| Pope 1963-1978, born Giovanni Battista Montini 1897. Presided over the close of Vatican II when it issued its most influential document, Gaudium et Spes. He presided over the early years of liberation theology, although he did not claim to be a liberation theologian. He urged caution and moderation in the attraction felt by many Christians to socialism: "Distinctions must be made to guide concrete choices between the various levels of expression of socialism: a generous aspiration and a seeking for a more just society, historical movements with a political organization and aim, and an ideology which claims to give a complete and self-sufficient picture of man." |
