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Photos taken at various events in our parish

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Reflection

St John XXIII
Patron saint of Papal delegates, the Second Vatican Council and Christian unity
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in 1881 in Italy. He was ordained a priest, and became a diplomat. In this role, he made various efforts during World War II to save refugees, who were mostly Jewish, from the Nazi Holocaust. When he became Pope, it was assumed (because he was quite old) that he would only be a short-term or "stop-gap" pope, and would not do very much. However he surprised people, and called together the Second Vatican Council, from which came changes that reshaped the face of Catholicism: a comprehensively revised liturgy, emphasis on ecumenism, and a new approach to the world. He wrote a diary of spiritual reflections which was published as "Journal of a Soul", It tells of his goals and work as a young man to "grow in holiness" and continues until after he was elected as pope.