Nikita Roncalli - Hutton Gibson

of memory, and, who knows? of history.
CHAPTER I
“The only real struggle in History is that either for or
against the Church of Christ.” St. John Bosco
“Never, perhaps, did a Pope render the spirit in a human
concept more unanimous…” With these words,
“L’Osservatore Romano” of Monday-Tuesday, June 3-4,
1963, opened, on the front page of a special bereavement
edition, with the news of the death of John XXIII, that
occurred on Monday June 3, at 19:49 hours.
That statement by the Vatican newspaper had stricken
me, and had caused me to reflect as, in the late morning of
Tuesday, June 4, I was walking up to the papal apartment,
to pay homage, as a dignitary of the Pontifical Court, to the
body of the deceased Pope. Due to my responsibilities
(Chamberlain of the Sword and the Cape of His Holiness.)
and my long-standing position as a journalist for
“L’Osservatore Romano”, I had lived, day in and day out,
behind the scenes, throughout the pontificate of Angelo
Giuseppe Roncalli. A startling, amazing pontificate, and
today we may add, fatal, for the survival of the Church and
the fate of all of mankind. I quickly began to have an
inkling of what a formidable reforming and progressive