ABSTRACT
At first Pope Paul VI seemed to be groaning inwardly with the desire to manifest his heart as Pope John manifested his. He now seems reconciled to the fact that he cannot always do as John did. When Pope John announced the convening of an Ecumenical Council, Cardinal Montini was the first major prelate to come to the support of the idea. The village in which John-Baptist Montini was born, on September 26, 1897, lies at the foot of the Italian Alps in northern Italy. The mountains of his birthplace, the mountains echoed in his name, are useful symbols of his firmness and his intelligence. As a young priest in Rome, John-Baptist Montini worked especially with young men at the university. In the early 1950's, Montini helped Pius XII draft new legislation, never enacted, for reforming the Curia.
