Beatification of Pope Paul VI

Beatification of Pope Paul VI

Giovanni Battista Montini, Successor of Peter from 1963 to 1978, was born in Concesio in the province of Brescia, Italy, on 26 September 1897. Pope Paul VI will be proclaimed Blessed on 19 October at the conclusion of the meeting of the Synod of Bishops. He was a true and prophetic witness to God, an exemplary Christian, a model of life worthy of emulation, a man of peace and hope. To mark this great celebration in honor of Paul VI, a man of the Council and of dialogue, the Philatelic and Numismatic Office will issue a special commemorative postage stamp, which shows Pope Paul VI giving a blessing. The image is from a painting by Luigi Filocamo found in the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Religious Art at the Vatican Musuems. The Collection was added by Paul VI, a man of his time, who appreciated art from every period of history. Saint John Paul II in his encyclical letter “Redemptor Hominis” offered this reflection on Pope Paul VI: “I was constantly amazed at his profound wisdom and his courage and also by his constancy and patience in the difficult postconciliar period of his pontificate. As helmsman of the Church, the bark of Peter, he knew how to preserve a providential tranquillity and balance even in the most critical moments, when the Church seemed to be shaken from within, and he always maintained unhesitating hope in the Church’s solidity”.