Paul VI became the first reigning pope in over a century to leave Italy
In January 1964, Pope Paul VI flew to Jordan, the first time a sitting pontiff had left Italy in more than a hundred years. The former Giovanni Battista Montini went on to steer the Second Vatican Council to its close in 1965 and oversee some of the widest reforms in Church history.
Montini was born on 26 September 1897 in Concesio, near Brescia; his father was a lawyer, journalist and member of the Italian Parliament, and his mother came from rural nobility. Frequent illness interrupted his schooling. Ordained on 29 May 1920, he joined the Vatican's Secretariat of State at 25 in 1922 and never served as a parish priest. His only foreign posting, at the nunciature in Poland in 1923, left him critical of a nationalism that treats neighbouring peoples as enemies.
He rose through the papal civil service, and from 1937 served as substitute under Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli. When Pacelli became Pius XII in 1939, Montini, roughly his chief of staff, met him every morning until 1954; he and Domenico Tardini were regarded as the pope's most influential advisers. In 1954 he was sent to lead Milan, Italy's largest diocese, and John XXIII made him a cardinal in 1958.
Elected with little opposition on 21 June 1963, he reconvened the council, suspended after John's death, and then managed its implementation, balancing the competing hopes of different Catholic groups. He built closer ties with Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches, named Mary Mother of the Church, and pressed the rich nations of North America and Europe to make significant changes in favour of the poor. His 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae set out his opposition to birth control.
He died on 6 August 1978. Benedict XVI declared him venerable in 2012, Francis beatified him in 2014 after a recognised miracle, and he was canonised on 14 October 2018. His feast moved in 2019 from his birthday to 29 May, the anniversary of his ordination.
Source: Pope Paul VI
