Home
Giovanni Battista Montini, Pope Paul VI (1963-1978), the 262nd Successor of St. Peter was beatified as Blessed on 19 October 2014. One of Pope Paul VI's first decisions was to continue the Second Vatican Council, initiated by Pope John XXIII in 1962 and which concluded in 1965. He summoned the first Synod of Bishops which began on 19 October 1967. Pope Paul implemented its conclusions by setting up post conciliar commissions on the revision of the breviary, lectionary, the order of Mass, sacred music and canon law. He created secretariats for the Promotion of Christian Unity, for Non-Christian Religions and Non-Believers. Pope Paul VI was the first Pilgrim Pope (see Michael Lamothe's 2012 three-part articles on the Pilgrim Pope published in Vatican Notes in references below). Between sessions of Vatican II, he traveled to Israel in 1964 and met with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They removed the mutual excommunications by their predecessors issued in 1054. Pope Paul and Patriarch Athenagoras I met again in Istanbul in 1967 (Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew commemorated the 1964, meeting in 2014). He also pursued ecumenical relationships with other branches of Christianity. Pope Paul VI also traveled to the six inhabited continents 1964-1970, in an era when papal visits were less detailed and extensive as they later became. Among his encyclicals were Mysterium fidei (1965) on liturgical reform in light of traditional doctrine, Papulerum progresso (1967) on social justice, and Humane Vitae (1968) condemning artificial birth control. In the later years of his pontificate, he contended with negative reactions to Humane Vitae, international terrorism, the kidnap and murder of long-time friend Aldo Moro, resistance to liturgical reform associated with the Msgr. Marcel Lefebvre, and traditionalist-modernist controversies.  The miniature sheet of four €0,70 stamps depicts Pope Paul VI giving a blessing. The sheet contains a drawing of the front of St. Peter's Basilica and the obelisk in St. Peter's Square. References: The Pilgrim Pope: The Travels of Pope Paul VI - Part I The Pilgrim Pope: The Travels of Pope Paul VI - Part II The Pilgrim Pope: The Travels of Pope Paul VI - Part III Technical Details: Scott Catalogue - 1571 - 1571M Date Issued - 28 August 2014 Face Value - €0,70 Perforations - 13 x 13-1/4 Printing Process - Offset Printer - Cartor (France) Max Printed - 360,000 |
| (Source: Vatican Notes, Volume 62, Issue 362, pp. 4-6, 2014) |
