Remembering Capovilla
Cardinal Loris Francesco Capovilla, former secretary to Pope Saint John XXIII, died last week in Bergamo, aged 100.

The Archbishop Prelate of Loreto, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in February 2014, was the oldest Italian bishop and the fourth oldest in the world.

John XXIII first met Capovilla in Venice in 1950, then in 1953 appointed him to his team in the Venetian Patriarchate. Following his election in 1958, the Pope told Capovilla: “Between us, nothing changes.”

In a 1992 interview with The Tablet Capovilla remembered breaking to John XXIII that he had only days to live, The Pope calmly asked him to organise his last audience with the Secretary of State, and to arrange for his confessor to visit.

Finally, the Pope thanked Capovilla for his years of service. He told him: “We have worked. We have served. We have loved. We have not stopped to gather the stones which were thrown against us from one side or the other of the way, to throw them back.”