Pope John XXIII was recently canonised. As the Pope who convened the second Vatican council he is rather lionised and remembered as a champion of engagement with the world and institutional reform. In fact in many ways Pope John had rather conventional and traditional views about the church.

Sometimes the mythology of what we are pleased to think happened becomes the history we repeat. We sometimes expect this to be the case – or at least excusable in the case in the distant past and events like the reformation. But cutting, pasting and editing is something historians are wont to do at all times and in all circumstances. Many of my semi-Catholic friends, brought up on a diet of worms from the post Vatican II church when reform shot off in many weird directions, are apt to think of St John XXIII are their very own hero. He certainly was heroic but his views were also heroically old fashioned, old school and traditional. Rather than paraphrase the man and thus make him into what we might want him to be I thought it would be useful to remind everyone of the man he actually was – and in his own words.

This brief digest might also be useful for any student of the reformation and counter reformation and the council of Trent since Pope John aptly paraphrases catholic doctrine on the Eucharist and on the Mass as succinctly and amply as anything I have read from the hand of an historian.

My failings and incapacities, and my “countless sins, offences and negligences” for which I offer my daily Mass, are a cause of constant interior mortification, which prevents me from indulging in any kind of self-glorification but does not weaken my confidence and trust in God, whose caressing hand I feel upon me, sustaining and encouraging.  Nor do I ever feel tempted to vanity or complacency.  “What little I know about myself is enough to make me feel ashamed.”  What a fine saying that is, which Manzoni put in the mouth of Cardinal Federico [in The Betrothed, ch. 26].  (p. 301; between 27 Nov. and 3 Dec. 1960)

First of all: “I confess to Almighty God.”
During my whole life I have kept faithful to my practice of weekly confession.  Several times during my life I have renewed my general confession.  So now I content myself with a more general examination, without precise details, but in the words of the offertory prayer of my daily Mass: thinking of my “countless sins, offences and negligences,” all of which have already been confessed in their turn but are still mourned and detested. …
The vivid memory of the failings of my life, eighty years long, and of my “countless sins, offences and negligences” was the general matter for my holy confession which I renewed this morning to my spiritual director, Mgr. Alfredo Cavagna, here in my bedroom where my predecessors Pius XI and Pius XII slept, and where in fact Pius XII died on 9 October, 1958, until now the only pope to die here at Castel Gandolfo, in the summer residence.
Lord Jesus, as you assure me of your great and eternal forgiveness, so continue to have pity on me.  (pp. 304-5, 11 August 1961)

The Priest, the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Mass

John XXIII celebrating the Papal Mass

The most outstanding public testament to Pope John this deeply traditional view is found again in his encyclical on the priesthood, Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia (1959).

The devotion to prayer of St. John Mary Vianney, who was to spend almost the whole of the last thirty years of his life in Church caring for the crowds of penitents who flocked to him, had one special characteristic—it was specially directed toward the Eucharist.
It is almost unbelievable how ardent his devotion to Christ hidden beneath the veils of the Eucharist really was. “He is the one,” he said, “Who has loved us so much; why shouldn’t we love Him in return?” He was devoted to the adorable Sacrament of the altar with a burning charity and his soul was drawn to the sacred Tabernacle by a heavenly force that could not be resisted.
This is how he taught his faithful to pray: “You do not need many words when you pray. We believe on faith that the good and gracious God is there in the tabernacle; we open our souls to Him; and feel happy that He allows us to come before Him; this is the best way to pray.” He did everything that there was to be done to stir up the reverence and love of the faithful for Christ hidden in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and to bring them to share in the riches of the divine Synaxis; the example of his devotion was ever before them. “To be convinced of this”—witnesses tell us—“all that was necessary was to see him carrying out the sacred ceremonies or simply to see him genuflect when he passed the tabernacle.”
As Our predecessor of immortal memory, Pius XII, has said: “The wonderful example of St. John Mary Vianney retains all of its force for our times.” For the lengthy prayer of a priest before the adorable Sacrament of the Altar has a dignity and an effectiveness that cannot be found elsewhere nor be replaced. And so when the priest adores Christ Our Lord and gives thanks to Him, or offers satisfaction for his own sins and those of others, or finally when he prays constantly that God keep special watch over the causes committed to his care, he is inflamed with a more ardent love for the Divine Redeemer to whom he has sworn allegiance and for those to whom he is devoting his pastoral care. And a devotion to the Eucharist that is ardent, constant and that carries over into works also has the effect of nourishing and fostering the inner perfection of his soul and assuring him, as he carries out his apostolic duties, of an abundance of the supernatural powers that the strongest workers for Christ must have. …
        If it is obviously true that a priest receives his priesthood so as to serve at the altar and that he enters upon this office by offering the Eucharistic Sacrifice, then it is equally true that for as long as he lives as God’s minister, the Eucharistic Sacrifice will be the source and origin of the holiness that he attains and of the apostolic activity to which he devotes himself. All of these things came to pass in the fullest possible way in the case of St. John Vianney.
For, if you give careful consideration to all of the activity of a priest, what is the main point of his apostolate if not seeing to it that wherever the Church lives, a people who are joined by the bonds of faith, regenerated by holy Baptism and cleansed of their faults will be gathered together around the sacred altar? It is then that the priest, using the sacred power he has received, offers the divine Sacrifice in which Jesus Christ renews the unique immolation which He completed on Calvary for the redemption of mankind and for the glory of His heavenly Father. It is then that the Christians who have gathered together, acting through the ministry of the priest, present the divine Victim and offer themselves to the supreme and eternal God as a “sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God” (Rom 12:1). There it is that the people of God are taught the doctrines and precepts of faith and are nourished with the Body of Christ, and there it is that they find a means to gain supernatural life, to grow in it, and if need be to regain unity. And there besides, the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, grows with spiritual increase throughout the world down to the end of time. …
Speaking as a Father, We urge Our beloved priests to set aside a time to examine themselves on how they celebrate the divine mysteries, what their dispositions of soul and external attitude are as they ascend the altar and what fruit they are trying to gain from it. . . .
When We gaze from this height of the Supreme Pontificate to which We have been raised by the secret counsels of Divine Providence and turn Our mind to what souls are hoping for and expecting, or to the many areas of the earth that have not yet been brightened by the light of the Gospel, or last of all to the many needs of the Christian people, the figure of the priest is always before Our eyes. If there were no priests or if they were not doing their daily work, what use would all these apostolic undertakings be, even those which seem best suited to the present age? Of what use would be the laymen who work so zealously and generously to help in the activities of the apostolate?

Pope John Celebrating the Divine Liturgy