From the very beginning man has stuggled for truth through some form of religion. Unfortunately, one accepted creed traveled through time unacceptable to the basic findings of truth.
For nearly two thousand years mankind's search for truth lay hindered by a religion which wasn't a religion in any true sense at all, but merely personal entertainment without much meaning. Such a religion, or ritual, employed thoughts by man to appease himself. Not God; nor God's Truth!
The Roman Catholic Church had long ago accepted man's thoughts over God's; creating their own form of worship. This irony was often a deceptive, if not clearly a dishonest route to theocentric ethics; needed in a successful search for God's Truth.
Unhappily, this conventional religion had, through years of ecclesiastic abuse, lost her "religious mind," leaving believers to grope alone in darkness for any sign of light.
Etymologically, "religious mind" signified "A state of being bound to that which is Noble, to that which is Great... That one had to live a diligent, scrupulous, and honest existence... That God is the Truth, the Light, the Way." But all that changed, although gradually at first, as this religion replaced God's laws with man's.
Clerics and prelates waved God aside as they interpreted His meaning of life to benefit themselves in their quest for worldly riches; for absolute power.
The result? Integrity and ethics were lost through following misdirected tenets created by man, if falsely attributed to God. These dogmas have been instrumental in clouding God's Truth, in clouding our human compassion, in putting an end to organized "religious mind."
The thousand years which followed Christ's crucifiction brought Christianity to its horrific zenith. By 1033 A.D., we had forgotten almost entirely why we were called Christians. Pope Benedict IX was waging war against heretics, loving his mistresses, and writing his own laws as Supreme Head of the Christian World; while his priestly minions promenaded his countryside chanting praises for his Holiness.
In 1032, Count Theophylactus of Tusculum, historically known as the boy-Pope Benedict IX, was elevated to papal dignity bought by his father Count Alberic III.
The 20-year-old ascended Peter's chair vacated by the death of his uncle, Pope John XIX, and became ruler of the Roman Catholic Church, which then ruled the Christian world.
From that year until his forced abdication in 1048 plunder, murder, oppression, and immoral lust directed his reign. A direction that would lead to the break up of the Roman Catholic Church and split all organized Christian religions into a diffused, meaningless jumble, still searching ineffectually for a theocentric truth. A search that would continue through 114 future pontiffs, and numerous sectoral religious leaders, slowing to a measure with Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) who attempted to bring Catholics, all non-Catholics, and Jews together as one family, proclaiming that it was "every person's right to worship God in accordance with the dictates of his or her own conscience and to profess his or her religion both in private and public." He further decreed human beings to "have rights from God that no one can take from them."
This was in early spring 1963. Already suffering Curia [administrative body of the Roman Catholic Church] criticism for winning the Soviet's Balsan Peace Prize in March, in which they labeled him a crypto-communist, his big, loving heart nearly broke when his Council clashed over his Pacem in Terris, calling for a unity of all religions under one God.
Bending under the weight of this unjust critique of his faith, he took to his bed with a stomach ailment on May 23rd. His doctors, Valdoni and Mazzoni, diagnosed internal hemorrhaging caused by a lesion in his stomach lining. Then peritonitis set in, and he was given the last rites.
On May 28th, he sustained a heart attack and was given only hours to live. It was also learned the Pope had endured an inoperable malignant stomach growth (cancer) for the past year without complaint.
Special prayers filled the air in every continent.
Surprisingly, he rallied.
Sitting up and drinking black coffee, he joked with his doctors and secretary.
The world was beginning to wonder.
But, on May 31st, the Vatican broke the news. For Pope John XXIII, death within a short time was imminent.
On Saturday and Sunday, he slipped in and out of a coma. Each time he regained consciousness, he smiled a cherubic smile. At one point quipping to one of his doctors: "Don't worry. My bags are packed and I am ready."
On Monday evening, June 3, 1963, around 7:30 P.M. he murmured a favorite prayer, which ended with: "...that they may all be one." At 7:49 P.M. he closed his eyes and went to God.
Teleprinters, telephones, and televisions spread the sad news around the waiting world.
Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, Buddhists, Moslems, believers and atheists wept in unison for the man who had made goodness and holiness attractive to everyone.
Before Angelo Roncalli became John XXIII, the Roman Catholic Church condemned diverse religions with a vengence. Jews, especially, were denounced for their actions against God; in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Pope John XXIII was the first pope ever verbally attacked by his own church agencies when he allowed for "audiences without prejudice." The Church, however, backstepped when they discovered that, unlike his predecessors, this pope cared little for what anyone thought but God. And God, he believed, is a forgiving God. As mankind should be a universally forgiving race.
Unfortunately, John's pontificate lasted only five years. Not enough time to reverse wholly almost two thousand years of ecclesiastical damage.
Who would succeed John? And would he continue to apply humanism to the Roman Catholic Church? or would he revert and stay with traditional canon law; decrying whatever altruistic edicts his predecessor bequeathed.
Both Vatican City and the world held its breath.