In an interview to Il Tempo, published today, 93-year-old Archbishop Loris Capovilla (who was secretary to Pope John XXIII) recalls the momentous day:
Let us come to January 25, 1959. Images of a historic day for the Catholic Church.
«After Mass at home, the Pope, silent and reserved, goes to Saint Paul outside the Walls. Perhaps ten people [including Cardinal Tardini] know that, after Mass [at Saint Paul's], he will remain with the Cardinals, in Consistory, in the Chapter Hall of the Benedictine Abbey. Which takes place after 1 PM ... .».
In his pronouncement to the Cardinals, the Lombard Pope intertwined the challenges of modern progress and the need to strengthen ancient order:
All of this - we mean, this progress - while distracting from the pursuit of higher gifts, weakens the energies of the spirit, leads to the softening of the structure, of the discipline, and of the good ancient order, to great detriment of that which constituted the strength of the resistance of the Church and of her sons to errors, which, in reality, always in the history of Christianity, led to fatal and pernicious divisions, to spiritual and moral decay, to the ruin of nations.This assessment awakens in the heart of the humble priest, which the manifest choice of Divine Providence led, though most unworthy, to this highness of the Supreme Pontificate, it awakens - we say - a resolution influenced by the memory of some ancient forms of doctrinal affirmation and of wise orientations of ecclesiastical discipline which, in the history of the Church, at times of renewal, brought forth fruits of extraordinary efficacy, for the clarity of thought, for the compactness of religious unity, for the livelier fire of Christian fervor, which we continue to recognize, also in reference to the welfare of life down here, an abundant wealth «de rore caeli et de pinguedine terrae» (Gen. XXVII, 28).Venerable Brothers and Our Dear Children! We pronounce before you, certainly trembling somewhat out of emotion, but also with humble resolve of purpose, the name and the proposal of the double celebration: of a Diocesan Synod for the City [of Rome], and that of an Ecumenical Council for the universal Church.
