Nikita Roncalli - Hutton Gibson

win over. The contacts with the Christian communities
scattered all over the Bulgarian territory are difficult to
establish. Finally, in 1927, at the end of a most careful and
patient diplomatic work, he is able to meet the Metropolitan
of the Armenians, Stepanosse Hovegnimian.
In Roncalli’s life this meeting can be defined as the first
step on the road of that ecumenism that will be the pivotal
point upon which will beat, without shifting a single
degree, the magnetic hand of the policy of the man who
revolutionized the contemporary world, in only five years
of pontificate.
Monsignor Roncalli’s residence in Bulgaria marks the
first success of his portentous personality. First and
foremost he is acting on his own. He is free to undertake,
that is, within the boundaries of his diplomatic action, all
those decisions that he deems material to the fulfillment of
his mandate. He does not respond, immediately, to anyone,
of his initiatives. In addition, he is working in a country
that, although amongst the most hospitable yet in the
civilized world – the only country that allocated in the state
budget a significant sum for the Armenian and Russian
refugees –, due to its host of religions and ethnic groups,
would constitute a great problem for a diplomat of the Holy
See who had proceeded along the lines of a traditional
diplomatic approach. Thus an ideal terrain to a Roncalli
who contrives a diplomacy of his own, made of informal,
direct contacts, and concrete, expeditious human
relationships.