ABSTRACT
Pope john xxiii lived out in his life what the Second Vatican Council is trying to condense into words. Pope John was the focal point of the Roman Catholic Church, and through him, as through a prism, God's pursuit of man touched and burnt millions of hearts around the world. The presence of Pope John was felt among the Council Fathers throughout the second session. Pope John was present to the Council Fathers not only in Cardinal Suenens' speech. He was also present in the memories and hearts and inspirations of many of the Council Fathers and many of the periti who accompanied them. Pope John's slow, lingering death burnt his memory into the minds of nearly all men now living. History will surely judge that he opened a new era for the Church and that he laid the foundations for the transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century.
