Toward 1950

Amid the bustle of his usual routine last week, Pope Pius XI sang a low mass of thanksgiving in celebration of his 78th birthday. In this the 56th year of his priesthood, the 16th of his episcopate and the 13th of his pontificate, the Pope told his official family: ''We do not know why people worry about our health. We have just passed through a very laborious Holy Year, but we feel just as well today as when we began it. We expect to live to celebrate not alone our own jubilee after 25 years reign, but also we hope to open the Holy Door for the next Holy Year in 1950."

Pope Pius XI will then be 93, will have reigned the longest of any of the 261 Popes except Pius IX.

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