I move:
That, as a tribute of respect to the memory of His Holiness Pope John XXIII, Seanad Éireann do now adjourn, and that an expression of its profound sorrow on the death of The Holy Father be sent to His Eminence the Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church.
His Holiness, John XXIII, the Pope of Peace and Unity, has gone to his eternal reward and the world mourns the passing of a great and good man who was loved and respected by people of every race and creed.
In an address on his appointment as Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, in 1953, he said of himself:—
By disposition I tend to love my fellow men and this helps me to be faithful to the law of the Gospel. I respect the rights of others and this prevents me from doing wrong and encourages me to do good to all men.
His whole life, but particularly the four and a half years of his pontificate, gave eloquent testimony of the truth of his words.
Only one other Pope in the last 200 years had such a humble background as Pope John. He was born of the people and he understood the people. No other Pope had the breadth of his experience with men in all stations and conditions. He was twice called to military duty, the first time as a private —later promoted to sergeant—in 1901; the second as a sergeant in the Medical Corps during the first World War.
He had a brilliant diplomatic career during which he served 20 years in the Balkans, Turkey, and Greece where he gained an insight into the mind of the Orthodox and Moslem worlds and worked to heal the breach between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. In 1944 when he was 63, he was appointed Nuncio to Paris. He ended the quarrel between the resistance movement and the Bishops and restored cordial relations with the French. After eight years he became a Cardinal and at the age of 77, Pope John XXIII.
Pope John enlarged the College of Cardinals and appointed its first African member. He reshaped Vatican policy to meet the challenge of the Atomic Age. He made full use of all the 20th century media of communication to reach the people with his message of peace and unity.
Protocol meant little to him and convention nothing. A few days after he was called to the Chair of St. Peter, Pope John called on the convicts in the Regina Coeli Prison in Rome. Others, he said, could come to see the Pope if they so desired, but the prisoners and the sick could see the Pope only if he visited them. He visited hospitals, schools, churches, orphanages, asylums, and homes for the aged in the years that followed.
In countless gestures of kindliness and understanding, he captured the imagination of the world. He removed from the liturgy words offensive to the Jews. He abated some of the breathless ceremony that surrounds a Pope. He raised the salaries of the Vatican staff from Cardinals down to cleaners. He received a bewildering variety of religious leaders and set up a new Vatican Department, the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, to maintain and extend the interchurch contacts thus established.
Pope John's decision to call a General Council of the Church—the second in 400 years—and his two major Encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris, were the historic events of his reign. The first Encyclical, a blueprint for social justice, and the second, a supreme call to the nations to avoid the folly of a third World War, were acclaimed by East and West alike.
Pope John had a deep affection for Ireland and showed our nation many favours. He created a second Irish Cardinal and spoke often of his appreciation of Ireland's work for the Holy See.
By the death of this gentle Pontiff, the Catholic Church has lost a loving shepherd, the world an outstanding leader, and mankind an unceasing champion of peace and justice and brotherly love.
Go raibh solus na síoraíochta ag a anam uasal.
