Today, May 29, is the memorial of Pope Saint Paul VI.
The future pope was born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini in 1897. He was the son of a prominent newspaper editor. He was ordained in Brescia, Italy in 1920, continued his studies in Rome, and became part of the Vatican secretariat of state in 1922.
He was one of two pro-secretaries to Pope Pius XII. He served as Archbishop of Milan where he tackled social problems and to improve relations between workers and employers. He was created cardinal-priest of Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti in 1958. He was elected 262nd Pope in 1963.
Paul VI continued the reforms of John XXIII. He re-convened the Second Vatican Council, and supervised implementations of many of its reforms, such as the vernacularization and reform of the liturgy.
He instituted an international synod of bishops. The bishops were instructed to set up councils of priests in their own dioceses. Powers of dispensation devolved from the Roman Curia onto the bishops, rules on fasting and abstinence were relaxed, and some restrictions on inter-marriage were lifted. A commission to revise canon law revision was established.
In his 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” Paul reaffirmed the church’s ban on contraception, a topic that still ignites debate and contentions to this day.
At age 80, Pope Paul VI died of natural causes in 1978. Pope Francis led his beatification in 2014 and canonization in 2018.