Pope John Paul I has only a step left to gain sainthood. Pope John Paul I, who led the Roman Catholic Church for only 33 days in 1978, has been beatified at the Vatican – the last step before sainthood. The beatification ceremony held on Sunday, September 4, 2022, was scenic amid storm and rain shower. Thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the notable occasion presided over by Pope Francis, unperturbed by the water dropping from the clouds. Rather, they defied the rain. Seated under a canopy in the exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father led the ceremony, which was punctuated by booms of thunder, flashes of lightning and raindrops, prompting Cardinals, Bishops, the choir and thousands of rank-and-file faithful in the square to resort to their umbrellas. Ironically, by the end of the ceremony, the sun was shining, and Pope Francis, waving while seated in a pope mobile, toured the square, waving to the cheerful crowd, some of whom shouted, “Long live the Pope!”
At this moment the atmosphere was bubbling with joy. Pope Francis had read out the declaration that Pope John Paul I can now be venerated locally on his feast day on August 26. Designated as the “smiling Pope” because of his meekness and simplicity, John Paul I was the shortest-serving Pope since 1605. In his homily during the beautification Mass, Pope Francis noted that Pope John Paul 1 “embodied the poverty of a disciple” through his “victory over the temptation to put oneself at the centre, to seek one’s own glory.” “With a smile, Pope John Paul I managed to communicate the goodness of the Lord,” Francis said. “How beautiful is a Church with a happy, serene and smiling face, that never closes doors, never hardens hearts, never complains or harbours resentment, isn’t angry or impatient, does not look dour or suffer nostalgia for the past. Let us pray to him, our father and our brother, and ask him to obtain for us ‘the smile of the soul,” The Holy Pontiff added. Pope Francis then encouraged people to pray to the newly beatified churchman to “obtain for us the smile of the soul.”
Those who have campaigned for him to someday be made a saint have stressed his deep spirituality and his tireless emphasis on key Christian virtues – faith, hope and charity. John Paul I “lived without compromise,” Francis said, praising him as mild-tempered, humble pastor. In his short-lived papacy, John Paul I established a simple, direct way of communicating with the faithful in the addresses he gave, an innovative style change considered revolutionary considering the stuffiness of the environment of Church hierarchy. He presided over only four general audiences as pope, offering catecheses on poverty, faith, hope, and charity. Pope Francis quoted these catecheses throughout his homily. “As Pope John Paul I said, if you want to kiss Jesus crucified, ‘you cannot help bending over the cross and letting yourself be pricked by a few thorns of the crown on the Lord’s head’ (General Audience, 27 September, 1978). A love that preserves to the end, thorns and all; no leaving things half done, no cutting corners, no fleeing difficulties,” Pope Francis recalled. During the beatification, a large banner on St. Peter’s Basilica unveiled a portrait of Blessed Pope John Paul I as the Pope’s postulator processed through the square with a relic – a handwritten note by the blessed Pope on the theological virtues. Pope John Pope 1 has a number of firsts to his person.
Born Albino Luciani into poverty in a northern Italian town of Forno di Canale (now Canale d’Agordo) on October 17, 1912, he was the first Pope to be born in the 20th century and the most recent Pope to be born in Italy. He was ordained a priest in 1935; Bishop of Vittorio Veneto in 1958; Archbishop of Venice in 1969; a Cardinal in 1973 and elected a Pope on August 26, 1978. At the age of 22, he commenced his priesthood as a priest for the Italian Diocese of Belluno- Feltre. He served as the rector of the Diocese’s seminary for ten years and taught courses on moral theology, canon law, and sacred art. He participated in all of the sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) as the Bishop of Vittorio Veneto and he worked to implement the guidelines council in the following decade as the Patriarch of Venice. As a cardinal, Luciani published a collection of “open letters” to historic figures, saints, famous writers, and fictional characters. The book, Illustrissimi, included letters to Jesus, King David, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Christopher Marlowe, as well as Pinocchio and Figaro, the barber of Seville. He made history in 1978 when he became the first Pope to take a double name, in honour of his two immediate predecessors, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI. His Episcopal motto was simply: “Humilitas.” Prior to his election as a Pontiff on August 26, 1978, Luciani, 65, had been serving as patriarch of Venice, one of the Church’s more prestigious positions.
In that role, as well as his previous office as a Bishop in Northeastern Italy, Luciani sounded warnings against corruption, including in banking circles. The miraculous recovery of a critically ill 11-year-old girl in 2011 in Buenos Aires, the hometown of the current Pope earned him the beautification. Last year, Pope Francis approved the miracle attributed to the intercession of John Paul I. The Argentine girl had a severe brain inflammation, epilepsy and suffered septic shock. Her parents prayed to Pope John Paul 1 and she was healed. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but she also stipulates that saints, who are believed to be with God in heaven, intercede on behalf of people who pray to them. A second miracle will need to be verified for John Paul to be declared a saint. In the last 1,000 years, only eight Popes have been made saints. During his momentary tenure, John Paul 1 defended the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion and contraception as he also sought to reform institutions and eradicate corruption. No wonder, the abrupt death of the briefly serving Pontiff, who distinguished himself with his humility and cheerfulness, shocked the world and fueled suspicions for years. The huge financial scandal developing at the time in Italy involving figures who had links to the Vatican’s bank, did not help matters.
Suspicions instantly took root in the secular media that perhaps Pope John Paul 1 was poisoned because he intended to root out wrongdoing. Books speculating on the circumstances surrounding his death sold millions of copies. Conflicting versions of his passing in his bedroom in 1978 rented the air. There was an account of two nuns of the papal household who found him dead in his bed. They had taken his coffee on the morning of September 29, 1978 at precisely 5.20a.m to his room but were welcomed by no response to their several knocks on his door. Doctors said he died of a heart in the Night,’ meticulously dismantling conspiracy theories. Although widely debunked, the idea of a Pope being murdered in his bedroom in the 20th century resurfaced in the film ‘The Godfather Part III,’ The movie featured a Pope named John Paul I killed with poisoned tea. Penultimate Friday, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State debunked the conspiracy theories on Italian television when his views were sought. “There is no truth to it at all,” he said. “It is a shame that this story, this noir novel, goes on. It was a natural death. There is no mystery about it,” Cardinal Parolin further stressed. Italian journalist and author, Stefania Falasca, who spent ten years documenting John Paul’s life and viewed his medical history, wrote several books about him. She termed the conspiracy theories “publicity-driven garbage”.
Falasca, also a promoter of the sainthood cause, said at the beatification event that he was being beatified not because of what he did as Pope, but the way he lived his life. The beatification ceremony came to a close with the Angelus prayed by Pope Francis in Latin and greetings. He offered the prayer for peace in “martyred Ukraine.” Subsequent to his personal greetings to some Cardinals, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, he greeted the crowd in the pope mobile. Pope Francis said on a final note, “In the words of Pope John Paul I, ‘we are the objects of undying love on the part of God’ (Angelus, 10 September 1978). An undying love; it never sinks beneath the horizon of our lives; it constantly shines upon us and illuminates even our darkest nights.” Thus Pope Francis successfully beatified his predecessor, Pope John Paul 1, the shortest papacy in modern times. He was the first Pope in centuries who refused to be crowned, opting instead for the simple pallium of an Archbishop. He was the last in the long line of Italian-born Popes which began with Clement VII IN 1523. His successors – Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have all applauded him as “The Smiling Pope,” on account of the smile he often displayed in public.
• With additional reports from www.vaticannews.va and abc news.
