{"id":182984,"date":"2024-10-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.fundacioncarf.org\/san-pablo-vi-y-san-josemaria-escriva\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:14:09","slug":"san-pablo-vi-y-san-josemaria-escriva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/san-pablo-vi-y-san-josemaria-escriva\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Paul VI and St. Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"

We cannot forget that our Faculty was erected as such in 1969, during his Pontificate. Such recognition of the task initiated a few years earlier with the encouragement of St. Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 de Balaguer<\/a> is part of the theological impulse that St. Paul VI wanted to imprint on the Church in the years following the conclusion of the Vatican Council II<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 1999, I had the opportunity to prepare some words of welcome to the participants in a Study Days on \"...\".Modern man in search of God, according to the Magisterium of Paul VI<\/em>\"I would like to recall with gratitude some of the testimonies about Paul VI that, for various reasons, are connected with this Faculty of Theology. On that occasion, I wanted to recall with gratitude the memory of some testimonies about Paul VI that for various reasons are related to this Faculty of Theology and are therefore particularly dear to those of us who work here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, twenty years later, I think that the canonization performed by the Pope Francis<\/a> is a good reason to remember them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before becoming Paul VI: John Baptist Montini<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let us begin with a detail, merely anecdotal but significant, which refers to the first occasions on which a professor of our Faculty was personally received by Paul VI, although at the time of those meetings, 1943, Professor Orlandis, a professor at the University of Murcia and a young researcher, was not yet a professor of this Faculty, and John Baptist Montini was not yet Paul VI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one of the occasions on which they had arranged to meet, the previous audience went on a little longer than usual and the usher in charge of introducing the visitors to Monsignor Montini's office felt it his duty to give conversation to Fr. Jos\u00e9 Orlandis<\/a> to liven up the wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In the talk came up, as a confidence,\" recalls Prof. Orlandis, \"the opinion that Montini deserved and the image that he presented before his eyes, so accustomed to contemplate him so closely. The definition, said in the popular language of an old Roman, was so funny to me,\" Orlandis continues, \"that I could never forget it.Monsignore \u00e8 proprio un santo: lavora sempre, quasi non dorme e mangia come un uccelletto!\"\"<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This definition, somewhat singular in its form, is nonetheless an expressive testimony of the capacity for work and the affection that John Baptist Montini aroused in those who witnessed his daily work.<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the occasion of another meeting, on January 21, 1945, Professor Orlandis gave the future Pope Paul VI a copy of The Way, which St. Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 had sent to him in Rome a few days earlier. Well, that book would not remain abandoned on the shelves of a library, but would also have its own history, which we have been able to learn about many years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San
Photograph taken during St. Josemar\u00eda's audience with Paul VI on January 24, 1964.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At a hearing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Granted by Paul VI to the Blessed \u00c1lvaro del Portillo<\/a> Thirty years later, that is, in 1975, shortly after St. Josemar\u00eda's death, he spoke to his successor at the head of Opus Dei about that book, which he still carefully preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how Bishop del Portillo recalled that conversation: \"Paul VI spoke to me about Father with admiration and told me that he was convinced that he had been a saint. He confirmed to me that for many years he had been reading The Way every day and that it did great good to his soul\" (\u00c1lvaro del Portillo, Interview on the Founder of Opus Dei, p. 18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul VI's affection for St. Josemar\u00eda was already evident from the time he had the first references to him.<\/strong> and of the apostolic work he was carrying out<\/strong>Montini paid out of his own pocket the expenses for the granting of the appointment of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness that Blessed \u00c1lvaro del Portillo had requested for St. Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 (\u00c1lvaro del Portillo, Interview on the Founder of Opus Dei, p. 18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monsignor Montini and Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 had the opportunity to meet for the first time in 1946 on the occasion of the founder's first trip to Rome. Opus Dei<\/a>. Throughout his life, St. Josemar\u00eda recalled, as he said repeatedly, that Bishop Montini was the first friendly hand he met on his arrival in Rome, and he always had a cordial affection for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 24, 1964<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1<\/a> When he was received in audience by Paul VI, he was deeply impressed to see in the Holy Father the kind face he had met in the Vatican offices on his first trip to Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I seemed to be seeing once again the kind smile, and hearing again the kind words of encouragement (they were the first I heard in the Vatican) of Bishop Montini in 1946: but now it was Peter who smiled, who spoke, who blessed\" (Letter 14 Feb. 1964. The text of this letter can be found in A. de Fuenmayor - V. G\u00f3mez Iglesias - J. L. Illanes, El itinerario jur\u00eddico del Opus Dei, p. 574).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are simple reminders of recent history that bear witness to the human category<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brief biography of Paul VI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Giovanni Battista Montini -Paul VI- was born in Concesio, a town in the Italian region of Lombardy, near Brescia, on September 26, 1897. He died in Castelgandolfo on the evening of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6), 1978. He was ordained priest<\/a> on May 29, 1920 and bishop on December 12, 1954. On December 15, 1958, he was created a cardinal, the first in the list of the first cardinals of Pope John XXIII. Since 1954 he was Archbishop of Milan, where he remained until his election to the See of Peter on June 21, 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1922 he joined the diplomatic corps of the Holy See. After six years in Warsaw, he was transferred to Rome and served in the Roman Curia until 1954. In 1952 he was appointed prosecutor of state by Pius XII. He also worked in youth and university ministry and in Catholic Action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Pope, he continued, promoted and crowned the Second Vatican Council, implemented its first reforms, promoted ecumenism and interreligious dialogue and undertook apostolic journeys to various continents. He was the author of seven encyclicals and a great apostle of dialogue and rapprochement with contemporary culture. He was beatified by Pope Francis on October 19, 2014, at the closing Mass of a Synod of Bishops, an institution promoted by Paul VI in 1965.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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