Angelo Roncalli was pope for only five years, yet he won the hearts and minds of people the world over, including many non-Catholics with his warm style and commitment to bring the Catholic Church in line with the modern world. "We are not on the earth to guard a museum," he had once said about the Church, "but to tend a blooming garden full of life." Pope John XXIII is the story of a real Christian who became pope.

Roncalli introduced himself to the crowds in St. Peter's Square on October 28, 1958 with the words "I am called John." Already seventy-seven years old, this son of peasants was expected to stage a merely transitional papacy. Surprising many, he became the pope of transition by convening the Second Vatican Council in October of 1962. The Council lasted for five years and saw his death, but it opened wide the doors of the Church, doing away with much of the old pomp and practice, and leading it into the twenty-first century.