‘I met Charles Borromeo … and he brought me to Vatican II’

Abstract

Much of the memorialization of John XXIII centres around clichés and stereotypes of a humble peasant pope elected to a ‘transitional’ papacy. In truth, Angelo Roncalli was an historian who brought the perspective of history to the papacy, in particular, a close study of the Council of Trent and the reforms instituted by St Charles Borromeo. Roncalli’s scholarship was highly significant not simply in his decision to call Vatican II but, more importantly, in his style of leadership, the language that he used and the historical framework that guided his ideas. The central idea for John XXIII was how the church undertakes the process of change and adapts itself to the challenges of a new historical era. The pope’s call for aggiornamento needs to be contextualized to his wide reading of history and his intuition of a new historical epoch for the church and the world in the course of the 20th century.