The book of Dr. Kiril Kartalov Monsignor Roncalli and His Apostolic Mission to Bulgaria has been presented into one of the most prestigious halls of Rome’s Radio Vaticana. The author is a correspondent of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences – an honor that few in the world have received. The book has been published in Italian and a list of unpublished till now documentary sources, kept in the secret archives of the Vatican enrich it. Dr. Kartalov reminds in an interview for RB who Monsignor Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was.

“Monsignor Roncalli first arrived in Bulgaria on 25 April 1925 as an apostolic visitor and that was the start of his diplomatic career,” Mr. Kartalov says. “He remained here for 10 years and then spent the next 10 in Istanbul, then a few years in Paris. He became a Patriarch of Venice and as of 1958 he was the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church under the name John XXIII. He was called the good Pope due to his personal humanity, apostolic work and the direct contact with people. The entire life of Pope John XXIII was marked by gentleness and goodness. He summoned the Second Vatican Council that reformed the entire vision of the church towards the world then, which was considered the greatest gesture to Catholicism.”

Roncalli was called the Bulgarian Pope not only because of his love for our country, but mostly because his stay here marked the beginning of his diplomatic career. Monsignor Roncalli played a huge role during the big 1928 earthquake in the town of Chirpan.

“He created the dining rooms of the Pope, as people called them back then,” Dr. Kartalov goes on to say. “He fed all those in need he could gather. Roncalli made no difference between Catholic and Orthodox people. I came upon many reports from his official diplomatic correspondence to Rome, where the man asks then-Pope Pius XI to cooperate for reductions of the unbearable reparations, which Bulgaria had to pay after WWI.”

Monsignor Rocalli worked actively for the overcoming of the dogmatic obstacles before the wedding of the Italian Catholic Princess Giovanna and the Orthodox Tsar Boris III. The diplomatic shuttles gave their result and on 25 October 1930 Boris and Giovanna got married in Assisi’s church. Dr. Kartalov has come upon a letter, proving the negative attitude of the Vatican towards the last Bulgarian tsar.

“Boris and Giovanna signed a letter to Pope Pius XI, promising to have a Catholic wedding and their children would be baptized in Catholicism. It didn’t happen. Boris III protected his statehood interests and his own dignity before the Pope. The second wedding at the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral shouldn’t have happened. Marie Louise of Bulgaria and Simeon should have been baptized in Catholicism, but that never happened either. Roncalli begged for the keeping of the promises many times and was really disappointed, though he was already in Istanbul.”

Pope John XXIII played a huge role for the ceasing of the Caribbean Crisis in 1962 with his cooperation for the dialogue between the American President Kennedy and the Russian leader Khrushchev. The Pope was awarded with the Balzan Prize for peace afterwards. The encyclic Pacem in Terris /Peace on Earth/ of Pope John XXIII was born then, which still has its great significance. “I dare to say that the document is what it is due to his decade, spent in Bulgaria,” Dr. Kartalov is convinced, citing a part of his last sermon in Bulgaria on 31 December 1934: “If someone in Bulgaria passes by my house in the night or in times of difficulties, he or she will always find a candle burning on my window. Please, knock! Nobody will ask whether you are a Catholic or an Orthodox Christian – it is enough to be a Bulgarian…” When Pope John XXIII passed away on 3 June 1963 his will was honored: “Light a candle on my window for Bulgaria”. The Vatican will canonize the Bulgarian Pope John XXIII on 27 April 2014 and the ceremony will be performed by Pope Francis.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev