"Only the Pope"

All Rome was aware last week that the church has not only a new Pope but a new kind of Pope. Vatican aides were used to energy under Pius XII, but Pope John's decisiveness and, above all, his warmth took them by surprise.

Two major moves are reportedly in the making: 1) a convocation of all Far Eastern bishops, probably in Manila, to which the Pope will send two trusted cardinals, Gregory Peter Agagianian and Marcello Mimmi; 2) a consistory at which John will confer the red hat on many non-Italians, will probably give Mexico and the Philippines their first cardinals, is almost certain to appoint cardinals in Boston and Chicago, may increase the size of the Sacred College.

Carried by Your Father. On the human day-to-day level John XXIII also found plenty of opportunity to make his presence known. Vatican employees, including elevator men and gardeners, were getting over their initial shock at being greeted informally by the Holy Father (Pope Pius XII had the gardens cleared before he entered them). Everyone was growing accustomed to the surprising sound of papal laughter ("Pius XII had a very gentle sense of humor," said one of the late Pope's closest advisers. "For 20 years I never saw him laugh"). John XXIII is not averse to starting laughter at his own expense. While speaking to a delegation of some 10,000 Venetians who came to Rome to see him crowned, he switched to Venetian dialect, broke into their appreciative applause with the words: "If you start that kind of thing, this audience will never finish. So please don't interrupt me--I mean us !"

Then he went on to give an extemporaneous homily, recalling how as a little boy with a sore foot he was carried by his father to a religious festival. "Today, riding in the sedia gestatoria, I remembered this. Today, too, I would have been unable to walk, for my knees were weak and my eyes were bewildered and overwhelmed by the events of the last few days . . . It is up to you to draw the conclusion: 'When necessary, have yourself carried by your Father, the Lord.' "

In the Wild Woods. In a formal homily before his coronation, John said: "In these days of great mystery and trepidation . . . we strain to hear the voices of the earth . . ." Newsmen soon found that the Pope's ear was surprisingly well attuned to these voices. In a precedent-breaking press conference in which he talked off-the-cuff in French, John spoke frankly of himself as "moi-meme," apologized for not using the traditional papal "we" with "I'm not used to it yet." He went on to say that in the excitement of the past week "it has been hard to get to sleep, so I've been reading the newspapers, not out of vanity but simply out of curiosity. I noted the vigor with which you have pursued the secrets of the conclave, but I saw scarcely two accounts that were correct. Your strength was formidable, but the silence [of the conclave] has been even stronger.

"In the wild woods of the news, everyone would like the world shaped to fit his judgments . . . so I have read about learned Popes, political Popes and diplomatic Popes; but the Pope really is only the Pope--the good shepherd defending truth and goodness."

Accustomed to receiving full and formal texts of papal statements (which Pius XII painstakingly composed in advance), journalists had a hard time keeping up with John as he rattled on without notes, clapping his hands ebulliently to emphasize his points, almost bouncing in the commodious papal throne and glancing at the richly robed attendants of the papal antechamber to see if they laughed at his sallies. At the end of the conference, the Pope said cheerfully: "Now I'll give you a little blessing, if you want it--you may extend it to all those whom you keep in your heart."

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