Pope John XXIII celebrated his Seth birthday on Saturday by leaving the Vatican for the 100th time since his accession and celebrating Mass in the Pontifical College for the Propagation of the Faith, where he met seminarians of 57 countries, most of them Africans and Asian+.
Apart from this, the Holy Father treated his birthday as a normal working day. (The official birthday celebrations were held on November 4). In the afternoon he received 900 pilgrims from Vienna.
Pope John told the seminarians that they were representatives of " the nations that form the great human family ", 'and he said he wanted to greet personally all the students, especially as they were " the hope of the Universal Church ".
The Holy Father was welcomed at the college by Cardinal Agagianian, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide (with whom he is seen in this picture), Archbishop Sigismondi, the congregation's secretary, and Mgr. Cenci, rector of the college.
As the Pope's car left the college, some of the students crowded round it shouting "Happy Birthday", to which Pope John replied: " Now it's your turn to try and reach 80."