Pope John the 23rd Trivia Quiz

Answer: Angelo Roncalli

Angelo Roncalli was the fourth of thirteen children born to a sharecropper family in Lombardy. He had six brothers and six sisters of which three never lived beyond childhood - a rather typical ratio for a poor family of the time. At age 15, he took holy vows as a member of the Secular Franciscan Order and soon after began studying theology with the goal of becoming a priest.

The incorrect options are also all popes - Pacelli was his predecessor, Pius XII, while Montini and Luciani were his successors, Paul VI and John Paul I (the 33 Days' Pope), respectively.

Answer: Doctorate

Angelo Roncalli completed his theology studies in 1904, at age 22, with a doctorate. He never returned to academic studies after his ordination as a priest August 10, 1904 but worked as a lecturer in Bergamo for most of the next decade and as secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo until 1914.

During World War I, Roncalli served as chaplain and stretcher-bearer in the Italian Army.

Answer: Venice, 1953

Angelo Roncalli was for a long time not a residential or diocesan bishop. Immediately after his consecration, he was made archbishop of Aeropolis, which was a titular see, meaning there was no jurisdictional territory, just like the Mesembria bishopric he took over in 1934.

In all those years up to 1953, Roncalli worked as a diplomat in the service of the Pope, working in Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and France. It was only in 1953 that he finally became the residential ordinary of a territory by becoming the Patriarch of Venice (also called the Archdiocese of Venice) - one of the only four Patriarchates recognized by the Latin Rite of the Catholic church.

Answer: Cardinal Priest

Even though prestigious title of Patriarch of Venice had conferred on Roncalli honorary superiority over many bishops and archbishops in the Veneto region of northern Italy, he was elected from the rank of cardinal-priest (cardinalis presbyter), rather than the higher rank of cardinal-bishop (cardinalis episcopus).

Since the beginning of the 19th century, only Benedict XVI and Leo XIV have been elected as cardinal-bishops, the rest being cardinal-priests just like John XXIII.

One of the most likely other candidates in the 1958 conclave was Giovanni Montini, who was, at that time, not a cardinal at all but Archbishop of Milan. He would have been the first non-cardinal for almost 600 years to ascend to the papacy. John XXIII created him a cardinal just one month after the conclave, and Montini would go on to become John's successor, Paul VI.

Answer: There had been an important antipope using the name

John has been the most picked papal name in the Catholic church up to 2025 by a sizable margin: It was chosen 22 times, with the next most popular choices being Benedict and Gregory, each having had 16 bearers. The name John XXIII had been adopted by a Pisan antipope in the early 15th century, and ever since, no Pope had wanted either to assume that number or to skip it and use XXIV (which would have lent authenticity to the antipope).

Many Pope Johns prior to the 20th century indeed had very short reigns, but this was rather a reason for Roncalli to pick the name, as he wished to use a humble name, not associated with papal greatness and emphasize not himself but the apostolic succession. (He also wished to honor his father and his baptismal church, St. John Lateran in Rome).

There was, by the way, never a John XX. A misreading of historic records caused an apparent extra John to be added to the lists between XIV and XV in the 13th century, so John XXI chose to skip the 20, to "correct" the numbering. Even though it was later discovered he was wrong, the historically given numbers remained, so John XXIII was the 22nd, not the 23rd actual pope named John.

There is no name forbidden for popes by canon law, but there is a strong, long-standing tradition that no one choose Peter (the name of the first Pope) or Jesus as a papal name. Some prophetic theories said that a Pope Peter II would be the last ruler of the Catholic church, based on a fake 12th-century prophecy that actually was written in the late 16th century, but this was definitively proven wrong in 2025 when Pope Francis (he would have corresponded to the last entry in that document) was succeeded by Leo XIV.

Answer: 70 Members of the College of Cardinals

Just two months after his election, John XXIII called a consistory during which he created new cardinals, among them his eventual successor Giovanni Montini. This was the first time that the Sacred College exceeded seventy members for the since the 16th century - a number it has never returned to since. By the 21st century, there were over 200 cardinals, about half of whom were eligible to vote in the papal conclave, where only those not aged above 80 on the date a pope dies or resigns may take part.

The number of four patriarchs has been constant for many centuries and was not touched. The number of dioceses in Italy is much higher (theoretically, there are 224 seats available, but not all are always occupied), and there is no limit to the number of bishops or priests who may concelebrate a mass.

Answer: He reconciled with them, removing antisemitic language from mass.

Long before becoming Pope, John XXIII worked to save Jews from the Nazis and the extermination camps. At least several hundred, if not far more, Jews of the 1940s directly or indirectly owe their lives to his work. After becoming Pope, he continued to ameliorate the relationship between Jews and Christians, mostly exemplified in the elimination of the word "perfidis" (faithless) relating to them from an important Good Friday prayer in his 1962 Roman Missal as well as a similar clause from the baptismal words spoken to a formerly Jewish convert.

His actions also paved the way for his successor's "Nostra aetate" declaration, which further opened dialogue with believers in other Abrahamic religions.

Answer: True

The 1962 Roman Missal, like all of its predecessors since the 16th-century Council of Trent, was the last fully codified pre-conciliar edition of the Latin liturgical texts, preceding Vatican IIs endorsement of regulated vernacular extensions alongside the preservation of Latin, and the promulgation of Pope Paul VI's Mass of 1969 (with its first complete Missal in 1970) which permits - but does not require - the use of the vernacular for the entire Mass.

This liturgy - called the Extraordinary Form since 2007 - is still used by Catholics attached to prior tradition throughout the Western Church, though requiring the local ordinary's (ruling bishop's) approval for the diocese and special dispensation for priests ordained after July 16, 2021.

Answer: He called and opened it but did not live to see its conclusion.

As soon as he was elected, Pope John XXIII began the preparations for a council that would reform the Catholic Church for the late 20th century and beyond. Preparatory commissions, involving almost a thousand bishops, began meeting in 1959, and the ecumenical council itself began in 1962.

One of its results - and perhaps the most impactful - was to codify a significant change in liturgy, which had gradually been prepared by John's predecessors, but became official in the "Sacrosanctum Concilium", the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. It prescribed that the attending faithful would take a more active role in the celebration by chanting, singing and speaking prescribed replies, a role that was previously taken by the choir and concelebrants. It also made mention encouraging - but not prescribing - the use of the local language in readings and prayers, thus initiating a process that would later lead to the Mass of Paul VI. The constitution received near-unanimous approval by the voting members of the council.

Other results of the Second Vatican Council include the restoration of the status of Eastern Catholic Churches, ecumenical progress with the Orthodox churches, a more influential and less subservient role of local bishops and priests, and renewed teachings on divine revelation, human dignity, religious freedom, and engagement with the modern world - as manifested in its 16 documents.

Answer: Pope John Paul II

John XXIII's elevation to sainthood was unusual in that Pope Francis waived the requirement for the usually mandatory second miracle attributed to the prospective saint, because of his extraordinarily virtuous life and importance for the Church. He was canonized on April 27, 2014, alongside Pope John Paul II, by Pope Francis, with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as a concelebrant. His feast day is October 11, the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Acutis and Frassati were two 20th and 21st century saints who died very young. Their canonization was originally intended for April 2025, but Pope Francis died just a few days prior to the scheduled Mass, so they became the first canonizations of Pope Leo XIV, in September 2025.

The other three mentioned saints were all canonized by John XXIII himself.