May 19, 2012: "The footprints of his work in history - as the priest in charge of
the Italian Federation of Catholic Universities (FUCI), as well as Secretary of State
of his Holiness, and later as Archbishop of Milan and Pope - have not been erased
with the passing of time, said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect emeritus of
the Congregation for Bishops, while presenting Pope Paul VI Chair, at the Holy See
Press Office on Friday. The Chair will be instituted at LUMSA (Libera UniversitĂ Maria
SS. Assunta) University in Rome.
Cardinal Re praised the initiative of including
the chair dedicated to Pope Paul VI in the sphere of the coursework on contemporary
history at LUMSA because Pope Paul VI was one of the great protagonists of the 20th
century". He has a place in history, above all for his guidance of the Second Vatican
Council, the cardinal affirmed.
Even if the merit of calling for and opening
the Council falls to Blessed Pope John XXIII, "Paul VI led it with an expert and sure
hand, respectful of the Fathers of the Church".
He also "loved and esteemed
his day and looked at the modern world with sympathetic eyes, seeking the reconciliation
between the modern age and the Christian faith. There are few like him who have known
how to read the anxieties, the worries, the desires, and the weariness of the human
being in our days, the Cardinal Re said.
As Pope Paul VI made historic gestures
and, as these were carried out for the first time by a pontiff, they can be considered
'firsts': He was the first Pope to ride in an airplane; the first to return to Palestine;
the first to renounce the crown, earmarking the proceeds of its sale to the poor;
the first to go to the United Nations; and the Pope who abolished the pontifical court,
bringing a simpler lifestyle to the Pontifical Household’, Cardinal added.
The
historical investigation to be carried out under the chair instituted at LUMSA will
be very useful for analyzing two little known chapters of Giovanni Battista Montini's
life. The first is the work of formation of the members of the Italian Federation
of Catholic Universities because the Pope "had an innate passion for the formation
of persons: religious, but also civil, social, and in some way even political formation",
Cardinal Re said.