Montini described Pius XII with a filial admiration: His richly cultivated mind, his unusual capacity for thought and study led him to avoid all distractions and every unnecessary relaxation.

[34] At the Pope's instruction, Montini, Ferdinando Baldelli, and Otto Faller established the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza (Pontifical Commission for Assistance), which supplied a large number of Romans and refugees from everywhere with shelter, food and other necessities.

Some considered him a liberal when he asked lay people to love not only Catholics but also schismatics, [definition needed] Protestants, Anglicans, the indifferent, Muslims, pagans, and atheists.

In fifteen other trips, he visited Brazil (1960) and the USA (1960), including New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

[69][page needed] Cardinal Augustin Bea, the President of the Christian Unity Secretariat, always had the full support of Paul VI in his attempts to ensure that the Council language was friendly and open to the sensitivities of Protestant and Orthodox churches, whom he had invited to all sessions at the request of Pope John XXIII.

[72] Between the third and fourth sessions, the Pope announced reforms in the areas of Roman Curia, revision of Canon law, regulations for interfaith marriages, and birth control issues.

On 28 March, with Pontificalis Domus, and in several additional Apostolic Constitutions in the following years, he revamped the entire Curia, which included reduction of bureaucracy, streamlining of existing congregations, and a broader representation of non-Italians in the Curial positions.

"[83] Reform of the liturgy, an aim of the 20th-century liturgical movement, mainly in France and Germany, was officially recognised as legitimate by Pius XII in his encyclical Mediator Dei.

Trying to improve the condition of Christians behind the Iron Curtain, Paul VI engaged in dialogue with Communist authorities at several levels, receiving Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Nikolai Podgorny in 1966 and 1967 in the Vatican.

Nor can We bring it to a more fitting conclusion than by expressing the wish that this central seat of human relationships for the civil peace of the world may ever be conscious and worthy of this high privilege.

As reasons for this call to prayer, Paul VI alludes to the Vietnam War and lists concern about "the growing nuclear armaments race, the senseless nationalism, the racism, the obsession for revolution, the separations imposed upon citizens, the nefarious plots, the slaughter of innocent people.

For this reason, Paul VI taught in the first sentence of Humanae vitae that the transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God.

From this basic dignity, he defines his position: Love is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience.

"[120] The Senate of Bolivia passed a resolution stating that Humanae vitae could be discussed in its implications for individual consciences but was of greatest significance because the papal document defended the rights of developing nations to determine their own population policies.

He fully anticipated this reaction to be a temporary one: "Don't be afraid," he reportedly told Edouard Gagnon on the eve of the encyclical, "in twenty years' time, they'll call me a prophet.

"[122] His biography on the Vatican's website notes his reaffirmations of priestly celibacy and the traditional teaching on contraception that "[t]he controversies over these two pronouncements tended to overshadow the last years of his pontificate".

It produced the Catholic-Eastern Orthodox Apostolic Joint Declaration of 1965, read on 7 December 1965, simultaneously at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul.

[144] Several prominent Latin Americans like Eduardo Francisco Pironio of Argentina; Luis Aponte Martinez of Puerto Rico, Eugênio de Araújo Sales and Aloisio Lorscheider from Brazil were also elevated by him.

On 29 December 1975, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document entitled Persona Humana: Declaration on Certain Questions concerning Sexual Ethics, that reaffirmed church teaching that pre- or extramarital sex, homosexual activity, and masturbation are sinful acts.

In a brief address to a crowd of approximately 20,000 in St Peter's Square on 18 April 1976, Paul VI called the charges "horrible and slanderous insinuations" and appealed for prayers on his behalf.

[154] In 2006, the newspaper L'Espresso reported that the private papers of police commander General Giorgio Manes confirmed the blackmail story as true, and that Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro had been asked to help.

[156] The Pope discussed business from his bed about 48 hours after the operation with Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani and at that point was off intravenous feeding in favour of orange juice and hot broth.

[176] On 20 December 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, in an audience with the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints Angelo Amato, declared that the late pontiff had lived a life of heroic virtue, which means that he could be called "Venerable".

[177] On 12 December 2013, Vatican officials comprising a medical panel approved a supposed miracle that was attributed to the intercession of the late pontiff, which was the curing of an unborn child in California, U.S.A in the 1990s.

This report from the magazine further stated that several cardinals and bishops would meet on 5 May to confirm the miracle that had previously been approved, and then present it to Pope Francis who may sign the decree for beatification shortly after that.

On 23 September, a month before the beatification, Amanda's mother Vanna Pironato (aged 35) was hospitalised due to the premature rupture of the placenta, with doctors declaring her pregnancy to be at great risk.

[190] On 6 March 2018, the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, speaking at a plenary meeting of the International Catholic Migration Commission in Rome, confirmed that Paul VI would be canonised in at the close of the synod on 28 October 2018.

[1] In 2011, newly uncovered documents went up for auction and contained, among other items, proof that beginning in September 1950, while then serving as deputy of foreign affairs for the Vatican, Montini worked with former Nazis and members of the Spanish military in planning for a mercenary style army to operate within the African continent.

[193] Pope Paul VI continued the opening and internationalisation of the church that began under Pius XII and implemented the reforms of John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council.

[202] Paul VI renounced many traditional symbols of the papacy and the Catholic Church; some of his changes to the papal dress were temporarily reversed by Pope Benedict XVI in the early 21st century.