Pope John XXIII - 25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963) reigned as  Pope from 28 October 1958 to his death in 1963 and was canonized on 27 April 2014. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was the fourth of fourteen children born to a family of sharecroppers who lived in a village in Lombardy.[

He was ordained to the priesthood on 10 August 1904 and served in a number of posts, including papal nuncio in France and a delegate to Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. In a consistory on 12 January 1953 Pope Pius XII made Roncalli a cardinal as the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca in addition to naming him as the Patriarch of Venice.

Roncalli was elected Pope on 28 October 1958 at age 76 after 11 ballots. His selection was unexpected, and Roncalli himself had come to Rome with a return train ticket to Venice. He was the first pope to take the pontifical name of "John" upon election in more than 500 years.

STATUE OF ST. POPE JOHN XXIII

 It was in 2008, that the St. Bonaventure and St. William faith communities joined forces to become our present Parish. When we joined together, the Parish name was new, and appropriately, a picture of St. John XXIII was prominently displayed on our Altar. We’ve come a long way since that time. Our Parish has also continually evolved and molded together. I’m confident that our Parish is poised to continue to grow stronger. Now that we are twelve years together, our Trustees and Finance Council believed that it was time to move from a picture to a permanent Statue of our patronal Saint, St. John XXIII. 

To visit the sculptures website with progress images, click here.