Paul VI (pope)
1897 – 1978 Italian Pope (1963-1978)
Pope who closed Vatican II and reaffirmed the ban on artificial birth control.
- Religion
- Catholic; Bishop of Rome
- Affiliations
- The papacy
Paul VI carried the Second Vatican Council to its close in 1965 and put its reforms into practice, including the new Mass in local languages. He was the first pope in more than a century to travel widely, visiting the Holy Land, the Americas, and Asia, and he addressed the United Nations, crying, No more war, war never again. His 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae reaffirmed the Church's ban on artificial contraception and stirred deep controversy among Catholics.