Pope Paul VI

Who is Pope Paul VI?

Giovanni Battista Montini was born in Concesio, Italy, in 1897 and was ordained a priest in 1920, going on to a long career in the Vatican's Secretariat of State before serving as Archbishop of Milan from 1954. Elected pope in June 1963, he took the name Paul VI and guided the Second Vatican Council to its conclusion in 1965, overseeing the implementation of its sweeping liturgical and pastoral reforms, including the introduction of Mass celebrated in vernacular languages. He became the first pope of the modern era to travel internationally by air, visiting the Holy Land, the United States, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in 1965, India, and other nations across several continents. His 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, reaffirming Catholic teaching against artificial contraception, proved highly controversial and remains widely discussed. He also established the annual World Day of Peace, observed each January 1. He died in 1978 after a fifteen-year pontificate that reshaped the modern Catholic Church.

Sources: Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, encyclical, 25 July 1968 · Pope Paul VI, Address to the United Nations General Assembly, 4 October 1965 · Peter Hebblethwaite, Paul VI: The First Modern Pope (1993)