The son of Bergamo tenant farmers, a diplomat then patriarch of Venice, elected pope at nearly seventy-seven. Expected to be a caretaker, he summoned the Second Vatican Council. All his life he kept a spiritual journal.
In their own words
When you go home, you will find your children; give them a caress and say: this is the pope's caress.
Address on the opening of the Council, 11 October 1962
See everything, overlook much, correct a little.
Journal of a Soul
It is not the Gospel that changes; it is we who begin to understand it better.