La sollecitudine ecclesiale di Monsignor Roncalli in Bulgaria (1925–1934). Studio storico-diplomatico alla luce delle nuove fonti archivistiche by Kiril Plamen Kartaloff (review)

Abstract

La sollecitudine ecciesiale di Monsignor Roncalli in Bulgaria (1925-1934). Studio storico-diplomatico alla luce delle nuove fonti archivistiche. By Kiril Plamen Kartaloff. [Pontificio Comitato di Scienze Storiche: Atti e Documenti 36.] (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 2014. Pp. 330. euro26,00. ISBN 978-88209-9214-9.)On March 28,1959, in his first Easter message to the world, Pope John XXIII looked back with some nostalgia over the events of his life had led to the papal office. He knew his ministry embraced all the peoples of the earth. Nevertheless, he confessed he felt a particularly warm tenderness for Bulgaria where he had spent the vigorous of his life, 1925 to 1934. He recalled with great affection that fine, hard-working, honest, and sincere people, and their beautiful capital, Sofia.1In this new book Kiril Plamen Kartaloff, a Bulgarian historian of Vatican diplomacy and correspondent of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, examines the ten years Angelo Roncalli spent as the papal representative in Orthodox Bulgaria, first as apostolic visitator (1925-31) and then as apostolic delegate (1931-34). Drawing on a wealth of documentary evidence only recently made available by the Vatican Secret Archives and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Kartaloff paints a very detailed picture of the complex problems Roncalli faced during his years in this Balkan kingdom.As the first papal representative in Bulgaria, Roncalli's initial mission was to oversee the reorganization of the Catholic Church there and to provide for the appointment of a bishop for the small Catholic community of the Byzantine rite. He would also help to establish the first Catholic seminary in the country and, when the time came, to find a suitable building to house the offices of the apostolic delegate.But the most difficult issues concerned the religiously diverse royal family. King Boris III (1894-1943) was baptized Catholic but became Orthodox upon accession to the throne because the Bulgarian constitution required it. He eventually was able to marry Princess Giovanna of Italy (1907-2000) at the basilica in Assisi with the permission of Pope Pius XI, on the conditions they would not remarry in an Orthodox ceremony and any children would be baptized and raised in the Catholic faith. But when the couple returned to Sofia, they attended1. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 51 (1959), 244-45; The Pope Speaks, 5 (1959), 266. …