Vatican City, Nov 17, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Last week Albino Luciani, better known by his papal name, John Paul I, took the next step on the path to sainthood. Yet apart from the fame garnered by various theories that sprouted due to the enigmatic nature of his death, for many little is known of his saintly life and brief pontificate.
Born Oct. 17, 1912, in Italy’s northern Veneto region, Albino Luciani, known also as “the smiling Pope,” was elected Bishop of Rome Aug. 26, 1978. He made history when he became the first Pope to take a double name, after his two immediate predecessors, St. John XXIII and Bl. Paul VI.
He sent shock waves around the world when he died unexpectedly just 33 days later, making his one of the shortest pontificates in the history of the Church.
In addition to the novelty of his name and the surprise of his death, Luciani was also the first Pope born in the 20th century, and is also the most recent Italian-born Bishop of Rome.
Yet behind all the novelty of the month before his death and mystery of those that ensued, John Paul I has been hailed as a man of heroic humility and extraordinary simplicity, with a firm commitment to carrying forward the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and a knack for explaining complicated Church concepts in a way everyone can understand.
Life and background
Coming from a northern region in Italy that borders Austria, Luciani grew up with people from all cultures and backgrounds passing through. The area saw high levels of immigration and strong activity on the part of Catholic movements.
The priests around whom Luciani grew up had a keen social awareness and involvement with the faithful.
While all the basic needs of his family were met, Luciani grew up in relative poverty, with his father gone most of the time for work. However, according to Stefania Falasca, vice-postulator of his cause for canonization, this background gave the future Pope “a huge cultural suitcase” that he was able to bring with him in his various endevours.
Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Belluno e Feltre July 7, 1935, at the age of 22, Luciani was rector of the diocese’s seminary for 10 years. He taught various courses throughout his tenure, including dogmatic and moral theology, canon law, and sacred art.
In 1941 he received a dispensation from Ven. Pius XII to continue teaching while pursuing his doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
He was named Bishop of Vittorio Veneto by St. John XXIII in 1958.
In 1969 he was named Patriarch of Venice by Bl. Paul VI. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973, and was elected Bishop of Rome five years later.
Literature also played a key role in Luciani’s formation. According to Falasca, he had a library full of books in different languages and a special fondness for Anglo-American literature.
Though he knew English, French, German and Russian, his favorite authors were from the Anglo world, and included authors such as G.K. Chesterton, Willa Cather, and Mark Twain.
As cardinal, he wrote his own book called “Illustrissimi,” which is a series of letters penned to a variety of historical and fictional persons, including Jesus, King David, Figaro the Barber, Austrian Empress Maria Theresa Habsburg, Pinocchio, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Christopher Marlowe.
Luciani, Falasca said, was considered by Paul VI to be “one of the most advanced theologians” of the time, and was held in high esteem because he not just knew theology, but also knew how to explain it.
The clarity he had was “highly considered right away among the Italian bishops,” she said. “He was considered the brightest pen because of this ‘cultural suitcase,’ which knew how to synthesize in a very delicate writing, but clear and full of references.”
Luciani, she said, had “an ease of language” in his writing, which was coupled with “a solid theological preparation,” making him both credible and accessible.
Pontificate – ‘an Apostle of the Council’
John Paul I above all else was “a son of the Council,” Falasca said. Luciani “translated and communicated the directives in a natural and simple way … So he was an apostle of the Council in this sense.”
“He explained it, he put it into practice, he put the directives into action in a crystalline way.” It was this desire to carry the Council forward that formed the basis for his priorities during his 33 days in office.
Among these priorities was a “renewed sense of mission” for the Church, Falasca said, explaining that for Luciani, to accomplish this mission it was important “to go back to the sources of the Gospel.”
“This, you can say, was the meaning of the Council for Luciani.” And for him, going to the sources also meant “communicating the Gospel in simplicity and conforming his ministry” to it.
In addition to mission, John Paul I also placed a special emphasis on spiritual poverty in the Church and the search for peace and ecumenism.
Ecumenism and dialogue in particular are topics Luciani felt were “a duty that is part of being a Christian.”
Collegiality also was another key topic for Luciani, and it was the subject of his only written intervention during the Council, which he contributed in 1963.
Luciani also placed a strong emphasis on mercy, Falasca said, explaining that in many ways he was “was the Pope of mercy ‘par excellence,’” and was known for his warm and friendly demeanor.
These priorities can be clearly seen in the four general audiences John Paul I gave during his pontificate, with the subjects being poverty, faith, hope, and charity.
And the way he spoke about these and other topics, with “the simplicity of his approach (and) of his language,” left “an indelible memory in the People of God,” Falasca said.
John Paul I, she said, moved people with his naturalness and his ordinary way of speaking to the faithful.
Luciani had put this quality into writing long before his pontificate when in 1949, he published his first book, titled “Catechesis in Crumbs,” which focused on how to teach the essential truths of the faith in a simple and direct way, understandable to everyone.
Death
When John Paul I died 33 days after his election, his sudden and unexpected death led to various conspiracy theories that Luciani had been murdered.
However, in a book titled “John Paul I: The Chronicle of a Death” and published Nov. 7 to coincide with the announcement that Luciani’s sainthood cause was moving forward, Falasca dispels the theories by outlining the evidence gathered on John Paul I’s death while researching for his cause.
In the book, she recounts how the evening before his death Luciani suffered a severe pain in his chest for about five minutes, a symptom of a heart problem, which occurred while he was praying Vespers with his Irish secretary, Msgr. John Magee, before dinner.
The Pope rejected the suggestion to call for a doctor when the pain subsided, and his doctor, Renato Buzzonetti, was only informed of the episode after his death.
Heroic Virtue
Luciani’s prime virtue was humility, which is “the base without which you can’t go toward God.” Humility, Falasca said, “was so embedded in him, that he understood it as the only way to reach Christ.”
Luciani’s connection with the Lord was also evident in the way that he spoke about God, she said, explaining that he was able to make the love of God close to people, and felt by them.
Falasca said she believes he is an ideal model of the priesthood. To this end, she recalled how during her time working on Luciani’s cause, many young priests came to her saying they felt the call of their vocation when they saw his election on TV.
Another sign of his sanctity was the “spontaneous reputation” that grew over time, and is a “distinctive sign” in determining the heroic virtue of a person.
“The reputation for holiness is the condition ‘sine quo non’ (without which it could not be) to open a cause of canonization; there must be a reputation,” she said, and “Luciani enjoys much of it, and he enjoys it not in an artificial way.”
Many people pray to him and have continued to travel to his birth town over the past 40 years, she said, because people are attracted “by his charm.”
“He won over many with his stand in the face of contemporaneity, his closeness to the people of his time with that simplicity and with that familiarity of communication.”
Luciani opened “a new season in being and in the exercise of the Petrine ministry…with his charm, which knew how to conjugate in perfect synthesis, in my view, what was old and what was new.”
He also lived an extraordinary sense of poverty of spirit as seen in the Beatitudes, and had an “extreme fidelity to the Gospel in the circumstance and the status that he embraced.”
In a testimony given for documentation in the Luciani’s cause for canonization, Benedict XVI said that when Luciani appeared on the balcony in his white cassock after his election, “we were all deeply impressed by his humility and his goodness.”
“Even during the meals, then, he was took a place with us. So thanks to a direct contact we immediately understood that the right Pope had been elected.”
Benedict XVI’s testimony regarding John Paul I is four pages long and is one of the documents included in Falasca’s book. In her comments to CNA, she said they had originally planned to interview him in 2005 while he was still a cardinal, but he was elected Pope on the same day he was scheduled to speak, and since a Pope is technically the one judging a saints’ cause, he is not allowed to give testimony for it.
However, there are currently no previsions for a retired Pope, so when Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, Falasca and her team advancing Luciani’s cause reached out again, receiving the testimony that has now been published in her book.
In his testimony, Benedict recalled that he first met Luciani while the latter was Patriarch of Venice. He had decided to visit the seminary in Bressanone with his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, for vacation in August 1977, shortly after becoming a bishop.
Luciani came to visit the brothers after learning of their visit, and to go out of his way to do this in the oppressive heat of August “was a expression of a nobility of spirit that went well beyond usual,” Benedict wrote. “The cordiality, simplicity and goodness that he showed to me are indelibly impressed in my memory.”
Benedict said he was shocked when he received news of John Paul I’s death in the middle of the night and didn’t initially believe it, but slowly accepted the news in Mass the next day, during which the celebrant offered prayer for the “deceased Pope John Paul I.”
Speaking of John Paul I’s pontificate, Benedict noted that in 1978 it was evident that “the post-conciliar Church was passing through a great crisis, and the good figure of John Paul I, who was a courageous man on the basis of faith, represented a sign of hope.” And this figure, he said, still represents “a message” for the Church today.
Benedict also noted that during the various public speeches Luciani gave, whether it was a general audience or a Sunday Angelus, the late Pope “spoke several times off-the-cuff and with the heart, touching the people in a much more direct way.”
Luciani often called children up to him during general audiences to ask them about their faith, Benedict said, explaining that “his simplicity and his love for simple people were convincing. And yet, behind that simplicity was a great and rich formation, especially of the literary type.”
So far hundreds of graces and favors have been recorded for those who pray to Luciani, and there are already two miracles being studied and considered for his beatification and eventual canonization. Falasca said they are currently trying to decide which to present first.
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Finally he’s annoyed about something he should be annoyed about. Too bad the stupid term homophobic is used to describe this proper reaction. Stupid because it fails to recognize that it is impossible to fear homosexuals, it is only possible to fear the social damage they do and the damage done by those who refuse to acknowledge the damage they do.
Not the most politic choice of words, but on the other hand “a rose is a rose is a rose,” said writer Gertrude Stein, an open lesbian.
They are using the terms which the LGBT propagandists use, because they belong to them.
Dear Edward J Baker – let’s also remember the spiritual damage they do to themselves and to all of us in our beloved Church.
Active homosexuals are in a known state of sin. Perhaps a less derogatory term could have been used but that would not have changed the substance of what he said. Part of his situation of course is the expectation he has set in place that homosexuality will soon be given the stamp of approval. The question I would have if I were the Pope is, which Bishop in this closed meeting betrayed me to the press? The betrayal ironically only proves the point that there are too many gays in the seminaries, as well as in the ranks of the Bishops. Otherwise why the betrayal? To embarrass him? Gays should be welcomed to Mass as fellow believers. They should not be used as moral role models in the priesthood.
“Gays should be welcomed to Mass as fellow believers.” Really, dear LJ?
Inclusion in our Holy Masses is a form of authentication and of inclusion in the community life of our parish.
It should be obvious to all informed Catholics that we are not permitted by The LORD to authenticate unrepentant sin. We’d also be foolish to expose our families to the immoral proselytizing that always accompanies unrepentant homosexuals & others who have chosen sinfully deviant lifestyles.
Yes! I do love the sinner but, yes! I do know that keeping parish community families spiritually & physically safe is of the highest importance.
How should we think of those who claim to be believers but have chosen to reject key parts of our belief system?
Saint James pointed out that even demons are believers in the one God who we worship (James 2:19).
Love is THE way, but it needs to be wise & discerning. There is such a thing as foolishly irresponsible love.
Ever seeking to obey King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Are you suggesting that people in a state of sin are to be excluded from Christian life or worship until they repent? You will be a long time making converts that way. Unless Catholics go to confession EVERY day, I daresay they are in a state of sin, whether mortal or venial, by time they get to church on Sunday, even if they confess weekly. It is part of the human condition. The question is what would make people think about repenting if they are never exposed to the reason WHY they should? Or exposed to the love of Jesus by hearing the readings at church?. Christ’s critics notably accused him of “eating with sinners”. It didnt appear to bother him. And I would add that while certain gays are flamboyant in their appearance, many sinners in the pews are simply not that obvious: adulterers, thieves, etc. The sinners are there whether we approve of them or not. And we might well count ourselves in their number if we are honest. Current statistics indicate that most Catholics practice abortion and contraception in the same number as non-catholics for example. So again, saying “only non-sinners may apply” is a non-starter. If you expect people to be perfect and adhere to ALL Catholic rules before they show up in church, prepared to worship in an empty church by yourself.
Thanks, dear LJ, for so clearly laying-out this common misunderstanding of our Faith. Effectively this error says: “Since all are sinners there can be no distinctions.”
It’s also commonly said that since Jesus Christ, God-With-Us, ate & drank in the company of sinners, we should open our parish communities to unrepentant sinners.
That deliberately ignores Jesus’ instruction: “Go, & sin no more!” It ignores strong moral examples such as that of Mary of Magdala, Zachaeus, Mathew, and most outstandingly, that of Saul of Tarsus. All serious sinners, led by Jesus to repentance & new, reformed lives of obedience to God’s rules.
It also ignores the clear instructions of The Holy Spirit of God given to us by 9 Apostolic authors in the 27 texts of The New Testament and reiterated by our Magisterium in The Catechism of The Catholic Church.
It is, of course, a logical fallacy to argue that because we ASSUME there’re unrepentant liars, thieves, murderers, fornicators, adulterers, etc. joining undetected in our parish liturgies, we should therefore welcome people living unrepentant homosexual lives into our faith communities.
The Catholic Church teaches that those who are in serious sin (as clearly defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church) are excluded from receiving Holy Communion. If they persist in taking communion, they have committed sacrilege and will go straight to hell if they die unshriven.
The reason for their terrible fate is they’ve obstinately put their own ideas first rather than placing God’s instructions first, no matter what the cost may be.
If some unrepentants do get through that’s no excuse for inviting others to reap the same dreadful judgment.
After living over 80 years and working in countries all around the world, I’m certain that all true Catholic Christians carry their individual crosses of personal self-denial, every day.
Yes, humans are sinful but true Catholics are unfailingly repentant, & all gladly suffer sacrifices for the sake of God’s Kingdom.
Everything about the Catholic Church and everything in our liturgies (if we pay attention to what we all are praying) is about: “YOUR will be done, HOLY GOD, not my will.”
A decision by the Church to embrace unrepentant homosexuals in our parish communities or to bestow a priestly blessing on homosexual couples would be a public statement of: “YOUR will be flouted, HOLY GOD.”
There are many examples of homosexually attracted Catholic men & women who bravely carry their crosses of self-denial, like all the rest of us, and they are respected and warmly welcomed into our parish communities and liturgies.
In street ministry & in healing rooms I’ve lovingly ministered to homosexually attracted people and have no hesitation in saying that every one of them had a spiritual problem that fed their same-sex lust.
As with all slavery to sin, the start of getting free is admission that GOD is right, and we are wrong.
Commonly, with both lay & clergy, addiction to pornography, has first to be totally renounced. After that, ceasing socializing with homosexual people.
A decision to accept openly unrepentant sinners into a Catholic parish community subverts the Christ established foundations of our entire Faith.
As Saint Mark records: “The time has come, said Jesus, and The Kingdom of GOD is close at hand. Repent, and believe the good News!”
Hoping this is of help. Ever in Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Is he annoyed? Is it the old Peronist tactic? Throw a bone to one constituency and the other bone to its adversary. Surely James Martin will be able to iron all this out, given he is a member of the Dicastery of Communications, a recipient of private correspondence from the Holy Father, entitled to private audiences with the Holy Father and among the people specifically invited by Francis to take part in the final phase meetings of the upcoming Synod of Bishops.
Far more sinister if this ‘uncertain’ & ‘accidental’ leak was cunningly planned as a way to try to assuage the anger of so many Catholics over the evidence of unrestricted clergy homosexuality (the ‘lilac mafia cartel’) & PF’s persistent public cherishings of LGBT causes, including profane couple blessings in Catholic churches.
Yet again our very unique pope & his turbocharged pr team seem to have pulled-off yet another: “Now you see me, now you don’t!” illusion for the media. “Truth? What is that?”
“Dear Pope Francis & Co.: ‘You cain’t pin me down’ ain’t agonna work on Judgment Day!”
Jesus Christ self-described as THE TRUTH, not as the truths . . . but the PF coterie will say He is in a box of suicidal conservatism, I suppose.
Always in the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
It occurs to me that this Pope doesn’t know what he thinks. The Catholic Church is being put through the wringer with this papacy.
Sadly, the Pope can never get it right or even gets credit for saying the right thing in the wrong way. He is derided when he seems to support gay rights and also when he denounces them. Let’s give the man a break already!
Agree totally!
“Telling the bishops that gay men should not be admitted to priestly formation, the pope argued ‘there is too much frociaggine in seminaries,’ a slur translated as faggotry”. A welcome change of tone on homosexuality in the priesthood however gruff. Nevertheless it didn’t take long to subvert any good intended by adding a list of compromises, including their dignity, blessing the frociaggine. Apparently the same clever word play that says one thing but suggests another. His Holiness is a master tactician. Austen Ivereigh translated correctly, “that the pope’s concern is narrowed to gay men seeing the priesthood as a way of living out their sexuality”.
Similarly the Instruction simply confirms past failed documents on discerning vocations citing men who are openly homosexual, deep seated in their disorder. Whereas all homosexuals who don’t precisely fit that assessment are waived through. More of the same duplicitous farce that is suffocating the priesthood and Church with sexually disordered men and candidates for the episcopate.
At one time during John Paul’s pontificate a candidate with same sex attraction was to be prohibited. That was quickly compromised to where we’re at today. It’s like telling a normal young man that he’s to spend the rest of his life in close proximity with women.
Sure. The problem is that there is “too much” of it. Otherwise it would be ok for him…
As I posted elsewhere, Francis did not apologize, there not one direct quote of him in the press release….
Which press release then said the comments were made behind closed doors and only report upon…
So we have a non-apology apology for a happening which is only rumored.
And far from a hard line, only a blurred line between some homosexual sex in seminaries as opposed to too much homosexual sex in seminaries.
With this PR swan dive, is anyone actually expecting even more firm action when by Francis’ admission and despite own signing off on squelching gay admissions, it still continues? Any true action on this at all? Seminary director and staff sacking? Bishop removal?
No, only an occasion for ribald humor answered with guffaws from bishops.
We read: “’Whereas they are scandalized if I give it to a homosexual … This is hypocrisy! We must all respect each other. Everyone’, the Holy Father said.”
And, yet, Fiducia Supplicans blesses NOT A homosexual, but homosexuals as “COUPLES.”
Without being judgmental, yours truly has long felt that part of Pope Francis’ difficulty with the Church in America is simply that he does not speak the universal language of English. (His recent interview on 60 Minutes was handled through a Spanish interpreter.) Another part of his difficulty, of course, is the privileged access given to certain of his appointees in the American hierarchy.
On an historic cultural scale, when spoken and written language fails we might be reminded of the magnified Iconoclastic Controversy of the 7th and 8th centuries, and public education through visual stained glass windows in Medieval times, and now the bypassing of language by gestures, signaling, and photo-ops as with poster-child James Martin, SJ and Jeannine Gramick of New Ways Ministries.
All this erosion and replacement of coherent communication is worthy of a doctoral dissertation somewhere! Probably not thoughtfully written, of course, but “aggregated and compiled” (that’s synodal-speak!) soon by AI and stored in the inclusive Cloud.
For amnesiacs and the functionally illiterate, some in red hats, all memes are equal, but some are more equal than others.
If only the current pontiff were as quick to apologize to those he termed pharisaical, rigid, doctors of the Law, backwardists, etc. Then again, those so referred to don’t have what one writer years ago referred to as “approved victim status,” so it’s doubtful that apologies will be forthcoming.
Strange that some ultra trads are applauded when they use such language while condemning the Pope for using the same! Oh what fools we mortals be! 😂
The pope is condemned because of his rank hypocrisy in talking out of both sides of his mouth. He’s the fool for thinking people don’t see through it.
Apologies for deviant lifestyle choices! What would St Paul say?
Call a spade a spade; yeah who ratted him out?
they have no right to be a seminarian if they are gay..its just not right and is against God!
I was amused to see at least one precedent for what would now be called ‘inappropriate’ papal utterances. According to the Wikipedia entry for Benedict XIV (who ruled 1740-58), this pope, though noted for his keen intellect and considered one of the best scholars to have occupied the papal throne, frequently used profane language. According to the writer of the article, he tried to cure this by having a crucifix placed in every room to discourage his colorful language.