Paul VI is rightly presented as the Pope of dialogue, of modernity, of openness and renewal of the Church. All this is, however, a reflection of his true inner structure: he was, above all, a man of the Church, who lived a profound Christocentric spirituality and was totally committed to the task of guiding the people of God through the new times that were dawning in the second decade of the 20th century.

Paul VI made the Church present in areas hitherto distant from her. He was the first Pope to make international trips, he visited the United Nations Organization on the 20th anniversary of its foundation, he traveled to the Holy Land to meet with the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras I .... Like these, he made a multitude of gestures that showed a - in more than one sense - new relationship between the Church and the world. Inwardly, he resolutely assumed the challenge to promote the authentic renewal of the Church begun by Vatican II. The liturgical reform, synodality, ecumenical dialogue, among others, received a decisive impulse from his action.

When he was elected as successor to John XXIII in 1963, Paul VI had a B wealth of prestige and recognition from opinion leaders inside and outside the Church. But Pope Montini did not feel controlled by his public image. Although, by character and training, he had a deep perception of the multitude of nuances that modulate people and events - and that could lead him to prolonged deliberation - when he saw what his duty was, he was not afraid to act even though he knew that in doing so he was squandering his prestige as a modern man open to the world. Two examples: during the work of the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI intervened directly and decisively when he considered it his responsibility; and in 1968, he published the encyclical Humanae vitae, knowing that his teaching would be misunderstood and attacked not only by secularists but also by ecclesiastics. Fifty years after these events, it is not difficult to recognize not only the courage but also the prophetic character of these interventions.

Pope Montini's deep piety, his sense of the times in which he lived and his commitment to fidelity to his mission statement, whatever the cost, marked the life of the future saint.