Saint John 23rd

Meet the pope who transformed the Church-and the world! Angelo Roncalli won the hearts and minds of people the world over, including many non-Catholics, with his warm style and commitment to further integrate the Catholic Church and the modern world. “We are not on the earth to guard a museum,” he had once said about the Church, “but to tend a blooming garden full of life.” Roncalli introduced himself to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square on October 28, 1958 with the humble words, “I am called John.” Already 77 years old, this son of peasants was expected to oversee a merely caretaker papacy. Surprising many, he convened the Second Vatican Council in October of 1962, which would open wide the doors of the Church and change Catholic life forever, inside and outside the Church. This biography, by revered journalist Christian Feldman, reveals the spiritual heart of this remarkable, thoroughly modern and thoroughly orthodox man.