So who was it exactly that encouraged St. John XXIII?
Do the
names Cardinal Ruffini and Ottaviani ring a bell?
 |
| St. Pope John XXIII and Cardinal Ottaviani in procession |
Following the early pause of the First Vatican Council,
there were many calls to bring the council to a close by finishing the
deliberations that had begun prior to the Italian wars that left the Pontiffs
prisoners of the Vatican. Different
Popes showed varying degrees of support to the idea of breathing new life in
the First Vatican Council. Pius XI and Pius XII were not exceptions to this
rule. Pius XI had personally thought
highly of restarting the council, but was persuaded by his closest advisers
that it was not a good time to do so because of the modernist problem. Pius XII was a little more skeptical about
restarting First Vatican but he appointed secret commissions in the late 1940’s
to study the possibility.
During the conclave of 1958 there were many names being
circulated including Ruffini, Ottaviani and a young Cardinal Siri of
Genoa. All three of these figures played
a key role for the late pontiff and many expected that from this group would come
forth the new Pope, which as a fact of history has proven very naïve. The French delegation of cardinals were put
under and exerted great pressure to keep the aforementioned names from ascending
to Peter’s throne. Charles De Gaulle, who was
the French leader at the time still supported the Gallican ways of old,
shunning montanism. The French loved
Cardinal Roncalli, however, because he had lived with them and they knew his
tendencies and could thus manipulate him to an extent.
In his book, The Second Vatican Council: The Untold Story,
noted Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei relates the following information:
“The idea had come from Ernesto Cardinal Ruffini, the archbishop of Palermo, in an earlier audience on February 24, 1948. “At the feet of Pius XII,” he recounted, eleven years after receiving the purple hat, “I, the last of the priests, dared to ask for an ecumenical council. It seemed to me that it was urgently required by the circumstances and that there would be as much material to deal with as the Council of Trent had. The venerable pontiff did not reject the proposal; he did not even take note of it, as he was accustomed to do in important matters… Faced with differing opinions, which foreshadowed a conflict, Pius XII preferred to set aside the project, not unlike what his predecessor Pius XI had done.
The same Cardinals Ottaviani and Ruffini, who had suggested the idea of a council to Pius XII in 1948, stated that in his cell at the conclave, they were the first to suggest to the newly-elevted John XXIII that he convene the twenty-first universal council of the Church.
In an interview published by the weekly Epoca, Cardinal Ottaviani was asked, among other things: “When John XXIII announced the council what was your reaction?” Ottaviani replied: ‘He had spoken about it to me from the moment of his election. Or rather, to be more precise, it was I who visited him in his little room at the conclave on the eve of the election. Among other things I told him “Your Eminence, it is necessary to think about a council.” Cardinal Ruffini, who was present at the conversation, was of the same mind. Cardinal Roncalli adopted this idea and later had this to say: “I have thought of a council from the moment I became Pope.” It’s true, he welcomed our suggestion.”
