Once a stocky mountain-climber named Achille Ambrogio Damiano Ratti, Pope Pius XI is at 77 in good health, except for a slight diabetic condition. In February he celebrated the 13th anniversary of his accession to the Chair of St. Peter. He has thus outreigned his two immediate predecessors, Benedict XV and Pius X, who respectively died after eight and eleven years in the Papacy. But Pius XI must marshal his health for many more years to equal the longevity of two other Popes of the century past, Leo XIII who lived 93 years,...
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