Pope Paul VI: 1963-1978

There was an ironic beauty, then, to the timing of his death. Paul VI, who had waged so valiant a campaign for a world of justice and peace, died on August 6, the day on which the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, and an age began when the capacity to darken all life assumed awesome proportions. Yet August 6 is also the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus, and the terrible searing flash of Hiroshima is in the end overcome by the light of the glorified Lord. After 80 years of pilgrimage, Paul VI found his own transfiguration in that Light.

This article also appeared in print, under the headline “Pope Paul VI: 1963-1978,” in the November 17, 2014 issue of America Magazine.

Pope Paul VI’s four biggest legacies

• Pope Paul VI’s birth control ruling, in the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, set the stage for the culture wars that overtook Catholicism after Paul died in 1978. His many other groundbreaking contributions, though often overlooked, include:

• Paul called for a more missionary church that would be open to the world and one that would dialogue with other Christians and other believers, and with nonbelievers, too.

• Paul was a vocal champion of the church’s social justice teachings, and he sought to embed those concepts as foundation stones of Catholic doctrine. He also implemented a system of regular meetings of bishops, called synods, to promote a more collaborative, horizontal church.

• Paul, in 1975 pontificate, exhorted on evangelization in `Evangelii Nuntiandi (“On Proclaiming the Gospel”).

Miracles attributed to Pope Paul VI

• The first miracle occurred in the 1990s in California. Doctors advised a pregnant woman to have an abortion because her own life was at risk and the unborn baby would either not survive or be born with brain damage. Instead, the mother sought prayers from a friend, an Italian nun, who placed a holy card with Pope Paul VI’s photograph on her belly, along with a piece of vestment he had worn. The baby was born healthy.

• The miracle regards the birth of a girl from Verona called Amanda, who in 2014 had survived for months despite the fact the placenta was broken. The expectant mother, at risk of miscarriage, a few days after the beatification of Montini in Brescia, went to the Sanctuary “delle Grazie”, to pray to the newly beatified Pope. Subsequently, a child in good health was born.