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A cheerful conversationalist, who couldn't hide his peasant's roots even after fifty years as a clerical diplomat and bishop, Angelo Roncalli loved to make impromptu speeches, where he got carried away and held forth endlessly. At official receptions he told jokes and served up delicious anecdotes. He was no monarch, but a grandpa. He had no starry-eyed majesty, but lots of earthiness and familiar intimacy. The writier Marie Luise Kaschnitz was moved to call him a 'human being disguised as pope.' For centuries the Church has appeared more like agreat block of stone, immovable, in repose, encapsulated in a mixture of complacency and fear. Pope Roncalli had a completely different and inviting approach to life. 'The world is moving,' he once noted. 'We have to find the right access to it, with a youthful and confident heart, and not waste time on confrontation.'
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