... just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.

He did not live to see it to completion dying in 1963 four-and-a-half years after his election and two months after the completion of his final encyclical Pacem in Terris. My time on earth is drawing to a close. Cardinal Giovanni Montini who later became Pope Paul VI remarked to a friend that "this holy old boy doesn't realise what a hornet's nest he's stirring up".

He was ordained a priest in 1904 and served in various posts including appointment as Papal Nuncio in several countries including France (1944). Pope John was beatified on 3 September 2000. John XXIII (Latin: Ioannes PP.