EDITORIAL
from issue no. 06/07 - 2008
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The Roncalli diaries
I thought of giving only a quick look at the 1953-54 diary of "Patriarch Roncalli" given to me as a gift, but I was immediately drawn in and I read it from cover to cover, with moments of genuine emotion because there are also events reported that involve me
Giulio Andreotti
The new Patriarch of Venice Angelo Roncalli entering the city on 15 March 1953
The detail with which he noted every evening (or every night, because he says he got up at three thirty in the morning) meetings, impressions, ideas is quite unusual.
With a very personal objectivity the notes on contacts dwell not on important individuals, particular underlinings are reserved instead for the ecclesiastics in care of souls and relevant training groups.
Despite the very wide horizons of the development of his commitment, the reference to the years of training is continuous, thinking back on circumstances and people, even with ideas seemingly not very determinant.
Important is his tendency to connect impressions to meetings with the “precedents” of places and people. Let me quote in this regard the report of a stopover in Santiago de Compostela, with a car accident fortunately not serious. He criticizes the “too baroque”, but says he went immediately, like all the pilgrims, to kiss the statue of the saint.
As one browses the pages the commitment of the Pastor to his diocese comes across as total, with no difference in identifying targets. Indeed, he feels the greatest concerns as pilgrim like all the other faithful.
On 15 August 1954 he records having celebrated mass “in the purple” and later having attended high mass pontifically “under the gaze and protection of Mary”. At the table instead only a “family gathering” with his brothers Xaverio, Alfredo, Giovanni and Giuseppe; and nephews as well as Don Loris “who gladdens with his presence the family get together”.
He records the subject matter of every homily in the Eucharistic functions or masses: always in detail and to the point, with a variety of ideas and exceptional penetration. At a priestly ordination (June 22 1954) he wants to speak ardent words on the “joy of our families who offer their finest flowers to the altar”.
I quote the page of Sunday, 25 December, the day of the Lord’s nativity:
“My second mass in the chapel. A fine Pontifical at 10 with music well conducted by Maestro Alfredo Bravi, but with voices somewhat screechy. At the end my Homily following in the track of the discourse of the speech of Saint Lorenzo Giustiniani in Nativitate Dñi: God’s part and our part.
Many people and a lot of attention: even the voice answered well.
I had to lunch the two priest brothers Baragiolo left alone in the house because of the death this year of father and mother. At 16.30 Christmas Vespers in San Marco followed: with a lot of people who then accompanied the Litanies to the Nicopeja Virgin. I remarked that the singing of the chapel should be more animated, and with organ pieces less long between psalm and psalm as in the Mass at the Gloria and the Creed. Small observations that I referred to Maestro Alfredo Bravi, whom I had to dinner with Monsignor Olivotti of the Works of Diocesan Charity. At night I always work up to 11pm”.
