preparati e sempre a partire d’improvviso” (The eighty years behind us tell me, as they tell you, dear Severo, and all our family, that what matters most is to keep ourselves well prepared and always ready to leave suddenly). In the same letter he wrote that his calm came from obedience, and from not wishing or praying to live even one day beyond the time the angel of death would come to take him to Paradise.

The procession into the basilica began at about 8:30 this morning. The bishops came out through the Bronze Doors and crossed St. Peter’s Square between two lines of Roman priests and members of religious orders, while a fifth-century hymn to Our Lady was sung. The procession took about an hour. St. John XXIII came at the end of it, carried on the sedia gestatoria (the portable papal chair).

On the feast of the Motherhood of Mary, the Pope spoke in Latin for thirty-seven minutes. He began: “Mother Church rejoices that, by a singular gift of Divine Providence, the most longed-for day has now dawned when, under the patronage of the Virgin Mother of God, whose maternal dignity is commemorated on this feast, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council solemnly begins here at the tomb of blessed Peter.”

St. John XXIII told the bishops he had to disagree plainly with the “rerum adversarum vaticinatoribus, qui deteriora semper praenuntiant” (prophets of misfortune, who are always forecasting the worst). A council was not needed, he said, to debate one point of doctrine or another; instead, “this certain and immutable doctrine, which is to be faithfully respected, needs to be explored and presented in a way which responds to the needs of our time”.

Then the Pope told them how the Church would now meet error. “The Church has never failed to oppose these errors, and has even condemned them often, indeed with the greatest severity,” St. John XXIII said. “But at the present time the Spouse of Christ is pleased to apply the medicine of mercy, rather than take up the weapons of severity.” Through the Council, he said, the Church “wishes to show herself a most loving mother of all, benign, patient, and moved with mercy and goodness towards the children separated from her.” Near the end of the address he told them: “Tantum aurora est” (It is only the dawn).

Tonight thousands of people, many carrying torches or candles, filled St. Peter’s Square to mark the Council’s opening. St. John XXIII came to a window of the Apostolic Palace and spoke to them without a text, calling them “figliuoli di Roma” (children of Rome). He began: “Cari figliuoli, sento le vostre voci. La mia è una voce sola, ma riassume la voce del mondo intero; qui tutto il mondo è rappresentato” (Dear children, I hear your voices. Mine is a single voice, but it sums up the voice of the whole world; here the whole world is represented). Then he added: “Si direbbe che persino la luna si è affrettata, stasera – osservatela in alto! – a guardare a questo spettacolo” (You could say that even the moon has hurried here tonight — look at it up there — to watch this sight). The crowd laughed and applauded as soon as he mentioned the moon.

“La mia persona conta niente, è un fratello che parla a voi, diventato Padre per la volontà di Nostro Signore” (My own person counts for nothing; it is a brother speaking to you, who has become a father by the will of Our Lord), the Pope told the crowd. He said the morning had been a sight that St. Peter’s Basilica had never seen in its four centuries.

Then he turned to the homes they would go back to. “Tornando a casa, troverete i bambini; date una carezza ai vostri bambini e dite: ‘Questa è la carezza del Papa’” (When you go home you will find your children. Give your children a caress and tell them: “This is the Pope’s caress”), St. John XXIII said. He went on: “Troverete qualche lacrima da asciugare. Fate qualcosa, dite una parola buona” (You will find some tears to dry. Do something; say a kind word). “Il Papa è con noi specialmente nelle ore della tristezza e dell’amarezza” (The Pope is with us especially in hours of sadness and bitterness), he said.

The Pope told the crowd he did not know how long the Council would last, and that he wished it could finish before Christmas. St. John XXIII gave the crowd his blessing. He was sending everyone home, he said, “perché la sera si attarda sopra di noi e la buona notte deve essere santificata, anche quella” (because the evening is lingering over us, and the good night must be made holy too).

In his journal, under today’s date, St. John XXIII thanked God for letting him open “questo inizio di grandi grazie per la sua Chiesa santa” (this beginning of great graces for his holy Church). He wrote that God had arranged for the first spark of the Council to come “dalla mia bocca e dal mio cuore” (from my mouth and from my heart). “Ero disposto a rinunziare anche alla gioia di questo inizio” (I was ready to give up even the joy of this beginning), he wrote. He was content, he wrote, whether God kept him in office for the rest of his life or stopped him at any moment, so that the work of carrying the Council on and finishing it would pass “al mio successore” (to my successor).

Within weeks, the stomach cancer that would kill him the following June had become apparent.