Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI Pope Saint Paul VI (; ; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (); 26 September 1897 – 6 August 1978) served as pope from 21 June 1963 to his death in 1978. Succeeding John XXIII, he continued the Second Vatican Council which he closed in 1965, implementing its numerous reforms, and fostered improved ecumenical relations with Eastern Orthodox and Protestants, which resulted in many historic meetings and agreements. Montini served in the Holy See's Secretariat of State from 1922 to 1954. While in the Secretariat of State, Montini and Domenico Tardini were considered as the closest
Pope John Paul II War II, the first pope to do so. In 1998, he issued "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah", which outlined his thinking on the Holocaust. He became the first pope known to have made an official papal visit to a synagogue, when he visited the Great Synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986. On 30 December 1993, John Paul II established formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel, acknowledging its centrality in Jewish life and faith. On 7 April 1994, he hosted the "Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust". It was the first-ever Vatican