I’ve met in person three people who were canonized. The first one was St George Preca, the Maltese saint whom I heard speak in my hometown when I was 8 or 9 years old in 1960. The second one is St Teresa of Calcutta when she came to speak to the priests on Long Island, New York in 1985. And the third one is Pope St Paul VI, whom I met in 1966 when in August I was serving Masses at the Vatican with a group of 25 altar servers. During an audience we had, a photographer took my picture kissing his ring as the Maltese Archbishop Michael Gonzi was also attending the audience. Paul VI was born Giovanni Battista Montini in 1897 in Brescia, and after becoming a priest he served at various administrative positions, especially as secretary of Pope Pius XII. In 1954, he was made Archbishop of Milan, the largest diocese in the world, with 1000 parishes, 2,500 priests and 3 million people. He succeeded Pope John XXIII in 1963 as Pope and finished the Second Vatican Council in 1965. He served the church for 15 years and died in 1978. He was canonized with Archbishop Oscar Romero on October 14, 2018. Today we celebrate the liturgical feast of Pope St Paul VI, May 29 being the date in 1920 when he as ordained a priest.
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