The Word Among Us

Advent 2017 Issue

An Apostle of Peace

How Pope John XXIII invited the whole world to come to the manger.

By: Kathryn Elliott

An Apostle of Peace: How Pope John XXIII invited the whole world to come to the manger. by Kathryn Elliott

Clear, bright stars sparkled outside Angelo Roncalli’s window on Christmas Eve of 1902. As merrymakers reveled in the streets of Rome, his fellow seminarians lay asleep in their beds. The future pope, however, sat at his desk pondering the birth of Jesus. At age twenty-one, he had just completed a grueling year of military service in the Italian National Army, and now he wanted nothing more than to pray and get back into the rhythm of seminary life.

As he pictured himself in the scene at Bethlehem, he was filled with a sense of unworthiness. “I am a poor shepherd,” he wrote. “I...

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