Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, headed the Catholic Church from 1958 until his death in 1963. He was the first pope to use television to spread his message and was particularly exceptional because he used a simple language with the crowd. That made him the most popular of all time. He organized the second ecumenical council after fifty years. In 1962 he had a leading role in adverting a nuclear war in Cuba between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the same year he was person of the year on the cover of Time magazine; In 1963 he received the US Presidential medal of freedom; in September 2000 he was beatified and then canonized on April 27th 2014.