September 26 marks the day of St. Pope Paul VI. This Pope had indelible prints in the history of the Church. His legacy will always be remembered as he has been exuding holiness, purity, and achievements serving humanity as a whole until our present time.
Pope Paul is always remembered for his great interest in ecumenism and in trying to heal the division between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches. In 1964, he made history during his historic trip to the Holy Land when he met with Patriarch Athenagoras I.
Following his trip to Jerusalem in 1964, the Pope recognized the "Holy Land as becoming a museum for Christianity''. In an attempt to reclaim a presence there for Christianity, he founded Bethlehem University and asked the Christian Brothers to staff it. He, furthermore, asked President of the University of Notre Dame Father Theodore Hesburgh to start the Ecumenical Institute of Tantur in Jerusalem, which is still operated by Notre Dame.
Pope Paul VI was the first Pope to travel in an airplane and was called the “Pilgrim Pope” and the “Pope of Peace.” He is remembered for his immortal words at the United Nations in 1965 during the Vietnam War when he said, “War no more, never again”. This has been the Church’s prayer ever since.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Among his outstanding achievements was the translation of the Catholic liturgy from Latin into vernacular languages, a step that opened the door to ecumenical dialogue with people of other faiths.
Although he will be most frequently remembered for his 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae” banning artificial contraception, his 1967 encyclical “On the Progress of Peoples” and his 1975 apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi” have laid the foundation for papal teaching by all of his successors until the present day.
Pope Paul VI can be remembered as the “architect of evangelization,” calling the Church not only to teach but to witness faith in Lord Jesus Christ.
POPE PAUL VI'S CANONIZATION ON OCTOBER 14, 2014
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved two miracles needed for the canonization of Blessed Pope Paul VI. The second miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI concerned the healing of an unborn in the 5th month of pregnancy. The mother, from Verona in Italy, had an illness that risked her own life and the life of her unborn and was advised to have an abortion. A few days after the beatification of Paul VI by Pope Francis in October 2014, the mother prayed to the Blessed Paul VI at a shrine in Lombardy and the baby girl was later born in good health.
The first miracle involving Pope Paul VI took place in California in the 1990s. It also concerned an unborn which was found to have a serious health problem that could mean brain damage. Doctors advised that it be aborted, but the mother entrusted her pregnancy to Paul VI. The child was born healthy.
On this day, as the world remembers the legacies of Pope Paul VI, it is time to remember of the most impressive prayers in which he addresses Blessed Mary, Mother of the Church:
O Mary,
look upon all mankind,
this modern world in which
the Divine Will calls us to live and work.
It is a world that has turned its back
on the light of Christ;
then it fears and bemoans the frightening shadows
that its actions have created on all sides.
May your most human voice,
O most beautiful of virgins,
O most worthy of mothers,
O blessed among women,
invited the world to turn its eyes
toward the life that is the light of man,
toward you who are the precursor-lamp of Christ,
Who is the sole and the highest Light of the world.
Implore for the world
the true understanding of its own existence;
implore for the world
the joy of living as the creation of God
and hence the desire and the capacity
to converse, by prayer, with its Maker,
whose mysterious and blesses image
it reflects within itself.
