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.
[…]
I wish two things:
1. That the Vatican cease defining itself as a State. We are a Church. We exist in the world but are not of this world. States are creations of this world.
2. Stop interfering in the temporal affairs of the United States. As a Catholic, I find the Vatican’s statements unwelcome.
The Vatican has been both the Church and a city-state ever since the 1929 Lateran Treaty recognized the papacy as more than a “prisoner of the Vatican” (a consequence of the revolutionary loss of the Eternal City and the historically curious papal states to the new and larger nation-state of Italy, in 1870). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
The status as a state among states renders possible an ear and a voice among the current political idiom of nation-states, although membership in the United Nations remains that of a non-member Permanent Observer State, since 1964.
This distinctive membership restriction is surely a good thing, since it protects the Vatican and the universal Catholic Church from being identified as just another member among the 193 member states–as you correctly argue should never be the case.
Cardinal Parolin, the architect of Communist-Party-Secret-Accords is a man who should not be posturing about governing with “wisdom,” etc.
And citizens faithful to Christ have no interest in getting “dialogued” by the apostate-and-homosexual-art-curator Spadaro.
The word obtuse seems apt.
CHRIS: You say it better than I. Thanks
@ Peter Beaulieu. Always thought it curious too that the Church became the equivalent of a nation. Although the title was modified to papal states. Certainly an oddity on the surface.
You’re probably aware that Pippin King of the Franks ceded the territories it had wrenched from the expanding Germanic Lombards. At the time during the 8th century it also benefited the papacy to rely on Frankish protection rather than the Eastern Byzantine empire due to imposition of taxes, and growing disagreement on doctrine examples, iconoclasm, filioque clause.
It can be argued either way whether Italian unification during the late 19th century resulting in the loss of the papal states benefited Catholicism. The transition from a temporal power [we even had a warlord Pope Julius II expanding territory] to a visibly more spiritual authority. From the day of revolutions of Pius IX to the despotic political movements of Pius XII the greatly territorially reduced Vatican State seemed a greater presence for the advocation of justice.
Deacon, I’m not sure if my understanding is correct. If you have time, please clarify for me. Thanks. My understanding is that Vatican City is a “state” like any other nation–a very tiny State, but still a state with a seat and vote at the United Nations and the right to offer opinions, defend itself, send troops to war, provide aid for nations experiencing a disaster or conflict, etc.
But Holy Mother Church is a Church, THE Holy Catholic Church that Jesus Christ Himself founded.
One question that I have–is the Pope the “president” or “mayor” of Vatican City, or are other leaders, perhaps even non-clergy or non-religious, elected or appointed? Or is Vatican City a monarchy with no other leadership than a king (the Pope?).
The latter Mrs. Whitlock. The Pope is the Head of State. He probably has infinitely more power when it comes to the Vatican City/State than the King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland who is a Head of State. He can name and depose at will. He answers to no human person.
Yes “ in the World but not of the World” I’ve been saying this for a long time, but that said the reality is that the Vatican IS a state and as such must operate as one. Unfortunately the Pope has to wear two hats as both head of State and head of Church. Not an easy task and not of his making. Thus he has an obligation to act as a voice and mediator in temporal affairs. Not to take sides or make alliances like other nations do is very difficult. To study the position of the Papacy during the Second World War illustrates how difficult this can be.
Perhaps one day we will have to abandon the Vatican and become a pilgrim people, but until then we must operate within this very messy and imperfect arrangement and allow the Pope to make mistakes just like any other temporal ruler.
And, yet, there’s a difference between the Vatican and the Holy See.
These two terms are not interchangeable. Here are the new details about how all this fits together: https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2023-06-05/vatican-city-state-pope-francis-issues-new-constitution/
I wouldn’t advocate abandoning the Vatican. The Vatican is no larger than any major university campus in the USA. I just think we need to stop thinking of the Pope as Head of State. He is a moral/spiritual leader of Catholics and the Catholic Church. He should be seen as if he were a CEO. There are probably bishops in the USA who have control over large swarths of real estate but have no temporal authority. The Pope is simply Bishop of Rome – primus inter pares.
Most Catholics do not know tht DT saved the NY Catholic schools. During the Wuhan virus crisis, the NY Catholic schools were dire need of funds. They needed billions to survive. The Cardinal called DT for help to save the Catholic schools: “We need billions or we will have to close.” President DT picked up the phone and in 15 minutes he raised billions. Thus he saved the Catholic schools. Amazing. See his speech at the annual Al Smith Catholic dinner for October 2024 in the presence of the Cardinal. His speech starts at min. 29:00; during the speech he looks at the Cardinal and recollects this episode at min 56ff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwbHmrplak
Okay let’s ignore his lack of morals; his admiration of dictators; his desire to become one; his racist attitude; his threats of violence toward those who disagree with him;
May God have mercy on him and all of us who will lose precious rights under his presidency. I pray for his soul and all who voted for him
Dont bother praying for me, darling. I will pray for you. How sad that you have swallowed whole all of the untrue and slanderous propaganda about Trump which was spread around by the DEMs and their media minions. This is my third time voting Trump , and I am thrilled that he won. I have a Masters Degree,live in an urban area of a blue state, and am not remotely uninformed. Had more people not believed the untruths about him the last election, the country and the world would have likely been saved a lot of pain these last 4 years.
In this election, Trump gathered not only an electoral win but ALSO the popular vote by close to 5 million votes people who are sick of being disparaged and demeaned. A joke about being a dictator is just that–a joke. If you imagine its ok to disparage half the population of the country you need to check your thought processes. I have NEVER heard Trump make a racist remark ( another lie). And if by your fear of “losing precious rights” you are talking about the preservation of abortion, you are on the wrong forum. Trump has never suggested taking away ANY rights from any citizen( unlike the Dems, who have used censorship and lawfare with abandon and continue to do so with abandon against Trump and his lawyers). Maybe Dem governors could speak to their people about the recent election results, and liberal loss, with a tad less hysteria. It might help them.
silly and untrue description of the president. He never threatened violence against those who disagreed with him.. where did you get that? Peace? .. only under him has there been peace, not under biden or obama. How is he racist? He funded black universities, which obama refused to do. Admiration of dictators? I don’t even know how to deal with that one… check your facts.
Well, 72 million people disagree with you. What’s the probability that they’re all wrong and you are right? That would be zero according to my math.
Wisdom? We shall see. All this talk of revenge and retribution is hardly wise. Trump has an opportunity to be statesmanlike. Let’s hope that he takes the high road for a change.
I have never heard Trump talk about revenge. Although, WINNING is the best revenge I suppose. The only people talking about revenge and fighting are the democrats right now. Like the govs of California, NY and Illinois. What news media are you watching?? Take a look at something with more balance.
What virtue postering from the morally bankrupt socialist left!
I’d be happy if the Vatican tended to its own wisdom instead of lecturing others.
Given their Marxist march towards a full embrace of moral relativism, wisdom is something they they can’t even stumble over.
silly and untrue description of the president. He never threatened violence against those who disagreed with him.. where did you get that? Peace? .. only under him has there been peace, not under biden or obama. How is he racist? He funded black universities, which obama refused to do. Admiration of dictators? I don’t even know how to deal with that one… check your facts.
Did Pope Francis not call to congratulate Pres Trump? Why not?..he called Biden, and on other occasions too.
I don’t want to be negative. Lord forgive me.
Who cares if the Vatican is a state or a reclgious conclave of murmuring old MEN? We need to focus and renew our hopes for a saner world. I hope Trump will forge that new path , but his vial rhetoric and actions cause me pause. I may need help from God.
Cardinal Prolin: ““We wish him great wisdom, because this is the main VIRTUE of RULERS according to the Bible,” Note the word VIRTUE. Colossians 3:12 – “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” UNfortunatly, I saw none of this during Trump’s campaign or in his daily life. “VIRTUE”?
I still remain hopefull that November 5, 2024 will not be “a day that will live in infamy”. FDR
Colossians 3:12 – “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Unfortunately, I saw none of this during Trump’s campaign or in
his daily life.”
To be fair, regular readers here have not witnessed any of those qualities in your hateful TDS posts either. Maybe people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
So the countless acts of personal charity by Trump, to total strangers as well as friends, do not count as any sort of virtue in your applied understanding of scriptual admonishments? And is virtue better served by your propensities for insulting characterizations that seem to infect most of your commentary?
Enough with the hand-wringing; it’s unbecoming for a man.