GIUSEPPE Koncalli, the youngest and longest surviving of Pope John XXIII's 13 brothers and sisters, died on November 17 at the age of 87. only eight days before the centenary anniversary of the birth of the Pope, on Wednesday.
Giuseppe Roncalli died in the tiny northern town of Sotto 11 Monte in which the Roncalli family. including Angelo, the future Pope. were brought up Giuseppe remained in the town 'where he worked on the soil until two weeks before he died.
Only a !plinth before Giuseppe had been embraced by the present Pope, John Paul II, at a general audience. Archbishop
Loris Capovilla of L oreto, former private secretary for Pope John XXIII, said a funeral Mass for him on November 19.
Like his parent. s before him' Giuseppe had a large family. All of his ten children. including a daughter who is :a nun in the USA. were at his bedside when he died. A widowe r for 30 years. he is also survived by 24 grandchildren.
The only current surviving brothers and sister s of Popes are Ludovico Montini, the brother of Pope Paul VI, and Eduardo Luciano and Nina Petri, brother and sister of Pop.: John Paul I, The present Pont: has no living brothers or sisters..