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Vatican newspaper pays tribute to Pope Marcellus II

CWN - September 22, 2011

L’Osservatore Romano has paid tribute to Pope Marcellus II, the Renaissance Pontiff in whose honor Giovanni de Palestrina composed his most famous polyphonic Mass. The Pope died after only 20 days in office.

“Among the first acts of the new Pontiff are mentioned his refusal to receive the usual tributes from his closest relatives, his renunciation of the solemn celebrations for his consecration, his choice to refrain from giving important offices to his relatives (in stark contrast with his predecessor, Julius III Del Monte), his exhortation to a more intense religious life and his announcement of stringent curial reforms which were to involve central organisms of the Church's government, from the Apostolic Dataria to the Signatura, from the Penitentiary to the Roman Rota,” Paolo Vian writes. “The reforms announced sufficed to nourish the hopes of the good and the fears of the wicked.”

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