Pope to St. Peter's

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It is June 1963. Pope John XXIII is dead. The pope who opened the windows of the church to the world to air out the old building. Aggiornamento: to bring up to date, to modernize. We have only just got television. Borrowed. We all watched the impressive white funeral of Queen Wilhelmina in December 1962 at the neighbors, but in November 1963 President Kennedy is murdered in our own living room and the television has become indispensable. Modernization. The television is on in the corner of the room and we watch with half an eye. Traditional images. The image of modernization carried to the grave. Pope John XXIII is carried in full regalia on a public bier into St. Peter's in public. We don't really know what to think of this as sober Calvinists. But my three-year-old brother Johan jumps up when he recognizes the man on the bier and enthusiastically calls out: "Sinterklaas!!!"