Angelo Roncalli was elected Pope in 1958 and in four and a half years, through summoning the Second Vatican Council and putting in hand a major revision of the code of Canon Law, had transformed the Roman Catholic Church. Through his personality and teaching, and his initiatives with world leaders, he gave the papacya new vision and set before the Catholic Church a new version of its mission to the world. Today many people throughout the world see Pope John XXIII as one of the twentieth-century's most loved and influential figures.
Author Biography
Peter Hebblethwaite (b. 1930) was considered the foremost "Vaticanologist" in the English-speaking world and wrote the definitive biography, in addition to this one, of Paul VI: The First Modern Pope (1993). He died in December 1994.
