Three common myths need to be demolished for American Roman Catholics if we are to become less dominated by pop-culture and historically inaccurate superficiality.
The first is the saccharine myth of “Good Pope John”. The historical Roncalli is different from the Roncalli who was hijacked by the media to remake the Catholic Church into its own image and likeness.
John was actually so traditional that he even restored some things which Pius XII had removed from the lengthy papal coronation ceremony.
The Latin text of the Synod of Rome of 1960 is enough to illustrate that he was no liberal-progressive in any sense which we understand those labels.
His personal Journal of a Soul (Image; New revisEd ed., 1999) shows us a devotional man, not an ideological reformer.
The apostolic constitution Veterum Sapientia (February 1962) regarding the promotion and use of Latin, signed on the high altar of St. Peter’s, was forgotten before the ink dried.
John’s priority for Vatican II was the revision of canon law.
More Recent documentation brought to light this accurate view of the historical Roncalli. A book by Marco Roncalli was published in Italian by Mondadori in 2006, entitled Giovanni XXIII ― Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. Una vita nella storia (John XXIII ― Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli: A Life in History). Look for the real Roncalli there, not in the myth-perpetuating biography by Peter and Margaret Hebblethwaite (Doubleday, 1987; revised by Margaret for Continuum International, 2000).
If it is true that Good Pope John desired a new Pentecost, he certainly would have rejected the horrific Apocalypse which came instead.
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Dr. Peters adds:
I have been saying this about John XXIII for years!
Q: What did you expect from the [1958] conclave?
Cdl. Oddi: “I expected that the choice might fall to Montini, who, though not yet a cardinal, enjoyed very wide favor…”…
Q: The conclave did not seem to have significant internal divisions between progressives and conservatives, divisions that emerged very shortly afterward.
Oddi: “In fact it has been maintained — and I have no trouble believing it — that Roncalli was voted in by the cardinals close to Ottaviani [pro-prefect of the Holy Office and a noted conservative — Editor.]”
Q: That would demonstrate that Cardinal Roncalli was considered a conservative.
Oddi: “Exactly. That is how it was: He was considered a conservative because he was one.”
There’s more, and the rest is in the October 2014 New Oxford Review.
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